3/2/2023
The 33 Project
Happy Thursday. Up and at it early today. There’s a beautiful time in the morning, in the city, when the street lamps flip off and the natural light fades from dark to light and it’s just quiet and peaceful. I love mornings. So I’m basking in that as I send you this week’s recs:
1/ Take this video’s spin on the meaning of habits and make them work in your favor.
2/ An interesting interview with an ex-googler who worked in internal comms. The kool-aid has most certainly dried up.
I’m still working out thoughts on this, but, towards the end of the interview they discuss how to approach meaning in your work and establishing a separation that allows for personhood outside of corporation. It’s an interesting moment, though ultimately the answer and conversation left me feeling down and sort of unmoved.
The sell is to find meaning in your work, not your workplace. But, in this country, in this time, the way I see it you have two choices. You work for a corporation/organization or you work for yourself. And if you work for yourself you must accept that you will not be compensated as well or with the same ease as if you work for a corporation. Certainly not without major sacrifice. So to live in this country, in this capitalistic society, we must drudge on and keep working, and ultimately find lots of meaning in working for a big, bad other.
Maybe not? Tell me I’m wrong, please.
3/ An artist outed himself as a plagiarizer and it’s…something. The “photographer” claimed to take portraits using a DSLR, but in reality he used AI.
Artist pushback is largely based on the fact these image generators are built by scraping millions of online artworks without consent or compensation.
Side note, he’s gained 10k followers since the story broke. 🤦🏻♀️
Extra: “What Happened to Us.” - This oral history of the beginning of Covid in NYC is worth a visit. March 2020 feels like an eternity ago.
That’s all for this week. Thanks as always for reading. You are so appreciated. Feel free to share this newsletter with anyone you think may be interested. If you want more, I offer an upgraded version of this newsletter with additional recommendations and writings.
You can love a company, but a company can't love you back. That said, you can find meaning working in a capitalist system (does it stimulate you, does it give you purpose, are you making an impact, etc.)