From isekai manhwa to Yung Lean going viral in tech circles, everything I’ve been noticing lately points to the same undercurrent: people are hungry for a life that actually feels like their own.
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This is the first in a series of dispatches on what’s catching my attention — in culture, technology, and the quieter question underneath both: how do you actually want to live? For me a mix of balance and excellence. Not just optimization and noise. I think in the midst of slop slinging we’re all hoping for the real thing.
Solo Leveling & Isekai: Peak edge of popularity winding down, Solo Leveling won Anime of the Year Award 2025. Competing against several other animes with a story in a world ranked by birth classes through which only the main character levels up to become the strongest. The appeal is straightforward and clear. I’m not personally in an anime phase, though I have been enjoying some Isekai manhwa which in of itself points to an escape from modern reality, reversal of time to make better decisions and win or some other time/world travel often via nonsensical demise via illness, betrayal, overwork or our good friend truck-kun.
Jon Kiriakou: One of my favorite people to listen to tell stories on his channel lately. While I originally intended to enter the intelligence community- from my first dead drop lesson to a rooftop interview at 7am in the morning, a mentor shared her lived perspective on navigating enhanced training following the post 911 world. This ethical consideration, the whims of various administrations led me to decide to not further pursue it. Regardless, I enjoy the adventure of a spy novel. Adept at storytelling and perspectives on what’s going on in American foreign policy and global geopolitics. He’ll give you a laugh.
Storm II by GENER8ION - Yung Lean: The Storm II music video went viral with tech, leaders and founders, getting praise for the masterpiece choreography. Dancers and artists can agree it’s impressive choreography and a great example of visual contrast between frenetic chaotic and synchronized movement with a casual calm and breaking of the fourth wall to what is real in the negative space of the camera where the viewer meets Yung Lean’s gaze with a shrug and a smoke. To newcomers, the aesthetic “sadboy” culture refined by the artist over the last decade appears hopelessly nonsensical, an arbitrary melange of whir\wind elements lacking meaning - reflecting perhaps the feelings with the maelstrom of technology and existing as a sentient human in the world, volleying between the performance of work, the desire to be cool and the shock of the speed of it all. It points to a kind of postmodern “storm” that arises from reflection on how technology is transforming the world into a continual flow of slop and carnival of arbitrary signifiers, alienating and isolating people from one another outside the choreography demanded to keep pace. To note, many artists are familiar with these ruminations in disillusion from reality, visible across mediums from Zhang Yimou’s filmography, Hayou Miyazaki’s interviews, Russian avantgarde literature like Russian Absurd: Selected Writings and Generation P to an American post-war Soldier’s Home by Hemingway. The difference is the Lean music video is easily accessible, digestible, stimulating and consumable for viral reach touching on the hidden inner worlds that modern tech devs may not spend the time consciously reflecting on.
Black Paw: A fun fragrance acquisition from my April trip to China (Shanghai and Hangzhou.) The brand world created with a cat’s black paws through poetic descriptions is fun and elegant. I asked the nez to recommend one they thought suited my demeanor, and walked away with the Jasmine Tea fragrance as well as a Jasmine Dragon Pearl sample. Like many other people I had my pandemic hobbies, entering the world of perfume which led me to meet niche perfumers globally and get the materials to create my own. Whenever I travel I like to have some type of art to bring home. I find scent to be practical, usable and a great memory capsule that I can use daily.
Finance & Stocks World: As they say a bear market makes a fool of both bears and bulls. Some catchy phrases to stim on through weather-esque stonks reporting and breakdowns. And faceless perspectives from ex-finance bros and alt crypto keepers.
The Narrative Engineer and/or Systemic Dominance: In a world where tech accelerates and evolves rapidly, sometimes the best product doesn’t win. What wins? Generally the story or perception that can fuel adoption and traction, or systemic dominance and diffusion. It’s been popular in Bay area tech and VC conversations and recognized as the stakes for competition rise.
The Performance of Culture, Community, Meaning & Living: A collection of these conversations and moments points to desire for meaning in a moment when things feel meaningless. We see this with the recent plug ins of tech leaders into cultural moments, from Zuck sitting from row at Prada’s Milan Fashion week in February and attending the Met Gala earlier this month to Jeff Bezos and his fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, serving as honorary co-chairs of the Met Gala. This followed by Anna Wintour holding a crisis meeting as backlash erupts over Jeff Bezos’ Met Gala sponsorship behinds closed doors. It’s the shift from brands building community to ecosystem (encapsulating narrative, community and systems) particularly in a time when the performance of community or performance of daily living feel commodified through social media and internet culture.
Is there fatigue in the transition? Pockets of course. Then there art the boos at multiple US university graduation speakers talking about the AI revolution to pontificate and attempt to engender deep purpose and meaning to point to on a sheet of paper while ignoring the anxieties and realit/ies of the students in front of them.
Thoughts?
How to move forward? How to live? Some upcoming vids and posts not on balance but on crafting the life you desire. Both with/out AI, on and offline. Or at least what I find productive.
In a memory, I got off the phone with another one of my first mentors- I remember her helping me edit my single grad school application in a dim corner of a bar near campus over Pizza and ginger mules. I had called her after leaving a job for her advise and she told me, “choose a job that supports the lifestyle you want.” It took me a few years to understand what she meant.
Easier said than done, but with courage, worth pursuing.
Worst case, you can always rejoin the dancing school boys in the matrixed choreography of Yung Lean’s music video if you take the Blue Pill again.
See you next time.
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Song: AI generated with Suno
Episode cover art: Solo Leveling Wiki fan page
Add to Your Queue!
Anime
Solo Leveling — Seasons 1 & 2 on Crunchyroll
Finance & Markets
Defiant Gatekeeper — Ex-investment banker, current credit private equity and hedge fund investor. Faceless, no-nonsense takes from someone actually inside the machine.
Benjamin Cowen — Former NASA researcher and PhD turned crypto macro analyst. Data-driven, cycle-focused, unusually calm for a crypto channel.
The Storm & Postmodern Disillusionment
Storm I & II — GENER8ION x Yung Lean, dir. Romain Gavras (start here)
Generation P — Victor Pelevin
Russian Absurd: Selected Writings — Daniil Kharms
Soldier’s Home — Ernest Hemingway (free, 10 min read)
Geopolitics & Intelligence
Deep Focus with John Kiriakou — YouTube
John Kiriakou on JRE — good entry point
Scent
Perfume: The Alchemy of Scent — Jean-Claude Ellena. The Hermès master perfumer opens his laboratory door — how scent is created, composed, and how it plays with olfactory memory. The book that makes you want to go smell everything immediately.
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