What we’re doing when we share

I found the most amazing song. It’s absolutely beautiful for the moment in which I’m listening to it. However, I know come tomorrow the song won’t have the same appeal that it does right now. I’ll try to share it, but the appeal won’t be there.

Because I’m not necessarily sharing the song. The song is mediocre. What I truly want to share is the feeling. It’s the mood; the thoughts I’m having. There is no possible way that I could truly want to keep this feeling to myself. No person could be that selfish.

And I realize that might be the reason why sharing music with me is so difficult. Music is meant to mirror my feelings, multiply them, and sometimes curate them. Every once in a while, a song can perfectly mirror a certain feeling that it seizes the soul. That’s when I share it.

I put the song on repeat. I listen to it until the feeling fades. The song becomes a normal song again. In some cases, a song can have such a connection that it can transplant me back to certain feelings when I listen to it later. I think that is why a hook in most pop music is so important. It’s the most visceral way that rush of feeling can either be created or restored in music.

And all this makes me think that mediums aren’t really meant to tell a story or talents, but feelings. Think about movie categories. They’re separated by emotion, unlike music. Crime scene television is so much more compelling than the news casts that they’re based on.

If you’re ever creating something, make this the most important thing. Be the emotional rush. Then soothe reason, if necessary.

Florilegia

“Florilegia were compilations of excerpts from other writings, mashing up selected passages and connecting dots from existing texts to better illustrate a specific topic, doctrine or idea. The word comes from the Latin for “flower” and “gather.” The florilegium is one of the earliest recorded examples of remix culture — a Medieval textual Tumblr.”

-I love this idea and would love to do a series of these on some very specific topics.

(Source: brainpickings.org)

“LIMITED-EDITION WOOD-AND-CANVAS CANOE”

Freemans is a pioneer in a trend that we have seen happening for a while now, striving for a sort of refined, woolly, arts-and-craftsy, anachronistic Americana feeling. Think taxidermy, hand-cobbled brogues, and cocktails made with rye instead of whiskey. The common denominator in this trend seems to be a yearning for the “authentic.” Interestingly, things don’t need to actually be authentic as long as they feel authentic. In fact, they can be completely fake.

(Source: fastcodesign.com)

Why the future will mean better restaurants

The past few days I’ve been coming back to this idea of Foursquare having a larger impact on society than what you’d normally expect. This is something I’ll expand in my Weekly Note for this week. However, it’s been bothering me. So I’ll get the basics down now.

The essential idea is the use of Foursquare as a tool to find where your friends are going and where is good. The hugely impactful explorer tab feature in foursquare is this in a recommendation setting.  If you extrapolate this idea and impact to something larger it creates a very interesting idea.

By having this feature (and other features from other companies like Yelp) in commonplace in daily activity and if it actually influences decisions, you can’t help but think that widespread use will influence what is popular. I like the idea that this sort of mentality levels competition more so then in the past. It’s the idea that the good becomes popular rather than the known. If pre-internet meant asymmetrical information was used to make mediocre decisions, the internet and good information (in the form of foursquare, et al) will destroy that asymmetry and lets us makes good decisions.

It could mean that we take a lot of enjoyment in hunting for the best. It’d mean that these information sources will be integral in creating a better society.

Or at least it will demand better restaurants. 

If this doesn’t make sense, I’ll expand more later. Or it could never make sense, since this idea is more of a feeling that I’m still working on properly articulating. A work in progress still, if you will.