Welcome to Signals, my attempt to package together some of the interesting bits from around the internet.
On Monday I’m off to Florence and Milan for my first Pitti and MFW in a few years and I am looking forward to sharing some good things I find with all of you. I have to send my many thanks to my the great Ted Harrington for making me new business cards for the trip. He’s done all of my printing and engraving since 2010! 📃🖋️
I. Convenience is the Enemy.
What if the easiest way wasn’t always the most fulfilling thing? That’s the sentiment that is going through my mind in the early days of 2023. All of the lazy on-demand things I do make me feel like sh/t for the most part. It’s easy to have someone do my shopping for me but I’ve grown to hate it. This isn’t even about Amazon which is a whole other circle of hell when it comes to impulse driven instant-gratification on-demandness. It’s basically impossible to buy things in stores now (see more below) so this isn’t really even about that. Here are five examples of the less convenient options that will actually make you feel something.
Call someone versus sending a DM.
Walk someplace. Take a train. Ride a bike.
Go to a grocery store and shop for yourself.
Be bored. Skip the podcast on 1.5x and allow your mind to wonder.
Write a letter.
The Convenience is the Enemy idea was a device from one of those old Errol Morris Miller High Life TV ads by Widen + Kennedy that stuck with me. The sentiment is actually much more of a modern idea that I think anyone involved with those ads realized. Even though they are making a joke about midwestern simplicity and practicality the concept is actually relevant in 2023 for other reasons. Fighting convenience is the perfect sentiment to confront the clusterf/ck of modern life. Everything doesn’t need to be complicated, elaborate or productivity maximizing. Sometimes inefficiency is soothing.
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