[SIC] 390: Alter Roger

Vol. 8, No. 30

[SIC] Weekly is a digest of developments in trends, tech, media, marketing, fashion, food, places and events, compiled for information obsessives and published free on Wednesdays. Read like an outline for a sense of the week’s gestalt. Nobody clicks every link, except me.

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.

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.

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Hi all,

Starting us off this week with James Friedman’s The Real Value of Breakfast, which despite being on Linkedin is not only worth reading but also thinking more deeply about. To wit: what are the incentives underlying the current moment, and where does our participation as people (not as embodied data) figure into it? And, how do we re-assert some personal agency?

There’s a parallel in Katie Dreke’s post The Sacred Technology of Ordinary Work as well: “the quiet systems that carry civilization forward when failing structures start to frizzle and collapse.”

I’ve been toying in the last day or so with the idea of ‘outfluencers’ as a way to explain / express the movements of people and conversations away from typical scale-driven central gravity to a more free-floating, incentive-neutral set of conditions that prioritizes non-programmatized human interaction (spontaneity), non-qualified, open participation (serendipity) and non-transactional benefit (serenity, kinda).

Looking at ‘frictionmaxxing’ or ‘funmaxxing:’ (or various other zeitgesty trends captured in the links this week and lately) through those three vectors lends creedence to the inevitability, I think, that our shared technoanxiety is misplaced and that the natural state of AI etc will be like that of electricity; eventually invisible, omnipresent, less a consideration than an expectation. Except in places where it’s not (ie the natural world, in physical work etc), but in those it won’t be missed, either.

“Outfluencer,” is a term that already exists, unsurprisingly, given its logical linguistic relationship to ‘influencers’; it’s used primarily (logically) by the Outdoor industry - but to describe Influencer-y behaviour in nature. I’m talking about something different: selective self-removal from big optimized systems to embark spontaneously on building (or letting something be built) small. Not because it’s inherently hard, or inherently ‘anti’, but because it seems inherently (emotionally?!) logical right now.

Would love to hear from you all where you’re seeing actions like that in your lives. Or if you’re not, but want to. [SIC] as outfluencer chronicle could be a thing.

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HIP REPLACEMENT EP.50: Chris Beer

The data journalist from frequent [SIC] source GWI joins me and Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick to talk AI entertainment, the fall of the metaverse, and the appeal of books written by humans. Newsletter here. Spotify here:

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Last thing before the links: As James noted in his piece above, I set the boulder rolling a few years on a series of open invite, open format morning meet ups, unambitiously named Breakfast Club. It’s now happened in over 50 cities globally and continues to be a source of great inspiration, provocation and collaborative spirit for me. I haven’t mentioned it in a while here, but since our underlying credo is “everyone’s invited, especially you”, I thought I’d remind you. Breakfast Clubbing is the Monday newsletter with weekly details and recaps, and Breakfastclubbing.com is the site. Stop by sometime.

Ok now, the links:

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[SIC] 390: Alter Roger

The Current Moment

• Is the Word of the Year “Whimsy”? Gen Z’s latest hyperfixation is an attempt to escape day-to-day stressors with playful innocence / Inside Hook

• Funmaxxing: Should we all be playing more? / Dazed

• Counterpoint? [SIC] Talks alum Kareem Rahma thinks The infantilization of millennials is destroying American culture / Another New Thing

• Corollary: How Memes Ruined Everything / Content

• Logical response, then? Friction-maxxing could curb your tech usage / Mashable

• Making It Hard by Design. Frictionmaxxing is reminding us of an important part of community design / Self Projecting Projections

• Ergo: The rise of made-by-humans marketing. Excuse me, was this post human-made? / Embedded

• And then maybe Liberal arts degrees will be “really important” for Gen Z / MSN

• Because otherwise? More Downward Mobility / The Lindy Newsletter

• Some people look to bold, visionary leaders. Others value technocratic expertise. But there’s a third way: Trimmaxxing / The Atlantic

• Speaking of better decision making: Trump’s latest climbdown suggests he may want to end the war / The Economist

• So… Why Can’t You Finish Anything? The skills needed for wrapping up aren’t always what you expect/ The New Yorker

• Buildingmaxxing: Is Africa’s skyscraper mini-boom a cause for alarm? / Dezeen

• Maybe not, since apparently Westerners are fleeing their countries in record numbers / The Economist

• Sorry, coastal elites: How the Midwest Became the Place to Move / The Atlantic

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Futures

• Also, Sorry Mom, You’re Chatting with an AI Agent, not your son / NYT

• But: The Science of Why AI Still Can’t Write Like You / Every

• Then again?! From Celeste: A.I Is Writing Fiction. Publishers Are Unprepared / NYT

• Also unprepared?!: The AI Economy Is “Propped Up by a Ponzi Scheme” Daniel Roher calls himself an “apocaloptimist,” meaning he’s supposedly bullish about the AI revolution. Those positive vibes aren’t always easy to come by / Vanity Fair

• ChatGPT Library Looks Like Cloud Storage. It’s Actually the End of the Chatbot Era. / Nicholas Rhodes

• On the topic of data organization: [SIC] homie and weekly contributor Piers Fawkes on the Knowledge Graph / Strat Monday

• Also graphic: Testing Nano-Banana for architectural visualisation / Architizer

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Platforms

• Back to the Ponzi? OpenAI’s shuttering of Sora is among the most visible signs yet of the company’s shifting business strategy / NYT

• Meantime, Epic Games Cuts About 1,000 Jobs Across Company Amid ‘Fortnite’ Slump / Bloomberg

• But, like, Why is U.S. tech giant Palantir suing a small Swiss magazine? / The Guardian

• While Spotify takes on its doppelgänger problem taking new steps to stop AI impersonation / Platformer

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Artistics & Stylistics

• From, Iolanda: “Always start with fun... ;)” Why Comedy is Having a Serious Moment / Shots

• Yes, Improv Comedy Sucks. And Everyone Should Try It / NYT

• Corollary: The internet goes wild for The Met’s newly acquired painting of an unusually muscular baby Jesus / Hyperallergic

• More strong babies: Children stormed the runway of Martin Margiela’s SS90 show. An unscripted moment that collapsed the boundary between audience and spectacle – in a way only Martin Margiela could / Climax Books

• Childlikewondermaxxing: The Fashion-Art Collective Captivating New York, One Furry Bridge at a Time/ Artnet

• In musical parallel: 5 artists proving that New York City’s indie scene is thriving / The Fader

• Am I the only one who questions the characterization this “spare, perfect Soho loft” as “minimalist”? More Med-imalist, if we’re being honest / The Cut

• Corollary: Aesthetic Study · New Medieval / Cosmos

• Back in the present day: When a plastic bag becomes Balenciaga. Actress Zhang Jingyi carried a plastic bag. China assumed it was Balenciaga. The viral mix-up shows how the maison’s legacy operates as cultural reflex / Jing Daily

• Related: Resale as the stock market for brands. How secondary marketplaces define value, demand, and what brands make next / The Sociology of Business

• More of what’s next?! Montaigne and the Origins of Substack. Self-publishing has a glorious history—but what’s coming next is even better / The Honest Broker

• Unrelated but maybe not? Arrogance & excellence: Pusha T interviewed/ Blackbird Spyplane

• More excellence, per [SIC] Talks alum Sami Reiss: The best sofa I have ever seen (this week) / Live Auctioneers

• While fellow alum and camo expert Avery Trufelman explains How American Camouflage Conquered the World / Wired

• Meantime, around the corner from Avery the Brooklyn Museum Plans $13 Million Overhaul for New African Art Galleries / Artnet

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Entertainments

• 50% of all relationship advice on Reddit is “leave” / Aakash Gupta

• Apropos: [SIC] Talks alum Alyssa Vingan’s “So Long, Housewives. Hot Divorcées Run Bravo Now.” / The Cut

• Relative to that: The decline of reality TV / NYT

• More reality: Behind the Scenes With Sophie Rain, the Clean Queen of the Dirty Internet / GQ

• Related: The new economics of sex work. As the sex economy grows, it deserves serious analysis / The Economist

• And The Disturbing Rise of “Nightlife Content” / The Guardian

• Hence? The anxiety of influencers / The Drift

• Corollary, from Celeste: At Celebrity Look-Alike Contests, There Are No Winners / GQ

• [SIC] Talks alum Recho Omondi’s got Line Sheet’s Lauren Sherman on “The Cutting Room Floor” today / Patreon

• And Lauren’s got Karolyn Pho on “Fashion People” / Spotify

• Tyler Cowen On Chess, Asimov, and McCartney / Machine Culture

• From Celeste: Margot Robbie Steps Into Kylie Minogue’s World (as auteured by Michel Gondry) / Vogue

• RZA Dissects Wu-Tang’s Early Bangers,” / The FACE

• “Sure, I’ll check out Primus” Says Person on Worst Date of Their Life / The Hard Times

• Corollary: Primus fan DYLAN BRADY on going outside / PI.FYI

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Media & Marketing

• The belonging industrial complex / As Seen On

• The Bonvoy Problem: Points programs are destroying the luxury-hotel experience. Can anything stop the freeloaders? / Airmail

• Apropos of membership: Reinvigorating the Philadelphia Inquirer / The Rebooting

• More “invigoration?!” CNN’s attempt at a more casual look may tell us more about the state of podcasting than it does about legacy media / The New Yorker

• Speaking of legacy: Anna Wintour’s Version of ‘Stepping Back’ / Back Row

• Also stepping back? Slow pop-ups become China retail’s smarter bet. The popular format gives brands a flexible way to test markets, build emotional engagement, and sustain foot traffic / Jing Daily

• From Iolanda; Fragrance Generated £2.2 Billion in UK Sales Last Year – What’s Next? Key Quote: “Fragrance was something that you had to go in-store to smell…Now you can go online and…the way the brand has created a narrative and used visuals to create a mood around a fragrance is what’s selling.” / LBB

• Speaking of what’s selling: Nespresso knows Gen Z runs coffee now, so it hired Dua Lipa / Fast Company

• While McDonald’s readies a K-Pop Demon Hunters collab / Netflix

• Another from Iolanda: Sprite refresh... [Sprite reasserts cultural bona fides with global platform, brand refresh]. Key Quote: “The platform nods to street culture in other ways, like a partnership with Los Angeles-born Crenshaw Skate Club that will feature exclusive drops and experiences throughout 2026” / Marketing Dive

• Apropos of cold drinks: Turns out people aren’t psyched to see ads on their refrigerator door / WSJ

• Where we do want to see ads?! A vast collection of old department store catalogues / Internet Archive

• Or maybe… a Netflix Campaign Inspired By Tarot Cards / Graphic Design USA

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Foods and Drinks

• More archives: Almost every snack in the world (with reviews) / Taquitos

• But, like, Which is the best sparkling water? Diving into the frothy world of bubbly / The Economist

• From Iolanda: [Food & Beverage Trends Marketers Should Watch in 2026] / WARC

• Apropos of that: Proteinmaxxing meets Cozzie Livs: It’s boom times for Spam / NY Post

• From Celeste: How Much Protein is Too Much? / BBC

• The greatest dish in the world cannot survive bad service / Monocle

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The Natural World

• Scientists find the maximum number of times you can clone an animal / Gizmodo

• Cloning corollary, from Celeste: Dog Dynasties ‘Rom-Com’ litters and Furminators: inside the wild world of upper-crust dogs at Crufts / Tatler

• While across town: Fox hunting in King’s Cross: The Google London HQ fox update / London Centric

• Wild corollary: What Happens If There’s a Murder in Antarctica? No single government controls the South Pole, so how do they deal with crime? / Reason

• Electromagnetism Secretly Runs the World / Not Boring

• The Heat Shield at the Edge of Space / Arena Magazine

• Shield corollary: Strange Coin Used on U.K. Bus Turns Out to Be 2,000-Year-Old Relic / Artnet

• Unrelated entirely: Here Are the 10 Craziest Places on Earth to Do Psychedelics / Doubleblind

• Crazy corollary to end: The Great Peptide Debate With Martin Shkreli and Max Marchione / TBPN

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[SIC] 390: Alter Roger

Corollary sources this week: Public Announcement / Nieman Lab / Ben-Evans / After School / Delightful / Snake / Cosmos / 1440 / Beats & Bytes / ADWEEK / Marginal Revolution / Elevator

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