Greetings from Taipei! Enjoy this weeks late but still good reads!
#1 Culture: Korean conglomerates are figuring out how to monetize culture:
Only then did it dawn on me that Starfield Library functions much like movie theaters inside suburban shopping malls: honeypots that draw customers first and then naturally lead them to other spending options inside the mall, providing an unconscious and unplanned segue from a cultural activity to a consumerist one.
#2 Ideal Days: The conversation around privilege seems to only be focused on institutional leadership and wealth. What if we re-framed that conversation around the freedom to spend one's day as they wish? Ryan Holiday offers his thoughts:
"You might ask: “But isn’t this a privileged way to live? It must be so nice only having to work a couple hours a day.” Yes, I do feel very privileged that for me happiness is relatively cheap. My ideal day doesn’t require me to be rich or powerful or important. It just requires that I be good enough at something to sell my services on the open market and strong enough to say no to things that are beyond my needs. That is a privilege, and it’s more accessible than we think. There are plenty of billionaires who don’t have it, plenty of ordinary people who have never lost it."
#3 Zombie Companies: 13% of global advanced country companies "don't make enough to even cover their interest payments." Yikes.
#4 On Self-Respect: Joan Didion's essay on self-respect from 1961:
Nonetheless, character—the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life—is the source from which self-respect springs.
#5 College Admissions Scandal: This entire essay may be what people read 100 years from now to assess our obsession with credentials and success. Some amazing quotes:
But the Dealmaker of the Year spent considerable time kicking the tires on this one. “Keep in mind I am a lawyer,” Caplan said at one point, according to the affidavit. “So I’m sort of rules oriented.” And, later, “I’m not worried about the moral issue here. I’m worried about the, if she’s caught doing that, you know, she’s finished."
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