15 ms·

It reminds me of Wired magazine -- it went from a good alternative business/tech mag (along the lines of Whole Earth Review) to straight-up business porn. There

It reminds me of Wired magazine -- it went from a good alternative business/tech mag (along the lines of Whole Earth Review) to straight-up business porn. There are a lot of things that seem to follow the pattern, where something cool and non-mainstream gets watered-down and diminished by becoming popular, so I don't think you can't really blame the rich guys. It's also not a totally fair comment because I haven't read Wired in years.

3am 12y ago
It's true of everything "cool". Google, Apple, ESPN, Rolling Stone, Pixar, MTV, Starbucks, and so on. You can blame some of the rich guys for this, but for different reasons (trying to commercialize them). Even absent that, it's probably intrinsically impossible to be perpetually cool. You can also blame some of the rich for what's happened to SXSW, Cannes, Burning Man, climbing Mt Everest.. but that is more the dynamic of trying to fill a feeling of emptiness with experiences without regard for the truly understanding why those experiences are important.
- webnrrd2k 12y ago
  Sometimes things are diminished in an "Eternal September" fashion, out of an influx of people and ignorance more than anything. Other times, like these examples, it's a slow gentrification. BTW, thanks for the comment. I like how you tie it to a feeling of emptiness with experience... I've been really making an effort to cut out all the unnecessary junk in my life for a few years, and I've come to a similar conclusion about myself: that it's much more about how subtle feelings of emptiness and lack can "distort" my behavior, and cause a lot of pain and discomfort -- even things that are usually considered extremely positive can become painful. Even with a lot of direct effort to avoid it, I still fall into that trap. All I can do is look at myself and laugh a little!
vidarh 12y ago
Wired is a very mixed bag for me. It's "business porn" but every now and again they still publish some long interesting piece that at least hints back to the "golden age" of articles like Neal Stephenson's Mother Earth Mother Board[1]. But it's the kind of magazine I only ever flick through these days, unless the front page is particularly compelling. [1] http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html.
- scott_karana 12y ago
  Here's a more recent example, from 2008: http://archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-03/ff_seacowboys?currentPage=all http://archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-03/...

3am 12y ago

It's true of everything "cool". Google, Apple, ESPN, Rolling Stone, Pixar, MTV, Starbucks, and so on. You can blame some of the rich guys for this, but for different reasons (trying to commercialize them). Even absent that, it's probably intrinsically impossible to be perpetually cool. You can also blame some of the rich for what's happened to SXSW, Cannes, Burning Man, climbing Mt Everest.. but that is more the dynamic of trying to fill a feeling of emptiness with experiences without regard for the truly understanding why those experiences are important.

webnrrd2k 12y ago
Sometimes things are diminished in an "Eternal September" fashion, out of an influx of people and ignorance more than anything. Other times, like these examples, it's a slow gentrification. BTW, thanks for the comment. I like how you tie it to a feeling of emptiness with experience... I've been really making an effort to cut out all the unnecessary junk in my life for a few years, and I've come to a similar conclusion about myself: that it's much more about how subtle feelings of emptiness and lack can "distort" my behavior, and cause a lot of pain and discomfort -- even things that are usually considered extremely positive can become painful. Even with a lot of direct effort to avoid it, I still fall into that trap. All I can do is look at myself and laugh a little!

vidarh 12y ago

Wired is a very mixed bag for me. It's "business porn" but every now and again they still publish some long interesting piece that at least hints back to the "golden age" of articles like Neal Stephenson's Mother Earth Mother Board[1]. But it's the kind of magazine I only ever flick through these days, unless the front page is particularly compelling. [1] http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html.

scott_karana 12y ago
Here's a more recent example, from 2008: http://archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-03/ff_seacowboys?currentPage=all http://archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-03/...