Not sure if you're talking about watches or politics, but this fits our current political climate and discourse in the US quite well.
Put me on team Ancienne. Homages are lazy profit grabs.
Finally, this:
This is also why reading and writing tend to be the most compelling medium to alter our beliefs. The environment is non-confrontational, non-threatening, and allows for people to take time to think about concepts. In conversation, people have to worry about their status and appearance… they must ensure they do not embarrass themselves, and of course, when faced with an audience they will be inclined to double-down on a particular view to avoid looking weak.
This is why social media is such a terrible platform for communication. It takes written communication (our most effective and compelling means of communication as you correctly point out) and takes away the thoughtful consideration and reduces it to reactionary bullshit, status seeking, and virtual high fives.
Astute, as ever, Chris! I feel compelled to use watch related discourse but really, all the ideas are seeded while consuming other stuff and that’s often, as you said, related to more mainstream topics like politics!
As for social media … heck, I take the best I can out of it and let’s be honest, you would never have found this blog, and I wouldn’t be having these conversations with great folks like you, were it not for social media. So I suppose, it can’t be all that bad… still, I guess that was my point all along … even with my older articles - people need to stop outsourcing their thinking!
Here’s hoping 🤞 - thanks for taking the time to read, and even more for sharing your thoughts here! 🤝
Agreed that it does facilitate meeting people, which is good. But it is designed to minimize actual, meaningful discussion. That's why we're having this discussion on another platform.
SM wants the fastest possible like or platitude and then scroll to the next. And repeat.
Some good, mostly negative, all marketing. /Billhicksrant
They exist to make cash. We know this, and simply have to optimise our use to take away the best, and leave the worst… so here we are, on another platform. Saved ourselves!
We collaborate so well, that we start to lose sight of where our own understanding ends, and others’ understanding begins.
My favourite qoute from this article.
Fantastic read, Well done 👏
Your refrence to Hublot was a fantastic example, I found myself actually liking th fusion classic in blue from an aesthetic point of view, I really think its a good looking watch.
Would i buy it? No, and 9/10 reasons is because the watch community generally hates it and it would make me feel a type of way wearing it. Like a outcast.
Yet I actually like it.
That scenario fits very well to this thread that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.
Funny enough, I think that’s my favourite quote too! 🫨
Appreciate you taking the time Lee!
Perhaps there’s some merit in being comfortable with that “outcast” or “contrarian” label… because then you’ll probably get the best access to the stuff you like, and likely at a discount!
“That said - I favour linking to a quote more often than not, but - I think I might be a victim of precisely the stuff I spoke about here in this post… oh, the irony”
A thorough examination, well constructed and laid out, of many, if not most, of the factors involved in forming our belief systems, why they help us survive, why they have value as well as how they can hold us back.
I must say at this point that having read a fair amount of the authors other writings and finding myself in agreement with almost everything postulated here, even though some of it is new to me, that I am having to rethink and reread much of it and evaluate how much confirmation bias plays into it. And, of course, familiarity plays into this as well as was pointed out!
And of course that’s what much of this discourse is all about!
It is said that to effectively argue or contradict another point of view on an issue or belief you must be willing to listen to or see and examine the other side with an open mind.
I find myself guilty of having been a member of a community of “knowledge unexamined” and unknowingly spreading false beliefs.
The conclusions in the latter part of the article about how to effectively change others minds had much that was new to me, but makes perfect sense.
I find it interesting that the author is more than willing to risk losing “membership”, so to speak, in at least one subset of a culture/social community by (fearlessly?😉) speaking, or rather writing, some things that will likely not go down well with a reasonably CC large number of our “watch collecting community” (perhaps to test some of the tenets put forth in this well presented post). Bravo to you I say!
One regret I have is that along with this article, quite a number of the authors yother writings have value that applies to so much of our culture in general, but is probably only seen for the most part by what we refer to as our little #watchfam , and even then to a relatively small segment of that group.
Anyway, kudos! Great read! 🥂
Thinking is hard work; that's why so few do it.
Albert Einstein
“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”
By the way... there’s no risk for me - I’m always the black sheep in general, even in my own family. Being an outcast isn’t even a consideration, because there will always be people who feel the same way, but don’t say so - and in that, there’s a tribe in and of itself. It’s a life hack of sorts :)
Having also been a black sheep starting (also within my own family) from as long as I can remember, I have lost the fear of being “black balled” ...... just another member of the club in a different outpost 👽🐾🐾
Too much credit, I feel like I need a public shaming to balance out my ego after reading that. Appreciate your thoughtful response, and thank you ever so much for taking the time to read it all. Appreciate you sir 🥲
After seeing your comment and noting HM is your favourite author - that struck me as unlikely.
So it turns out, this quote is widely attributed to HM, and the best possible source is the Japanese version of Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki.
That said - I favour linking to a quote more often than not, but - I think I might be a victim of precisely the stuff I spoke about here in this post… oh, the irony!
Ordinarily I’d just remove the quote… but when I originally posted this piece, the platform also “scheduled” the auto-send to free subs…
After seeing your comment - I edited the post, but I had only two options: 1) save the edited version 2) keep the scheduled post to send to free subs. They were mutually exclusive options- so I decided to leave it all as-is, and write this comment to say the Murakami quote is problematic and possibly not even said by him - but I can’t be bothered to track down a Japanese book and translate it, so I’ll probably just delete the quote in the next couple of weeks.
Not that you asked, but there you go! ☝️
Thanks for taking the time Thad! Appreciate your reply, and have a great week!
Well, perhaps I simply didn't remember it. That's quite likely. Now that you mention the title, it wasn't one of my favorites and I only read it once. I'm going to read it again now, but the theme of the quote seems appropriate for the story.
As an aside, attributing an English quote like for like from a Japanese text is very difficult I think. Jay Rubin, who is a well regarded translator of his work, has spoken about this. Often direct translations such as this are impossible, so he needs to apply a great deal of interpretation and sometimes feels he can never get it quite right in English.
Anyway, I wouldn't sweat it. These words are important in the context of your post, so I would leave it in. 🤷🏻♂️
Not sure if you're talking about watches or politics, but this fits our current political climate and discourse in the US quite well.
Put me on team Ancienne. Homages are lazy profit grabs.
Finally, this:
This is also why reading and writing tend to be the most compelling medium to alter our beliefs. The environment is non-confrontational, non-threatening, and allows for people to take time to think about concepts. In conversation, people have to worry about their status and appearance… they must ensure they do not embarrass themselves, and of course, when faced with an audience they will be inclined to double-down on a particular view to avoid looking weak.
This is why social media is such a terrible platform for communication. It takes written communication (our most effective and compelling means of communication as you correctly point out) and takes away the thoughtful consideration and reduces it to reactionary bullshit, status seeking, and virtual high fives.
F me.
Great article🫸🫷
Astute, as ever, Chris! I feel compelled to use watch related discourse but really, all the ideas are seeded while consuming other stuff and that’s often, as you said, related to more mainstream topics like politics!
As for social media … heck, I take the best I can out of it and let’s be honest, you would never have found this blog, and I wouldn’t be having these conversations with great folks like you, were it not for social media. So I suppose, it can’t be all that bad… still, I guess that was my point all along … even with my older articles - people need to stop outsourcing their thinking!
Here’s hoping 🤞 - thanks for taking the time to read, and even more for sharing your thoughts here! 🤝
Agreed that it does facilitate meeting people, which is good. But it is designed to minimize actual, meaningful discussion. That's why we're having this discussion on another platform.
SM wants the fastest possible like or platitude and then scroll to the next. And repeat.
Some good, mostly negative, all marketing. /Billhicksrant
They exist to make cash. We know this, and simply have to optimise our use to take away the best, and leave the worst… so here we are, on another platform. Saved ourselves!
Happy Monday 🥂
😂👍🏼🥂
Hey Chris!! Good to see you here! 🤗👍🏼 Bruce
We collaborate so well, that we start to lose sight of where our own understanding ends, and others’ understanding begins.
My favourite qoute from this article.
Fantastic read, Well done 👏
Your refrence to Hublot was a fantastic example, I found myself actually liking th fusion classic in blue from an aesthetic point of view, I really think its a good looking watch.
Would i buy it? No, and 9/10 reasons is because the watch community generally hates it and it would make me feel a type of way wearing it. Like a outcast.
Yet I actually like it.
That scenario fits very well to this thread that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.
Funny enough, I think that’s my favourite quote too! 🫨
Appreciate you taking the time Lee!
Perhaps there’s some merit in being comfortable with that “outcast” or “contrarian” label… because then you’ll probably get the best access to the stuff you like, and likely at a discount!
“That said - I favour linking to a quote more often than not, but - I think I might be a victim of precisely the stuff I spoke about here in this post… oh, the irony”
IRONY IS OMNIPRESENT 😹👍🏼🙏🏼
(also -too often-guilty as charged!
😂 damned if I do... damned anyway. F IT.
Good read!
A thorough examination, well constructed and laid out, of many, if not most, of the factors involved in forming our belief systems, why they help us survive, why they have value as well as how they can hold us back.
I must say at this point that having read a fair amount of the authors other writings and finding myself in agreement with almost everything postulated here, even though some of it is new to me, that I am having to rethink and reread much of it and evaluate how much confirmation bias plays into it. And, of course, familiarity plays into this as well as was pointed out!
And of course that’s what much of this discourse is all about!
It is said that to effectively argue or contradict another point of view on an issue or belief you must be willing to listen to or see and examine the other side with an open mind.
I find myself guilty of having been a member of a community of “knowledge unexamined” and unknowingly spreading false beliefs.
The conclusions in the latter part of the article about how to effectively change others minds had much that was new to me, but makes perfect sense.
I find it interesting that the author is more than willing to risk losing “membership”, so to speak, in at least one subset of a culture/social community by (fearlessly?😉) speaking, or rather writing, some things that will likely not go down well with a reasonably CC large number of our “watch collecting community” (perhaps to test some of the tenets put forth in this well presented post). Bravo to you I say!
One regret I have is that along with this article, quite a number of the authors yother writings have value that applies to so much of our culture in general, but is probably only seen for the most part by what we refer to as our little #watchfam , and even then to a relatively small segment of that group.
Anyway, kudos! Great read! 🥂
Thinking is hard work; that's why so few do it.
Albert Einstein
“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”
Albert Einstein
By the way... there’s no risk for me - I’m always the black sheep in general, even in my own family. Being an outcast isn’t even a consideration, because there will always be people who feel the same way, but don’t say so - and in that, there’s a tribe in and of itself. It’s a life hack of sorts :)
Having also been a black sheep starting (also within my own family) from as long as I can remember, I have lost the fear of being “black balled” ...... just another member of the club in a different outpost 👽🐾🐾
Too much credit, I feel like I need a public shaming to balance out my ego after reading that. Appreciate your thoughtful response, and thank you ever so much for taking the time to read it all. Appreciate you sir 🥲
I'd never heard that Murakami quote (my favorite author), lovely. Empathy and kindness go a long way.
Fantastic piece, really enjoyed it.
https://twitter.com/ikzauk/status/961363866780356608
After seeing your comment and noting HM is your favourite author - that struck me as unlikely.
So it turns out, this quote is widely attributed to HM, and the best possible source is the Japanese version of Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki.
That said - I favour linking to a quote more often than not, but - I think I might be a victim of precisely the stuff I spoke about here in this post… oh, the irony!
Ordinarily I’d just remove the quote… but when I originally posted this piece, the platform also “scheduled” the auto-send to free subs…
After seeing your comment - I edited the post, but I had only two options: 1) save the edited version 2) keep the scheduled post to send to free subs. They were mutually exclusive options- so I decided to leave it all as-is, and write this comment to say the Murakami quote is problematic and possibly not even said by him - but I can’t be bothered to track down a Japanese book and translate it, so I’ll probably just delete the quote in the next couple of weeks.
Not that you asked, but there you go! ☝️
Thanks for taking the time Thad! Appreciate your reply, and have a great week!
Well, perhaps I simply didn't remember it. That's quite likely. Now that you mention the title, it wasn't one of my favorites and I only read it once. I'm going to read it again now, but the theme of the quote seems appropriate for the story.
As an aside, attributing an English quote like for like from a Japanese text is very difficult I think. Jay Rubin, who is a well regarded translator of his work, has spoken about this. Often direct translations such as this are impossible, so he needs to apply a great deal of interpretation and sometimes feels he can never get it quite right in English.
Anyway, I wouldn't sweat it. These words are important in the context of your post, so I would leave it in. 🤷🏻♂️
Ha! In that case, I'll take the W and leave it :)