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[SIC] 372: Snorkel Sculpture
Vol. 8, No. 12. [SIC] Talks: Edmond Lau and W. David Marks. HIP REPLACEMENT widens the witness aperture. Tension makes Action. The kids they want to party. And the liiinks.
[SIC] Weekly is a digest of 50x-ish developments in trends, tech, media, marketing, fashion, food, places and events, compiled for information obsessives and published free on Wednesday.
[SIC] is made possible by its paid subscribers, who also get 20 “[SIC] Day” links on Mo/Tu/Th/Fr, and the weekly [SIC] Sundays mini-digest of 30 freeform links.
Many recipients expense their subscriptions as research in marketing, advertising, entertainment + tech. You can too.[SIC] prospers when you share it, so please do.
New original art and animation each issue is made by Gordon Hull. Special thanks this week for ideas: Piers Fawkes, Iolanda Carvalho and Celeste Blewitt Comments, questions and contributions are invited from everyone.
This digest was sent free on 11/19/25 to 8092 subscribers. Original source is cited. Corollary sources are listed at the end of each digest.
I’m Ben Dietz,advisor-for-hire to brands, publishers and agencies, interviewer, moderator and occasionally event/exhibition producer. Give a shout: @dietznutz on socials.
Hi all.
Big book week, this one. Yesterday it was W. David Marx writing ”My New Book, Blank Space, is Out Today,” in his (excellent) / Culture: An Owner’s Manual newsletter (with more exposition on How Long Gone 872 and The Culture Journalist, among others).
Also yesterday: Prune major domo Tyler Watamanuk: “My first book—a cultural history of “streetwear”—is out today.”
I sped through Tyler’s book last week - I’m about halfway through David’s now, in hopes of finishing it in time for a special episode of [SIC] Talks he and I are recording on Substack Live this Friday (Nov. 21) at 12p NY Time: Add it to your calendar or watch / listen back later on the normal [SIC] Talks audio and video channels.
Both books are speedy, enjoyable reads: Tyler’s requires a little bit of a ken for fashion and sneaker-flavored businesscore, and David’s is massively ambitious in the breadth of culture he’s attempting to tie together so far - a bit brain-breaking (good) at times - but ultimately they’ve got a lot in common (besides Nigo).
An important feature, to my eyes: both books chart the inception and evolution of ‘underground’ scenes into mass phenomenon, and both emphasize the actions of individuals, not collectives, as driving forces.
So, when [SIC] homie Ed Cotton notes “Massive Study Finds Synthetic Humans Aren’t Human” in his post he’s stating the obvious, but also marking another notch in the real-people-are-in-search-of-real-experience belt that’s been tightening lately.
It’s what Yancey Strickler and the Metalabel gang are pushing toward in their Groupcore in theory and practice, and a quote Celeste highlighted in the “The Tradwife Movement Is Sputtering. Here’s What Comes Next” piece that Edmond and I talked about today:
“Whatever comes next....it won’t announce itself on a feed. You’ll have to go looking for it. You’ll have to learn the codes and fiddle with the locks to be let in. And that’s exactly how counterculture should be”
The point? Go have a look, and don’t stop.
[SIC] Talks #110: Edmond Lau
Edmond is the guy behind Nostalgia.Express and as Perplexity tells me is a “luxury memologist” - which essential means he distills and discerns developments in culture to represent them in funny, pithy illustrations. Eugene Healey does a decent job in his best knowledge influencers to follow post descrbing Edmond’s work as “highbrow content presented in a lowbrow way,” (case in point, his Linkedin Feed), but I know him moreso through headier work like "Do Not Be Afraid of the Dark: A Guide to the Dark Mode Shift” for [SIC] Talks alum Matt Klein’s excellent Zine.
Edmond very charitably jumped on Substack Live to chat from Hong Kong at 1am his time - a new record for least accomodating recording time - which I really appreciate. Among *many* other things we talked:
Theory of Dumb Our Paleolithic brains weren’t built for constant access to millions of opinions, memes, and takes, and that overload is eroding our cognitive habits / NYMag
TheTradwife Movement Is Sputtering. Here’s What Comes Next / GQ
Not to mention a defense of new money, bearing witness to history, the culture of 2x2s and performance as camouflage.
Great ep. Have a listen:
HIP REPLACEMENT EP. 35: Campbell Dietz
Quoted from The Trend Report yesterday: Listen In: Does aging affect our information experiences?
“I am probably witnessing a much wider swath of stuff now than I did before and yet that wider swath of stuff seems flatter to me than ever in the past,” Ben Dietz observed on the latest HIP REPLACEMENT in reflecting on generational views of the internet, specifically in being named as a “witness” to this history in the new W. David Marx book Blank Space. “Is that a function of my age — and relative infirmity, mentally speaking — or is it the fact that truly everything has — because the aperture has gotten so wide — the height of the peaks have decreased?” It was an interesting question, which was something I hadn’t considered. Then again, that very much represents how differently generations experience information. “Given my age and coming of age with such technologies, to me it feels like it has grown up with me,” I said. “As I keep learning things and aging, so does technology. They’re also opening up and aging and becoming more wide, as I am…I don’t think that’s an uncommon experience for most Millennials.” How do you experience information as you age? How does that relate to technology? A curious thought. Catch the rest of the conversation here.
And now… the liiiiinks:
[SIC] 372: Snorkel Sculpture
The Current Moment
From Celeste: The CIA Used This Psychic Meditation Program. It’s Never Been More Popular‘ / Wired
Apropos of empathy at a distance: “Parasocial” is the Cambridge Dictionary’s Word of the Year / Semafor
Speaking of parasocial: Was the Future Meant to Look Like a PlayStation Ad? SONY’s PlayStation 2 imagined a future where technology made us more in touch with ourselves, not less / The Chow
Ergo: Trapped by what they know: Young adults’ algorithmic cynicism / Nieman Lab
So in response?! …. Young People Are Tripping on Benadryl / Wired
Because, like: What happens when even college students can’t do math anymore? A Recipe for Idiocracy’ / The Atlantic
And hence: Young Mormons Built an App to Help Men Quit Gooning / Wired
Related: The teens behind the phone-free movement / Embedded
Also phone-free: How to be a great meeting participant / Emily Hinks
Not meeting cute, tho: Ambivalence About Marriage Grows—Among Girls Twelfth grade boys are now more likely than their female counterparts to say they are likely to get married / Reason
Dying Shopping Malls Are the Roman Ruins of Our Civilization / NYT
Can We Make Flophouses Great Again? And Should We? The government destroyed the last century’s privately provided housing safety net. Bringing it back is harder than you might think / Reason
The Libs are Arming: More liberals, people of color and LGBTQ Americans say they’re buying guns out of fear / NPR
Only shallow: What does Rama Duwaji’s activism mean? / Unherd
Futures
It’s only been Three Years from GPT-3 to Gemini 3. From chatbots to agents / One Useful Thing
So how come AI writing is mid [still?]. How the current way of training language models destroys any voice (and hope of good writing) / Interconnects
And yet… Most companies will slow entry-level hiring because of AI / Quartz
So… How to Use ChatGPT Without Brain-Rot. An MIT study on AI use provides a caution, but also a tip / Range Widely
Apropos of that: Kinds of stealing / Seth Godin
Corollary: Meet CoreWeave, the AI industry’s ticking time bomb / The Verge
Launches
Fox News Media has been working with Palantir to build AI newsroom tools / Axios
Snapchat announced the launch of “Topic Chats”, which let users participate in public conversations without sacrificing their privacy / Snap
The Byline Gift Guide is LIVE Yes, another gift guide. But [Gutes & Meg] swear it’s GOOD / Byline
Platforms
Post-social media. It’s time to rethink what the feed is for / Link In Bio
From Iolanda: Consumer Generated IPs [At last! Disney embraces creators — now who else has the courage to follow?] / The Media Leader
Hence why beehiiv is Betting Big on the “Content Economy” / Creator Spotlight
How X is planning to take over the World Cup, a broader strategy to reassert its creator content around live events / Digiday
Speaking of takeovers: Is AI turning music streaming services into comment sections? 💬 / Network Notes x Bas Grasmeyer
Back, then to the Corners of the Internet Database / Google Doc
Artistics & Stylistics
From Iolanda: This is a classic of the season ;) [ The State of Fashion 2026: When the rules change] / McKinsey
Signals From Sneakers, Lessons for Luxury / Snobette
How ‘Unplugging’ Became Luxury’s Most Valuable Currency / Vogue Business
So long to the penny. Loafers will never be the same / NYT
From Piers: ‘made in europe’ label restores trust with open data on product origin and climate impact / Design Boom
Back in the USSA: The Mill That Invented Synthetic Fleece / Heddels
Why socks in Japan are a serious business. In the west, we treat socks as an afterthought. In Japan, they are an indispensable part of sartorial culture / FT
Also serious biz: Cattelan’s Golden Toilet Sells for $12.1 Million / Artnet
Unrelated: David Hockney’s Paintings Brought to Life in Dazzling Drone Show Over U.K. Skies / Artnet
And The artist Theaster Gates on Building and Bridging Culture, From Chicago to Japan / The Slowdown Pod
Entertainments
From Iolanda: “Everything is an ad platform 🙂” [Liquid Death lands a commercial inside ‘The Running Man’] / Marketing Dive
Hence? They’re making a Labubu movie / Vulture
So Ottessa Moshfegh writes about the hot men of Hollywood / Vanity Fair
Corollary: Orville Peck drank an ‘unimaginable amount’ of egg whites to prepare for Street Fighter / GQ
On the preparation tip: From Celeste: Derrick Gee Responded To A TikTok Challenge. Now He’s Building An Empire / Sydney Morning Herald
Speaking of Empires: Tom Freston Misses MTV, Too / Vulture
Also going, going gone?! The Death of Xbox / Human Computer
Gone but not forgotten: The Haçienda on Apple Music, 1987-91. Newly available mixes from the legendary Manchester nightclub at the height of British rave / Beat Connection
Media & Marketing
PANIC AT THE DISCO(UNT). Black Friday isn’t just about shifting stock. It’s about shifting our perception of time. Everything about it is designed to eliminate any potential pause for thought / Pattern Recognition
Apropos of discos? What Fred again..’s tour and album launch can teach brands / Creative Bloq
Timothée Chalamet Didn’t Mean to Drag Marketers, But He Did / ADWEEK
Not dragging: The Financial Times launches a Substack newsletter to target younger readers / Press Gazette
Corollary: The Economist’s Ferrari Approach / The Rebooting
Also, like: Like Goop, but for Dogs / NYT
Foods and Drinks
From Celeste: The Rise Of Luxury Fashion Restaurants / Bon Appetit
From Piers: Americans’ favorite fast-food chain is a convenience store / Restaurant Business
And, related: What Bodegas Mean for New York / NYT
How Raising Cane’s keeps its dipping sauce a secret / WSJ
The Natural World
What fMRI Scans and Octopuses on MDMA Reveal About the Brain / Doubleblind
Speaking of revelations: Raccoons Are Showing Early Signs of Domestication / Scientific American
Because the countryside ain’t safe? ExxonMobil has introduced a new type of proppant that might just spark the next US shale revolution / Zeihan
Related to that: The Greenland Rare Earths Edition. On China, geopolitics, and asking the right questions / WITI
[SIC] 372: Snorkel Sculpture
Corollary Sources This Week: Public Announcement / Retail Dive / Ben’s Bites / After School / Retail Dive / Nieman Lab / Strat Scraps / Dinner Party / Line Sheet / Brendan’s Communication Miscellany / 1440