The three-song limit

It's how bands used to treat press photographers.

The rule: They could only photograph a band during the first three songs of a concert. For three songs, photographers could scoot around the stage and get their shots. Then, they had to scram so everyone else could enjoy the show without cameras in the way.

In this age of nonstop selfies and photo ops, that still provides a pretty good blueprint for how life should work: The first 10% of your time doing anything can be for capturing photos. And then the remaining 90% should be for actually living it instead of trying to capture it.

Marie Kondo

Marie Kondo is a tiny Japanese woman who thinks you have terrible taste.

Her advice: Go through all your possessions. If you don't like something anymore, thank it for its service, and get rid of it.

And if you do like something, you're wrong and should still get rid of it. Because remember, you have terrible taste.

The secret of all this actually comes in the future, when you’re out shopping. You might think you like something, but then you’ll remember that you have terrible taste and won’t buy it.

Voila, minimalism!

Why sex robots don’t scare me

Sex robots? Nah.

The internet has shown us rage, not love, is the best way to boost engagement. So it seems more likely we’re about to enter the age of ad-sponsored Trollbots™️.

We’ll come home to some bot that just keeps tossing out offensive opinions about politics, religion, etc. Best of all, the algorithm will be customized just for you.

Because if there’s anything social media has taught us, it’s that hate is what really turns us on.

AI or nah?

We need a new category for photos that are legit but totally seem generated by AI…

Here’s a bunch of quickies, quotes, and fun photos…

🎯 The most counterculture thing you can do nowadays is believe in institutions. “I believe in health authorities, the courts, and the integrity of elections.” “Wow, what a rebel!”

🎯 I know, the patriarchy’s toxic. But we don’t talk enough about female-on-female thought crimes like thigh gaps, heroin chic, The Rules, and Monica’s fat flashbacks on Friends.

🎯 Every private karaoke room is an escape room to me.

🗯️ Which movie stars do/don’t like women? Anne Helen Petersen wrote about what makes actor Glenn Powell so appealing.

It’s different than knowing you can get women, or wanting to control women, or even loving women. He likes them. He appreciates them. He enjoys their company.

Tom Cruise doesn’t like women. Neither does Miles Teller. Channing Tatum likes women. So does Ryan Gosling. Brad Pitt used to like women but doesn’t anymore. Leonardo Di Caprio only likes them occasionally. Bradley Cooper doesn’t, George Clooney does. Matt Damon doesn’t, Ben Affleck only does in that one scene in the J.Lo documentary. Marlon Brando didn’t, Montgomery Clift did. Paul Newman didn’t onscreen but did IRL. Cary Grant did, John Wayne definitely, definitely didn’t. Will Smith pretends like he doesn’t but I’m not convinced. Mark Wahlberg absolutely does not, but Daniel Day-Lewis does. So does Paul Mescal.

🎯 The weirdest thing about Chicago people is how riled up they get by someone putting ketchup on a hot dog: “How dare you apply such a blasphemous condiment to this toxic tube of animal parts?”

🎯 “Here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus Lane” is a little too on the nose. I mean, of course that’s where he would go. Not exactly NEWS.

🗯️ What Makes Good Chemistry? For Chat Podcasts, It’s Fundamental.

“You want them to have shared passions but also be comfortable disagreeing very often,” she said.

Good chemistry may be identifiable at a glance (even if it’s not always easy to describe). Several producers said they can spot key moments of an episode by the increased vocal activity in the waveform of the audio.

“The hills and valleys start to spike,” Valentino said. “That’s how you know something exciting, or hilarious, or thought-provoking is happening.”

🎯 Dear anyone who watches finance bro grifter videos: You can rent fancy sportscars. Standing in front of one doesn’t actually mean you’re wealthy.

🗯️ Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed: “A lifestyle of unnecessary spending has been deliberately cultivated and nurtured in the public by big business.”

The 8-hour workday is too profitable for big business, not because of the amount of work people get done in eight hours (..) but because it makes for such a purchase-happy public. Keeping free time scarce means people pay a lot more for convenience, gratification, and any other relief they can buy. It keeps them watching television, and its commercials. It keeps them unambitious outside of work.

🗯️ Philip Larkin: “I have no enemies. But my friends don’t like me.”

🎯 Pretty sure this is the "About us" section of every startup:

🎯 ICYMI: Crazy story about my mom and the Velvet Underground…