distilling my taste and various bouts of inspiration and thought tunnels.

brands

I enjoy things that are raw and stripped to its essence.

• moth fund — analogy of moths that are away from the spotlight. i.e. elevating unspoken or unflashy ideas that linger in the background. brands that are niche, not necessarily universally appealing.
  • an analogy for spotlight: building companies to stay on trend (ex: SF founder mode hype).
  • an analogy for moths: experimenting with something without immediate ROI because you deeply enjoy it (ex: making art with no promises of high pay nor public recognition).
• public transit trains in ny & dc — (though I dislike it as a form of transportation), I admire its raw and primitive nature. not polished or packaged up in pretty benches or wallpaper.
• this japanese resturaunt in torrence w no sinage (name disclosed) — raw interior (holes in the wall, bare bone utensils, low publicity), unrecognizable. I like how it strips experience to its crux. not the flashy visuals and brand incentives. stripping the experience of dining to its essence — a shared meal with friends.
• substack — raw thoughts that dont need polish. evolution of thought in real time.
• patagonia — low-aesthetic. durable. raw. functional.
• military field gear — influence conveyed through fashion. stripped to its raw functional units without unnecessary pizzaz

taste

• raw utilitarian beauty, stripped of excess. distilled to its essence — whatever is absolutely necessary to accomplish a task. you can easily point to a set of principles that make it beautiful. I think there should be a level of explainability about why something is beautiful on top of intuition.
• aesthetics of influence that rally crowds around an idea
• analog systems & primitives: digital alarm clocks, analog watches, paper notebooks, blank work doc without templates nor simplification.
• obscure things that do not beg for attention. somewhat rough around the edges and overlooked. yet at the same time command attention and trust.
• primitive artifacts that linger and endure. ex: paper passports, physical clipper cards, handwritten letters, index cards. objects that carry weight and physical grounding yet can be easily destroyed in the next moment. keeping these safe becomes a deeply personal act.
• classical art movements — baroque and the weaponization of art as a method of influence and spiritual zeal to rally the masses. what is the human idea of perfection? how did we define the “ideal” during that period of time?
• hidden nooks — lake tahoe during sunset near the corner, away from the crowd. orange orchard at the hungtington gardens.
• the thought taken to typewrite old notes and documents