weekly fixations | edition 04

restarting, status, elections, posters, cupcakes.

Author

mallory contois
May 27, 2024

Five things to fixate on this week — alone, with friends, or with strangers.

Subscribe to receive future editions here, and please forward this to a friend who enjoys stretching their brain, exploring the vague, or starting weird conversations at parties. 🙏

1. This tweet

There’s a natural inclination to reply ‘of course not’ to this prompt, but if it really were an option, I’d bet more people would take it than we’d expect.

That lends itself to the discussion of why reinvention seems so impossible in our existing society, requiring a scenario as dramatic as this.

Would we be happier if significant course correction or reinvention was normal?

If you could start over completely, would you?

Why don’t more of us feel freer to reinvent ourselves as we go?

2. Changing status symbols

Status symbols appear to be rapidly evolving across generations, despite the [house/car/kids/vacations] combo holding the title for so long up until now.

What will status, success and aspiration look like in five or ten years? What will students say they want to be or have when they grow up? In this study in 2021, teens ascribed aspirational lifestyles to creators and internet talent over the traditional paths of generations past.

If we ran this study today, just three years later, the results would likely differ once again as the internet, the economy and the business landscape continue to rapidly morph.

What indicates success to you?

How do you think each generation defines status, and what causes that perception?

Why does the perception and definition of success seem to be changing so quickly lately?

Are the kids going to be okay? What happens when they find out there isn’t enough online audience for them all?

3. The electoral college

Alyssa Cass, a Democratic advisor, and Pat Rosenstiel, a Republican strategist, are working together on the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). This would replace the Electoral College system with a national popular vote for electing the U.S. president.

With 209 electoral votes already committed and 270 total needed, it’s wholly possible that the 2024 election could be the last decided by the Electoral College.

What other changes or challenges might this open up?

If the unchangeable changes, how might younger generations perception of our government and general societal organization adjust?

4. These movie posters

Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos have lately been reminding me that there just isn’t enough art and imagination making it into the popular public eye.

Poor Things was an exceptional reminder of what imagination, weirdness and reality colliding can look and feel like.

The posters for Kinds of Kindness, coming to theaters in June, truly made me stop and wonder how it was possible that I’d never seen anything like them before. What a breath of fresh air.

I wish more pop culture and ‘for the masses’ content made us stretch our brains just a bit further.

5. The way Anne Hathaway eats cupcakes

I saw this and my life was forever changed.

See you next week!

❤️ Mallory