I. SPACE
Lately, I’ve been meditating on the nature of space. I graduated from Wharton in 2017. And I very vividly remember when my 1 bedroom apartment was emptied out. Standing at the door, realizing this apartment was where I spent my final year at university. That space held a breakup, a breakdown, a rebound, a skipped class(es), a startup, a spiritual experience, a drug experience (or several), and then it was just empty. Like really fucking empty. And to the next person, it wouldn’t mean a damn thing but a new apartment.
My first official apartment in Brooklyn was completely white, including the floors. Over time it was really trippy. It felt as though I was in a clinic, every day. It forced me to confront myself in a very unique way while working on my second company. By myself all winter, I knew something had to break. And a lot of things did.
This past week our apartment was broken into. My space was now violated. It wasn’t safe. It was tainted. It felt foreign. A loss of control.
Naturally, I think about digital spaces a lot. And as many of you know, I have basically dedicated my life to consumer internet. Particularly social. Lately, maybe because of working on Eternal. I’ve been thinking about the next set of digital spaces. And how we will have to design for a sense of depth on mobile.
I think this will happen at the 3 part convergence of social (as we know it now, creating content for expression tied to a network) - gaming (not in the sense of having games on platform, but in the sense of collective activities pushing the social experience) - immersive communication (what this doesn’t mean is Twitter comments, what it can mean is video responses like Waves.).
I don’t think I’m fully ready to write about what it concretely looks like, but it’s something I’ve been sketching a lot for Eternal. And like a lot of social, it ends up being a feeling. What I do know is that all social has started to fail me in some way, except Twitter. I think there’s a lot to unpack there for next time. Sorry that that thought sort of turned into nothing concrete.
II. INTENTIONAL MINDLESSNESS
A rhythm I’ve been getting into with work is going deep for an hour or two. Then playing a really dumb game on my phone. Mostly, it has been Paper.io 2. It is simply a great way for me to clear my head and come back to my laptop with energy. Intentional mindlessness has been helping me manage my stress, quality of output, and general joy during the day.
There’s something to having a very direct, but attention sapping toy that helps my mind not explode. That’s pretty much it on that.
III. SOLANGE
The Solange album “When I Get Home” is better than “A Seat At The Table”. It reminds me of when Frank drops “Blonde” and everyone debates it against “Channel Orange”. For the record, “Blonde” is the best album ever.
This is an album that deconstructs contemporary trends, and then layers them to create something truly hypnotic. Solange takes the sparse repetitive lyricism of trap, with the subject sophistication of Frank Ocean. The entire album has a bass that we see in contemporary neo-soul like Blood Orange, with electronic bite constantly warping. This keeps each song fresh and distinct. Something that frustrated me about “A Seat At The Table” was that I felt like I consistently lost my place despite the changing songs. At the same time, album loops on itself like nothing I’ve ever witnessed before.
3 songs to listen to right now: Alemeda - Jerrod - Sound of Rain
What I enjoy most about this album is that it effortlessly creates an avant-garde soundscape. There is nothing pretentious about this. It just is. The disjointed and non-obvious rhythm, which is traditionally not a feature of R&B, holds my attention like a fragrance traveling on a breeze you can’t place. This continues in the nature of the features throughout the album. Limited, restrained, and completely under control. Taking a backseat and never pulling focus away from the world Solange weaves for us.
Solange has a unique ability to present her artistic narrative with unapologetic authority. Seeing this level of agency from a black woman is something that consistently resonates with me.
IV. FINAL ONE-OFFS
Took my girlfriend to see “Blackkklansman” (I had already seen it). I find it interesting in a movie like that to see where white people choose to laugh / stay silent. There are jokes that are hilarious, but only if you are allowed to laugh… aka you are a black audience member. But there are always parts where you can tell a white viewer laughs out of discomfort, at a part that is seriously not funny. Showing their lack of awareness. On that point, I think it’s funny when white people traveling abroad take time to study the culture to not offend / appreciate the beauty of the space. Yet they won’t do that for those right around them. This probably needs to have a whole essay.
I am currently reading “Snow Crash” and boiiiiiiiii what took me so long to get to this. Literally you can tie something from the book to most prominent tech companies today.
If someone could tell Evan Speigel I will manage Bitmoji Club Penguin for them… that would be great.
Lately I’ve been reallyyyyyyyy bored with Twitter. And just sort of over it. But vibes are lowkey cyclical. So whatever, it’ll pop off again soon. Maybe it’s just my seasonal depression because it’s randomly been snowing in Brooklyn.
To any VC reading this…. hi.
That’s it for now. If you made it this far… why?