Consumerism, Rejection & Rocket Fuel - Weekly Mix #160

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Consumerism, Rejection & Rocket Fuel

Happy Friday !
It's hard to believe it's been almost a month since the last newsletter!

The newsletter has quickly become one of my favourite things to do each week–thank you to all of you for reading and replying and providing positive feedback.

When I feel like I haven't read enough, or spent enough time finding good things to write about and share, I feel like it's a letdown to share, and then a week passes, and then another week passes, and so on.

In reality, when I sit down to do it, I realize I've got lots of things I've been thinking about and reading.

We did have a big product launch at Unito, which was a lot of work and crazy and fun (which you're welcome to check out on our website), but I'm looking forward to some more time for a few months.

This week's newsletter will be a bit shorter, but we'll be back to normal next week!

Consumerism

I haven't been reading nearly as much over the summer, which I'm hoping will change over the coming weeks, as the weather cools down.

One book I've been re-reading is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.

And the passage I've been thinking about most is the following:

“Consumerism sees the consumption of ever more products and services as a positive thing. It encourages people to treat themselves, spoil themselves, and even kill themselves slowly by overconsumption. Frugality is a disease to be cured.

“It has succeeded. We are all good consumers. We buy countless products that we don’t really need, and that until yesterday we didn’t know existed. Manufacturers deliberately design short-term goods and invent new and unnecessary models of perfectly satisfactory products that we must purchase in order to stay ‘in’. Shopping has become a favourite pastime, and consumer goods have become essential mediators in relationships between family members, spouses and friends. Religious holidays such as Christmas have become shopping festivals. In the United States, even Memorial Day – originally a solemn day for remembering fallen soldiers – is now an occasion for special sales. Most people mark this day by going shopping, perhaps to prove that the defenders of freedom did not die in vain.”

I want things as much as the next person.

In the past few weeks, I've spent an embarrassing amount of time looking at bikes, and those who build superlight bikes, and those who make the parts for these bikes.

Are they necessary? No. But I find them very interesting, for a number of reasons, not least of which is my desire to own and use cool products.

Riding a bike is a good thing. I bought 2 used bikes this summer, and they have both served me well, and contributed to me being more healthy and active.

But are they necessary? What else isn't necessary?

In a time where the world seems stretched thin, from the wildfires in California, to climate change, to our medical systems, it seems to me that what is necessary is a lot less than most of us think.

Article

Rejected - Seth Godin - A reminder for anyone who's been rejected lately.

What I'm Watching

DJ Shadow - Rocket Fuel

The most entertaining music video I've seen in a long time. Trust me.

Have a great weekend, and see you next week!

Graham

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