We emotionalize and anthropomorphize everything. I guess I wonder if uncertainty and hope are just illusions. While macro conditions and sentiment does influence the markets and equities, I just want to see the patterns in it all.
Hope you do recover quickly. Bikes on roads are scary which is why I love my Peloton. But won't give up on trails entirely.
Had a discussion and brought up the lack of authenticity in the corporate space and was met with a question..."but that's everywhere and why would you think it can be different?"
Keep up the amazing work Kyla. The only reason I am on TikTok is your daily take on the economy. I love your creativity on a dry subject. I am glad you accident was not worse.
I'm sorry you were hit. I'm glad you are mostly unscathed!!!
Some years ago I was biking and a car (well, a person) driving the wrong way down a one-way street accelerated at me. It left me feeling shaken and confused and isolated and powerless.
That is a lonely story. There are also hopeful stories: times I stopped to help a person whose car had broken down, times I was offered shelter (and once hot tea!) from pouring rain by people I had never met and might never see again, times I smiled and wanted to close my eyes (but didn't---biking hazard) and just feel the sun kiss my face and the wind ruffle my helmet-matted hair.
Hey Kyla - thank you for the Information Overwhelms essay.
I ran across your work in a dozen places and always enjoyed your take on stuff. I'm recalling an interview you did with Jack Farley a couple of years ago. The good humour and bright minds made me smile.
(some of this is life conditions - my youngest kid turns 30 soon. I'm increasingly interested in hearing from 20s ish people, to give me some idea what the generations are thinking and feeling. My eldest grandkid has started school... it's that 'generation in between' that has me listening for younger voices.
Also, it's great that this particular essay is in front of paid membership - there's a bunch of my colleagues I'll share it with. I work in a startup space, with many beautiful young humans.
And bike smashes? I too hope you mend quickly and well. Two wheels (both motorised and human powered) are a great way to travel on a chaotic/order Edge.
This is my favorite article/ content of your work so far.
The economy of media has no responsibility to us on a civilization or society level.
Governance doesn’t have the incentives for purpose directed policy or optimism creation.
That hit hard.
We need higher currencies to establish and valuation via reward, investment and incentives.
CBDCs will usher in an age of Corporate Currencies. Civic Currencies will emerge from this ecosystem.Maybe Science Currencies and Ecological Currencies can emerge from Energy Currencies- at least the transition to Sustainable Energy can be directly funded by the Central Bank layer. The BIS ( Bank of International Settlements/ Central Bank of Central Banks ) published in 2019 that it would have to put the energy sector on its books to pay for the ecological footprint of Energy as the rest of the economy ( people/consumers & companies and Government) couldn’t afford it.
This means the money system would own the energy sector. GDP is 99% correlated to energy consumption, so this equation establishes a basis for energy currencies. If we add Biodiversity as an Impact Currency then the factors that create real optimism can emanate from the market- ie that we are custodians that can trust ourselves. That changes our story at its base level.
Really enjoyed this piece, especially listening to it on Spotify as it was pitch black in the UK at 21:56 and absolutely tipping it down with rain on the way to the shops and in need of hope.
Since listening to it, my mind has been whirring about several tangential pieces on the subject of hope that I thought you may find useful.
Given your love of Camus, I kept coming back to Carlos Maza's video on hope (or the lack of it). politics and the plague. If you haven't already seen it, it feels like something you would love.
What a bibliography. I want to read all the things that you're pointing to because I appreciate the sentiment of what you're saying so much. Also I'm a cyclist who is always afraid of cars in NYC. You should take a look at Zadie Smith's essay "Meet Just Bieber" -- which is about Martin Buber's philosophy of subjective versus objective relation.
I had three disjointed, silly thoughts after reading your post. 1. Are you okay? That must have been terrifying. 2. Did Batman create the monsters or did the monsters create Batman? 3. At my age (63), I mostly read stories of hope. I give stories of doom and gloom short shrift. The Fed will do what it must—I just wish the price of cat food and mushrooms weren’t so high. I wish the price of gasoline were higher (only $3.11 at the pump nearest my house on Thursday). The FDIC exists for a reason. I believe Congress will figure it out. I’m not being Pollyanna, just pragmatic.
I rode to work in the Seattle ID one summer, part of a well-promoted plan to reduce cars in the metro core. Got knocked down twice. First time, riding in the bike lane on the left side of one-way 2nd Ave guy pulled out from left-side curb in front of me. He couldn't see me so he was just punching it get through the blind spot. I flipped over his hood and somehow landed on my feet. He stopped, apologized, made sure I didn't need med assistance, helped bend some stuff back in place. Next time again riding on left side of one-way Stewart this time without official lane. This lady sped up to get pass me then cut left to enter a parking lot. I flipped over the hood, this time landing on knees, palms, toes. Some blood. She jumped out, yelling how I wasn't supposed to be riding there and so forth. Eventually she filed a police report, I think to protect herself in case I sued. I did not. In retrospect, I should have been taking up the whole lane right there. Instead, I was trying to ride in the void between parked cars and the traffic lane. I'm afraid things are quite dangerous for peds and cyclists out there, at present.
The best way is to stay away from the news as much as possible. The news is designed to pull you in and keep you there. The best way to do that is with bad news. It’s the same human urge to slow down at a road accident on the motorway. We want to see what’s going on.
Our brains are also programmed to identify risk and try and solve problems. So if you feed your brain crises all it’s going to is try and solve them.
And, most of these problems are way out of your sphere of control.
So let go. Focus on the local and control what your brain sees.
We emotionalize and anthropomorphize everything. I guess I wonder if uncertainty and hope are just illusions. While macro conditions and sentiment does influence the markets and equities, I just want to see the patterns in it all.
I hope that you (and your bike) heal up quickly and completely.
Hope you do recover quickly. Bikes on roads are scary which is why I love my Peloton. But won't give up on trails entirely.
Had a discussion and brought up the lack of authenticity in the corporate space and was met with a question..."but that's everywhere and why would you think it can be different?"
Hope I guess.
Best wishes for a swift a full recovery! Scary stuff! I'm glad you're ok.
Keep up the amazing work Kyla. The only reason I am on TikTok is your daily take on the economy. I love your creativity on a dry subject. I am glad you accident was not worse.
Regards
Rome Haloftis
This greatly impacted me. I read it again twice already. Thank you, deeply.
I'm sorry you were hit. I'm glad you are mostly unscathed!!!
Some years ago I was biking and a car (well, a person) driving the wrong way down a one-way street accelerated at me. It left me feeling shaken and confused and isolated and powerless.
That is a lonely story. There are also hopeful stories: times I stopped to help a person whose car had broken down, times I was offered shelter (and once hot tea!) from pouring rain by people I had never met and might never see again, times I smiled and wanted to close my eyes (but didn't---biking hazard) and just feel the sun kiss my face and the wind ruffle my helmet-matted hair.
May the hopeful stories grow, without and within.
Hey Kyla - thank you for the Information Overwhelms essay.
I ran across your work in a dozen places and always enjoyed your take on stuff. I'm recalling an interview you did with Jack Farley a couple of years ago. The good humour and bright minds made me smile.
(some of this is life conditions - my youngest kid turns 30 soon. I'm increasingly interested in hearing from 20s ish people, to give me some idea what the generations are thinking and feeling. My eldest grandkid has started school... it's that 'generation in between' that has me listening for younger voices.
Also, it's great that this particular essay is in front of paid membership - there's a bunch of my colleagues I'll share it with. I work in a startup space, with many beautiful young humans.
And bike smashes? I too hope you mend quickly and well. Two wheels (both motorised and human powered) are a great way to travel on a chaotic/order Edge.
This is my favorite article/ content of your work so far.
The economy of media has no responsibility to us on a civilization or society level.
Governance doesn’t have the incentives for purpose directed policy or optimism creation.
That hit hard.
We need higher currencies to establish and valuation via reward, investment and incentives.
CBDCs will usher in an age of Corporate Currencies. Civic Currencies will emerge from this ecosystem.Maybe Science Currencies and Ecological Currencies can emerge from Energy Currencies- at least the transition to Sustainable Energy can be directly funded by the Central Bank layer. The BIS ( Bank of International Settlements/ Central Bank of Central Banks ) published in 2019 that it would have to put the energy sector on its books to pay for the ecological footprint of Energy as the rest of the economy ( people/consumers & companies and Government) couldn’t afford it.
This means the money system would own the energy sector. GDP is 99% correlated to energy consumption, so this equation establishes a basis for energy currencies. If we add Biodiversity as an Impact Currency then the factors that create real optimism can emanate from the market- ie that we are custodians that can trust ourselves. That changes our story at its base level.
Really enjoyed this piece, especially listening to it on Spotify as it was pitch black in the UK at 21:56 and absolutely tipping it down with rain on the way to the shops and in need of hope.
Since listening to it, my mind has been whirring about several tangential pieces on the subject of hope that I thought you may find useful.
Given your love of Camus, I kept coming back to Carlos Maza's video on hope (or the lack of it). politics and the plague. If you haven't already seen it, it feels like something you would love.
How To Be Hopeless - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJaE_BvLK6U&t=11s
What a bibliography. I want to read all the things that you're pointing to because I appreciate the sentiment of what you're saying so much. Also I'm a cyclist who is always afraid of cars in NYC. You should take a look at Zadie Smith's essay "Meet Just Bieber" -- which is about Martin Buber's philosophy of subjective versus objective relation.
"...changes how we perceive hope..." Isn't this the "vibe economy"?
"s-society"="stuck" society?
"Information is different than knowledge" GOOD GAWD. ABSOLUTELY. Information/data is just individual puzzle pieces.
I hope you are feeling better and glad the bicycle mishap didn't get the better of you.
Glad you’re safe. Your writing always expands my thinking and understanding. Thank you 🙏
I had three disjointed, silly thoughts after reading your post. 1. Are you okay? That must have been terrifying. 2. Did Batman create the monsters or did the monsters create Batman? 3. At my age (63), I mostly read stories of hope. I give stories of doom and gloom short shrift. The Fed will do what it must—I just wish the price of cat food and mushrooms weren’t so high. I wish the price of gasoline were higher (only $3.11 at the pump nearest my house on Thursday). The FDIC exists for a reason. I believe Congress will figure it out. I’m not being Pollyanna, just pragmatic.
very glad you weren't too smashed-up, ms Kyla.
I rode to work in the Seattle ID one summer, part of a well-promoted plan to reduce cars in the metro core. Got knocked down twice. First time, riding in the bike lane on the left side of one-way 2nd Ave guy pulled out from left-side curb in front of me. He couldn't see me so he was just punching it get through the blind spot. I flipped over his hood and somehow landed on my feet. He stopped, apologized, made sure I didn't need med assistance, helped bend some stuff back in place. Next time again riding on left side of one-way Stewart this time without official lane. This lady sped up to get pass me then cut left to enter a parking lot. I flipped over the hood, this time landing on knees, palms, toes. Some blood. She jumped out, yelling how I wasn't supposed to be riding there and so forth. Eventually she filed a police report, I think to protect herself in case I sued. I did not. In retrospect, I should have been taking up the whole lane right there. Instead, I was trying to ride in the void between parked cars and the traffic lane. I'm afraid things are quite dangerous for peds and cyclists out there, at present.
We need to ensure we zoom out to get perspective.
The best way is to stay away from the news as much as possible. The news is designed to pull you in and keep you there. The best way to do that is with bad news. It’s the same human urge to slow down at a road accident on the motorway. We want to see what’s going on.
Our brains are also programmed to identify risk and try and solve problems. So if you feed your brain crises all it’s going to is try and solve them.
And, most of these problems are way out of your sphere of control.
So let go. Focus on the local and control what your brain sees.
https://open.substack.com/pub/neverstoplearning1/p/breaking-the-habit-what-the-news?utm_source=direct&r=1nyz10&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web