Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Imagine you're a young woman in your thirties from a country that broke free from communism three decades ago. Now, consider being her parents, whose identities were shaped behind the Iron Curtain in a communist regime. When this woman was born, the internet emerged and began to transform the world, slowly but steadily turning everything on its head.
How relevant is the life advice these parents can offer their daughter, given the dramatically changed contexts? The internet has given this young woman unprecedented access to information and the power to shape the future of society.
She navigates a world vastly different from the one her parents knew, where borders are more permeable, and ideas flow freely. While her parents' experiences are invaluable, she must blend their wisdom with the new tools and opportunities at her disposal to forge her own path in this dynamic, interconnected world.
What once meant a meaningful life to her parents can look dramatically different today. In the past, stability, conformity, and collective ideals were paramount, but now, individuality, innovation, and global connections redefine what it means to live meaningfully.
The young woman faces the challenge of honouring her parents' values while embracing an evolving landscape that offers new ways to find purpose and fulfilment in both work and life.
What Does a Good Digital Life Look Like?
Sometimes change is so abrupt that a contextual chasm can open between generations. Contexts can shift so abruptly that traditional ideas of a good life no longer apply—not because they are no longer true, but because the context in which those lives were possible no longer exists. When contexts change this quickly, transferring values across generations becomes almost impossible. The next generation sees the wisdom of previous generations as something to rebel against, not something to venerate.
R.B. Griggs | 9 Minutes
We’re All (Folk) Programmers
Most of our everyday knowledge of how to use computers can be considered folklore. We learn how to Google things by watching others and trial and error rather than formal training. Folk programming is the kind of (re)programming we learn through our active use of the Internet and software. As we use the Internet and learn how it works, we’re constantly changing software to work for us (and in doing so, make it feel more like us, too). If you’ve ever used an app outside of its intended purpose, you are a folk programmer. We are all already programming, all the time, and we have the power to not only gesture at our dreams of what the Internet could be but also push those dreams towards reality.
Spencer Chang | 13 Minutes
There Are No More Hedgehogs
If we have thin desires, we are more easily captivated by thin knowledge—by the million things that present themselves to us daily as worthy of knowing when in fact maybe only one of them is. If we cultivate thick desires, however, the thickness of those desires becomes a filter for our knowledge. We desire to know that which gets us closer to the essential knowledge, and the timeless insight, that will help us live a life of meaning. Only foxes chase rabbits; only foxes go down rabbit holes. Hedgehogs go down into dens.
Luke Burgis | 15 Minutes
The Future of Work Starts with Life
They work for you because in working for you they’re accomplishing what matters to them in life. When you get that aligned, then you no longer talk about the office or talk about building a lot of other compensation structures. I think it’s going to become a very basic tenant of how we think about work and life. If there’s a challenge, if there’s a lack of equilibrium between work and life, and there’s something that is really happening, life always wins.
What Next with Nirit Cohen | 44 Minutes