My new essay is live!
Here’s the premise: America has become a Microwave Economy. We’ve overwhelmingly used our wealth to make the world cheaper instead of more beautiful, more functional instead of more meaningful.
It’s time to start prizing the soul.
perell.com/essay/the-micr…
Here’s the premise: America has become a Microwave Economy. We’ve overwhelmingly used our wealth to make the world cheaper instead of more beautiful, more functional instead of more meaningful.
It’s time to start prizing the soul.
perell.com/essay/the-micr…
Microwave meals reflect a scary possible future: one that aims to distill the complexities of human nutrition into a scalable scientific formula, with lab-created foods that can be consumed in seconds, and where the negative externalities are unrecognized and unaccounted for.
The world loses its soul when we place too much weight on quantification.
When we do, we stop valuing what we know to be true, but can’t articulate. Rituals lose their significance, possessions lose their meaning, and things are valued only for their apparent utility.
When we do, we stop valuing what we know to be true, but can’t articulate. Rituals lose their significance, possessions lose their meaning, and things are valued only for their apparent utility.
As a society, it’s as if we’ve read too many blog posts about the 80/20 rule. When you strip away too much of the non-essential, you lose the kind of craftsmanship that endows an object with soul and makes the world feel alive.
The Microwave Economy is all-encompassing.
I see how it impacts language, music, and architecture. Convenience, not quality, is the driving force behind contemporary life in general — but we are blind to these trends because we don’t have the language make sense of them.
I see how it impacts language, music, and architecture. Convenience, not quality, is the driving force behind contemporary life in general — but we are blind to these trends because we don’t have the language make sense of them.
The Microwave Economy is most visible in architecture, where the industry has overwhelmingly directed its innovative muscles towards making things scalable instead of more beautiful.
It has prioritized machine-like reproducibility over workman-like craftsmanship.
It has prioritized machine-like reproducibility over workman-like craftsmanship.
https://twitter.com/david_perell/status/1312772893282107394
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