Hi friends,

It's been an interesting week. In my online bubble at least, this was the week in which Reddit takes on Wall Street (article up ahead). It's been fascinating to follow this story and watch everything play out in real time. It's hard not to root for r/WallStreetBets, and I'm still deciding if I want to jump on the bandwagon.

On a personal level, I'm working on my goal of relaxing more creatively. For one thing, I've started building the Lego Millennium Falcon, which I've wanted to do for ages. The build is a lot of fun, and it keeps surprising me with all the detail they've managed to pack in. It's also absolutely humongous, and I really need to get a new salon table or something to put it on, so it's not in the way when I'm working (you can sort of see my laptop through the frame).

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I don't have a new essay to share this week. I'm working on a two essays right now: one explaining why I believe that creatives and creative companies should spend time working out their strategy; and one outlining how small, creative outfits can adapt the classic model of "getting the right people on the bus" to their situation. Both need a bit more shaving, and I expect to have at least one of them ready for you in two weeks.

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The Best Bits

​GameStop and r/WallStreetBets: GameStop was everywhere this week, but not for any reason actually related to games. It's become the arena of a war between investment funds and the people they consider to be "dumb money"; and the dumb money seems to be winning. According to some, this is the way Occupy Wall Street was supposed to have gone. This article in the New York Times does a good job of explaining the impetus for the rally, as well as the underlying processes at work. Since this article, some trading platforms have stopped trading the stock, highlighting the power inequality between Wall Street and regular people. I'm very curious to see how the whole thing will play out, and what, if anything, ends up changing.

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Bitcoin emissions and global warming: On a related note, Nature published a rather bleak study into the effect of Bitcoin emissions. The study concluded that Bitcoin emissions alone could push global warming above 2°C, as shared by Stephen Diehl on Twitter. And that's just Bitcoin. Diehl's thread examines the broader environmental cost of Bitcoin, which seems woefully underexamined in the crypto hype. Regardless of its potential for a decentralized monetary system or even its potential as an investment, none of this is worth it if it directly contributes to global warming.

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​Gabe Newell on BCI: Valve's Gabe Newell made a rare appearance on New Zealands 1 NEWS last week to discuss the future of brain-computer interfaces. His take is rather fascinating, and the video is well worth watching in full. Here's a snippet that I thought was one of the most interesting:

"Where it gets weird is when who you are becomes editable through a BCI," Newell said.

At the moment, people accept their feelings are just how they feel — but Newell says BCIs will soon allow the editing of these feelings digitally, which could be as easy as using an app.

"One of the early applications I expect we'll see is improved sleep — sleep will become an app that you run where you say, 'Oh, I need this much sleep, I need this much REM,'" he said.

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People are the strongest drugs: I've just finished reading The Overstory by Richard Powers. It's a novel about humans and trees, but mostly about trees. I don't want to give away much more than that, other than that it's actually much more interesting than this summary suggests. It hits a lot of themes that I think are very relevant right now, and I wanted to share a bit that really hit home for me. Right now, the Netherlands is in another lockdown with an enforced curfew, and I've really been missing human contact outside of the few people in our immediate family circle. This conversation takes place between two people who are isolated from others, beyond contact, and gives a beautiful description of some of the things I'm feeling during this pandemic:

Yet, soon enough, an afternoon, half an hour, a minute, half a sentence, or half a word all feel the same size. They disappear into the rhythm of no rhythm at all. Just crossing the nine-foot platform is a national epic. More time passes. A tenth of an eternity. Two-tenths. When she speaks again, the softness shatters him. "I never knew how strong a drug other people are."

"The strongest. Or at least the most widely abused."

"How long does it take to . . . detox?"

He considers. "Nobody's ever clean."

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Here's hoping we can all get back on the drug of other people sooner rather than later.

See you in two weeks!

Martijn

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