How To Break Anything

Thoughts and insights on culture and human behavior, living blissfully at the intersection of rationality and irrationality (but mostly irrationality)

I sometimes wish we could freeze a person and examine - in a very comprehensive way - how any one person's thoughts and experiences have led them to see the world in the very specific way they perceive it. Why any one person is exactly where they are, making the decisions they believe they are making, when they could be in an infinite number of other places, thinking and deciding an infinite number of other things.

This site exists because I've come to believe that we learn something from everything we experience. It's not always big. It's not always what we expect it to be. We might think it's contrary to what we already know. Or believe. But it's always something. And it always has a greater impact on our choices and experiences than we ever realize.

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February 12, 2010

Rules of the Internet (Encyclopedia Dramatica) and a copy of moot's TED Talk

via encyclopediadramatica.com

4chan is internet is pure form, so it's only natural that 4chan reflects deep insight into human behavior.

My faves:
17. Every win fails eventually
18. If it can be labeled, it can be hated
21. Original content is original only for a few seconds before getting old
34. There is porn of it, no exceptions
40. EVEN WITH CRUISE CONTROL YOU STILL HAVE TO STEER
42. Nothing is Sacred
46. There is always furry porn of it

Evidently there's a poor-quality video of moot's talk yesterday at TED:

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Filed under // culture human insight

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February 7, 2010

On the history of cultural style: "I am authentic" as driving force since the early 20th century

"Every age uses dress and body decoration to signal what is most important at that historical moment. Throughout most of our history that message has been "I am rich" or "I am powerful." If today more and more people use their dress to assert: "I am authentic," it is simply evidence of our hunger for the genuine article in an age which seems to so many to be one of simulation and hype."
-StreetStyle, 1993 [tedpolhemus.com for more on the historical search for 'authenticity']

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Filed under // culture offline inspiration

Posted from New York, NY

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February 6, 2010

More insight on cultural externalities and the arbitrary nature of what is important to us

via proseandconrad.com

Conrad put together a good collection of examples here: The good old days of advertising

(the 'more' part refers to my earlier post re: Tim Stock's The Structure Of Trends)

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Filed under // culture human insight perception

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February 6, 2010

A goldmine of insight on cultural externalities and the paradoxical nature of human behavior

via designologic.net

My favorite slides are 65 and 70. They have a lot to say about the mercurial (arbitrary?) nature of meaning and what matters to us.

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Filed under // culture human insight trends

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culture

Rules of the Internet (Encyclopedia Dramatica) and a copy of moot's TED Talk

On the history of cultural style: "I am authentic" as driving force since the early 20th century

More insight on cultural externalities and the arbitrary nature of what is important to us

A goldmine of insight on cultural externalities and the paradoxical nature of human behavior