writing

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For me, the concept of “selling out” most strongly applies to bands, though I would apply it to anything with a significant long-term audience.

In terms of music, it is when a band begins gritty and in later albums becomes smoother, more polished, more saleable,

/tag/sellouts+bands

I’ve always imagined little suppliers being strong-armed by corporate interest and the greed brought by success. People in suits dictating what they can and cannot do, “for their better interest” and who end up siphoning off of their success. This sort of thing.

Again for music, it is when a huge industry has bright eyed innocents pitch to bands, locking them into a contract, manipulating their art into a product packaged for an audience like so much cologne. Occasionally nice, but fashionable garbage.

You’ll see it in music, movies, games and probably other places.

Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell - cover

It was Aug 2009 when I wrote I’ve put in my 10,000 hours. Rather than updating that post, I’ll save it for history and completely rewrite it.

A long time ago, Malcolm Gladwell was on The Hour, and he talked about his “10,000-Hour Rule” from his book Outliers. When I saw that interview, I realized I’ve put in my 10,000 hours on a couple of topics now.

However, when I now think back on it, I see a big difference between the “expertise” 10,000 hours of intuitive interest, versus 10,000 hours of practice with a learned skill.



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Fresh_ramen_noodle_001.jpg

Food >

While thinking about Soylent, some other things came to mind.

Products are labelled with this notion of “daily requirements”, but that’s an incomplete and possibly non-optimal paradigm. Similarly, the food groups and servings per day concept has the same perspective problem.

I think these are useful and valid concepts, but there are some other interesting things to think about.



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Fight Club (1999) poster

Entertainment > Movies >

(on Wikipedia)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/

A corporate drone goes mad and spirals into psychopathy, violently lashing out at society.

An absolutely mandatory film. As heavy-handed as its anti-corporatism is, it has fantastic subtleties requiring multiple viewings. There are very few movies which can achieve this level of watchability. This is absolutely an A-class dudebro movie.



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Naked Lunch (1991) poster

Entertainment > Movies >

(on Wikipedia)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102511/

A struggling writer takes drugs, giving him incredible results with unforeseen consequences.

This is an uncomfortably-great movie. It’s semi-horror in the sense of a tactile empathy the viewer has. I don’t know that I’d consider this mandatory viewing, because it would strongly depend on the viewer. I don’t think this would be a “love it or hate it” movie, because it’s .. just odd. It’s original, and that alone would make it mandatory viewing for some.



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