Quick and Dirty No. 4
Quick and Dirty is a (semi-)weekly dump of interesting links that recently caught my attention and may or may not be related to design and business.
1. Why Rich People Love Pretending to Be Poor, by Horses, Link
I stumbled upon this amazing video essay by Horses because of Youtube’s recommendation algorithm. It seems like the algorithm kind of still manages to unearth interesting things instead of the 500th video of celebrities eating hot wings.
The narrator talks about how rich people tend to pretend to be poor and starts the essay with the example of the popular Instagram influencer Hanna (@ballerinafarm). Hanna and her husband own Ballerina Farm, and they romanticize their simple life on the farm in the form of IG videos. Hanna and her husband are wealthy. But their seemingly simple lifestyle is only possible because they don’t have to worry about how to put food on the table. This kind of portrayal leaves a lingering sense of unease. The essay then looks back in history and talks about, for example, the French Queen Marie Antoinette and her farm where she used to relax from all the wealth around her.
By co-opting a poor lifestyle, rich people cement the idea that anyone can make it if they just try. Living a #vanlife is aspirational, but living in your car because you can’t afford rent is not. It’s the perfect illustration of how hyper-capitalism places responsibility on individuals rather than trying to create societal change to eradicate poverty. The Western world has ample resources to do this, but the capitalist focus on individualistic achievement doesn’t allow it.
I couldn’t find any more information about the host but the channel has many more interesting videos with titles like: Surströmming and Cultural Relativism, Why Great White Sharks Are Terrified of Orcas, and When Lighthouse Keepers Disappear…. I see myself getting lost in its archive.
2. Apple Vision, by Stratechery, Link
I haven’t yet found the time to read completely through it but I loved one of his last sentences in the article:
“In other words, there is actually a reason to hope that Meta might win: it seems like we could all do with more connectedness, and less isolation with incredible immersive experiences to dull the pain of loneliness.”