Gary Shteyngart

But to the last moment, you know, they found things to enjoy.

Almost to the very last moment, there were things that they enjoyed.

And I think the thing they enjoyed the most was talking, verbaling, if you will, with their friends.

Even at the, you know, nobody wants to verbal in Sloan Kettering.

That's the worst place you want to do it.

But if it's there, it still beats not having cancer, I think, and hitting yourself with a hammer to create the sense that you're meeting some metric.

I think the interesting thing you're doing in that, across these essays, which are about martinis and suits and, you know, all kinds of things, capybaras.

I love capybaras.

Capybaras, that's how you say it?

Well, I'm trying to be a little more Latin American, given that they mostly live in... Capybara in Brazil.

So...

There is something about the way elite culture flaunts the repression of enjoyment.

I saw there was this clip that had gone viral the other day from the guy who hosted IRB's CEO.

And I thought this was a little bit unfair to him how viral it went, but it hit a nerve because it was hitting this culture, right?

It was like an example of this culture in which there is a status...

in optimizing everything, the aura ring, right?

You never have a drink.

And I do think people have this feeling of like, well, what about enjoyment?

Like what's the point of all this?

AI can already do a bunch of the things we can do.