A few cultural things I watched, listened to, and thought about recently – and how they connect more than it first appears.
Scroll through your feed for five minutes. You’ll notice a pattern.
The same names. The same faces. The same opinions, repeated with slightly different lighting.
We’ve built a world where popular people are permanently on stage. They comment on everything: work, life, burnout, success, failure, and sometimes things they’ve already moved far away from.
When was the last time you learned something useful from someone with no audience at all?
The junior who just survived their first bad manager. The recruiter who learned, the hard way, why a “perfect process” fails in reality. The parent, the student, the career-switcher, the person figuring things out in real time.
Their knowledge is fresh. Untreated. Unbranded.
It solves today’s problems, not the ones already monetized on stage.
And that’s exactly why it’s valuable. Famous voices are like reheated meals. Polished, predictable, safe, because of incentives and brand safety.
Regular people cook while they’re hungry. The food tastes different.
Yet most people don’t share because they think:
“I’m not an expert.”
“Everyone already knows this.”
“Who would care?”
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: people care more than you think.
Not because your story is extraordinary, but because it’s close to their own.
The internet doesn’t need more commentary from the balcony. It needs notes from the field.
You don’t need to adjust to the standards of the platform that you want to post on, and make your content more shallow just for algorithms to get you on.
You don’t need a following.
You don’t need a hot take.
You just need to say:
“Here’s what I’m seeing from where I stand.” That’s often enough.
I watched Marty Supreme two weeks ago. I really liked the movie, and the promo beforehand was wild. Bombastic marketing, weird & cringeworthy Zoom-style video with the marketing team, merch drops, Timothée rapping, getting interviewed by Cody Rhodes about his love of pro wrestling. All of it built strong anticipation for what you’re about to experience.
And the movie delivers. It has you in its grip for over two hours. Similar to Uncut Gems, you’re anxious most of the time, rooting for a very human character who is far from a morally clean-cut hero. Both the marketing craft (especially in how well it understands the times we live in & how to get the word in) and the movie craft itself are top-notch. I’d highly recommend watching it.
Fear of Eclipse – BXKS
I liked this one a lot. BXKS has just dropped a new 10-track album/EP titled Fear of Eclipse. She raps over 140, grime, bouyon, gqom, dancehall, and more beats inspired by genres that I can’t name. The versatility is impressive, and it all somehow holds together without feeling forced.
I also liked this piece by Tyler Cowen about judging famous and semi-famous people. I agree with the core argument. It feels like we increasingly expect moral purity from public figures. But who in your own circle is pure? Are you? I’m not.
Is a politician isn’t the best dad necessarily worse than a boring, mediocre one who’s only there for status?
Which vocations actually have moral character as part of their qualifications?
One of the commenters on Marginal Revolution mentioned judges and prosecutors. I’d add roles related to psychology: psychotherapists, psychologists, counselors. You could probably include others too: military and law enforcement, doctors, public office and civil service.
But should we really expect moral purity from people in these roles, or rather basic humanity, with flaws and drawbacks like most of us have? I’m still in two minds about it and don’t have a strict opinion. I just found it genuinely stimulating to think about.
That piece about AI slop (or, to be more precise, about artists who loudly badmouth AI while not having much to show for it) is aggressive and very much in your face. Still, I kind of understand the sentiment.
Art is about expressing yourself and inviting the viewer or observer into a conversation. That’s why I think real artists and creators don’t actually have much to be afraid of. The ones who will pay the highest price are people without a clear vision or creative direction, simply because of AI is so good of copying.
Is that good? I wouldn’t say so. But this is also the story of technological development over the last few hundred years. Criticizing AI slop alone won’t help you fight that.
AI didn’t kill art.
You did—when you stopped making things and started judging everyone else who did.
You’re not being replaced.
You’re being bypassed.
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