1) We can all attest to COVID’s impact on how much we interact with each other in “physical space.” But once the dust settles, so to speak, what happens to public places and civic life? As Patricia Mou so expertly outlines in a series of posts about “Third Places,” the gradual reduction of public interaction and civil life started after WWII1, in part an unintended consequence of efforts to re-imagine urban environments and how we live together. We seem to simultaneously want to live in vibrant environments yet also retain our “personal space”. It will be interesting to watch how those conflicting desires form our new phase of public life.
2) As you might remember, I now work for a SaaS company.2 It’s different from working for an innovative yet established publicly traded company in a bunch of ways. But the SaaS category itself has evolved way beyond my ten-year-old mental pushpin, as Ravi Parikh outlines these differences in this post. And this basic model—you pay me some cash every month/year to deliver a service via a browser—has jumped from obscure business functions3 to all parts of everyday life, like music, mental/physical health, etc.
3) We live in interesting and highly divisive times, faced with profound disagreements about global culture and planetary survival. Naturally, as humans we tend to consider these problems unique to our moment in history, as if prior solutions have no bearing.4 The other day, thanks to Internet Serendipity, I came across a link to a piece by George Orwell about nationalism. It’s beautifully written, quite long and very quotable.5 In his view, nationalism has very little to do with nations; it’s an ideological vs. geographical lens focused on power, one that purposefully excludes all subjective and objective considerations that stray from its dominant narrative.6 At the base level, it’s a seductive cognitive laziness that we can find anytime a particular thing/group/method is, to quote Orwell, “place[ed]…beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty than that of advancing its interests.” Examples of this type of thinking abound these day, something to look out for as we seek, of fight, ways to address our collective challenges.
BONUS LINKS!!!
B1) What would 3IT be without something about NFTs? Here’s a short article from CNBC about TikTok NFTs featuring, among other artists, Lil Nas X. Described as “one-of-a-kind NFTs and a series of limited-edition NFTs inspired by cultural moments,” they launch this Wednesday.
B2) Projections for climate change are dire. But let’s not forget that our human ingenuity (and luck) can surprise ourselves from time to time in a good way. This nerdy paper basically says that decarbonization could be cheaper and faster than we think.
B3) “Cookies = Happiness” is a core belief in my household, and apparently that’s been a thing for quite some time: Here’s a recipe for “cookies of joy” from 12th-century nun, mystic, prophet, and healer Hildegard of Bingen.
MUSIC
1) Rufus Thomas breaks it down at the WattStax concert.
2) Gil Scott Heron on the revolution and the mediation of politics.
3) New and wonderful from Leon Bridges.
“Bowling Alone“ comes to mind. Gated communities. Decreased funding/use of public parks, pools, libraries. Decline of ethnic/social clubs. Etc.
“Software as a Service”
SaaS is the playground of “This process sucks. How can we remove the friction?”
It’s a delicate balance to fuel progress with new ideas while taking value from what’s become before. Also, our technology evolves so much faster than we do, it’s easy to forget or overlook that
Not really tweetable, though. There’s also no helpful “Y-minute read” to allow you to estimate your investment beforehand…you just gotta jump in.
From a behavioral standpoint, it’s one of the most seductive of reasoning frameworks. It provides certainty, clearly identifies the in/out groups, and facilitates a like-minded community.