Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
Through the emergence of blogging, personal lives were becoming public domain, and social incentives—to be liked, to be seen—were becoming economic ones.
Jia Tolentino • Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion
Both Substack and The Athletic do what the Internet does best—carve out deep, lucrative niches—and both rely on Twitter for discovery.
Rex Woodbury • How Twitter and the Internet Broke the News
Second, I’m reflecting on a point former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale famously made in 1995: “There are only two ways to make money in business: bundling and unbundling.” I think we’re burnt out by the fragmentation that the D2C era brought to everything. After subscribing to tons of hyper-niche content over the years, the idea of a couple brands we ... See more
Michelle Rose Joseph • No. 13 — Reclaiming Discovery From the Algorithms
I have thousands of photos of my children but few that I’ve set aside to revisit. I have records of virtually every text I’ve sent since I was in college but no idea how to find the ones that meant something. I spent years blasting my thoughts to millions of people on X and Facebook even as I fell behind on correspondence with dear friends. I have... See more
Sari Azout • "What Does Sublime Actually Do?"
I was entering adulthood and trying to live my childhood dream, but now, to be “authentic,” I had to be the product I had long been posting online, as opposed to the person I was growing up to be.
New York Times • Opinion | YouTube Gave Me Everything. Then I Grew Up.
“The villain here is not necessarily the internet, or even the idea of social media,” she writes. “It is the invasive logic of commercial social media, and its financial incentive to keep us in a profitable state of anxiety, envy, and distraction.” The business model of platforms like this — which rely on advertising and clicks and “en
... See moreJenny Odell • How to quit Facebook without quitting Facebook
The next wave of big consumer companies will be community-based products:
- Niche, not everything to everyone
- Unique aesthetic
- Built-in community
- More memorable than big platforms
- Rewarding loyalty
- Unbundling large platforms
- An experience not a transaction
- Fun
A few more years and my mind wasn’t suited for much else. I was anorexic and had no friends; I was absolutely killing it online. I had developed all these health issues and begun posting hospital selfies, crying selfies, depressive bathtub selfies. I was sick and sad. I’m fangirling, a girl said when she recognized me on the subway. I’m spiraling, ... See more