Chapter 1: What did the professor learn from his band tour experience?
If you want to see the world, go on tour with a band. That's what my professor told me when I was back in college, and he would rave about his experience going on a coast-to-coast tour with a band. One thing that I remember he mentioned was this idea that back in the 80s when he went on tour, there wasn't such a homogeneity of culture.
It used to be that if you went down south or you went somewhere in the middle of the west, you were not going to get a Caesar salad. If you asked for a Caesar salad, they would look at you sideways. But nowadays... You can not only get a Caesar salad anywhere. You could probably find a matcha bar. You could probably find, you know, pho. Good Mexican food. You could find anything.
especially Dubai chocolate.
Chapter 2: Why does modern culture feel more homogeneous?
You could probably find it in every store across the country. And although I think this is great, it's great that we have the ability to experience all of these cultures all in one. I am not against that. Growing up where I grew up, I could eat any corner of the world anytime I wanted to. It was a blessing, right? But everything has started to feel the same, look the same.
If you are an adult right now and you're kind of getting into this transition of adulthood, you've probably realized that a lot of the apartments that you are being sold to that are pretty expensive because life is expensive, they all look the same. And it makes you kind of go insane. It does, because part of you is like, was it always this way?
Was the world just always a strip of highway with multiple different gas stations, fast food options, and maybe a Denny's? No, I don't think it was. I don't think it was. And I think that what we are witnessing is the end of style. Because style doesn't make money, it doesn't. And in a world that is so fixated on revenue and making money, we experience a world that we inhabit that reflects that.
That's the reason it's harder to find things that actually work. That's the reason it's harder to find things that you're like, man, I can buy into this and actually be a fan of this company or this product. It's because it's made to be cheap, quick, and to have the least amount of personality because if you have some kind of personality, In anything, it's going to make it harder to sell.
And you know what? That is exactly what is happening to people. Exactly the same thing. People are not able to build personalities for themselves because of the fear of not being able to sell that personality to somebody else. That's why you have people that dress the exact same. That's why you have this fear of finding a different kind of jacket that might make you stand out.
Everything is built to be sold to you and everyone is walking around like an archetype of a human being. It's not human. But then again, we all want to fit in. We love fitting in. Nobody wants to be an outcast, right? Although Hey Ya is a goaded song, nobody wants to be an outcast. Everybody wants to fit in some kind of puzzle piece in society, of course.
I don't sit there and say that's not the case. But it does make me question if, man, what are we missing by having a world that is an illusion? Think about even the United States, right? We grew up thinking that this was a place that championed individualism. Oh, you know, that is where you can become an individual. That's where you can work hard, be your own boss, whatever.
But still, everyone looks the same. Everyone's pulling up to H&M, buying the same puffer. Where's the individualism? Nobody really wants to take risks with what they're interested in because it might be weird. Where is the individualism? I don't know if it existed. And it also, you know, I don't fault anybody for it because think about this too. I'm sure you have interests.
You have things that you really like. Things that you would love to like get into, right? But when you think about the amount of time that you would sink into these things... And the fact that you wouldn't probably make money from it, you don't do it. You don't do it. Sports. Yeah.
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Chapter 3: How has the perception of style changed in society?
This has been known. But I think that you can take some kind of ownership back in terms of this style. I try to now seek out things with character. I try my best to buy old things. I try my best to find and experience old mediums. I've been obsessed recently with the idea of getting back into CDs.
Chapter 4: What challenges do young adults face regarding individuality?
Not because it's cool and they're going to appreciate, just because it's a different listening experience. I know, you can have the same thing on CD that you have on streaming, 100%, but you are more likely to listen through a CD front to back, like a whole album, than you are listening Album on your phone. It's it's true. Unless you're on airplane mode. You're flying somewhere.
You don't have service It's just harder because you have the ability to have a playlist you have the ability to have so many options So, of course that is going to scream out to you and be like no no change the song I don't want to listen to Sabrina Carpenter. Let's let's turn on some Daft Punk right now Let's turn on some SD kid like like switch it up but
the idea of a CD or a vinyl, it kind of forces you into one thing. The physical demand of you having to press on the CD player to take out the CD, it's a barrier. And it makes you go, okay, maybe this song that I'm listening to, track five, is kind of mid, but I'm going to let it go. I'm just going to let it kind of play. And maybe track six is going to be good. In the same vein, I think like,
there's a level of commitment issues that we really have with our personalities. I think we can be, you know, we should be able to change as a, as a person, but like it's, it becomes harder to stick things through and actually try things and give something a good try. You know, you saying, yeah, you know, I, I, I gave drawing a shot when you only drew like two things, right?
That doesn't, I don't know if that's a fair enough chance. I don't think it's a fair enough chance. Same thing with people. So easy to quickly judge people. They're weird. I don't know. I just didn't vibe with them that one time.
Fun thing for me has been realizing that everyone that I care about in my life, that I've built like a good rapport with, that I feel so close to, I didn't really like them at first. There was something about them that made me think, dang, not that I'm feeling threatened, but I feel like part of me is being challenged. And those are the people that will make you grow.
The people that dress exactly like you and have the same kind of groupthink as you, that's not going to challenge you as a human being. It's just going to make you reaffirm your own biases, your own kind of ideals. And I think that your life is too short to just be surrounded by that all the time, man. Come on, man. You can't. You can't.
Those old people that come up to you at the gym and they try to make a joke, you know, make a funny little meme at you, and you shut them down because you got your AirPods in, the AirPod Pros, and they have noise canceling. Like, you are missing out on potentially a friendship. And this is another thing, I think, generationally that we have become so opposed to.
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Chapter 5: Why is it difficult to find unique products and styles today?
It's the idea of making older friends, right? And I get why. When I think about older people as a kid, it was always that could be dangerous, right? And especially with some of the releases of recent, if you catch my drift, if you know, you know, some files have shown that there are some weird people in this world that are very dangerous to young people.
But as an adult, you should, in my opinion, seek out relationships with people who have lived more life than you. And not even on some mentorship. It's more on some exposure. Because they will expose you to more things that you would have never thought about. Because they're out of your scope of your world.
And we're living our lives a very certain way that I think is very particular to Gen Z. I agree. There are things that older people can teach us to kind of make it a little bit easier. They've been around for a little bit longer. And yes, we are going down a path in history where I don't think anybody can predict the future anymore. Even with AI and stuff, it's like, maybe.
You don't really know for certain. And I think that learning from the past is going to be even more valuable than it ever was. Than it ever was. Because style will matter. Style will matter when everything in this world will look the exact same, when every apartment will have the same layout and be grossly overpriced. It will matter that you know how to have and tend to an old house.
It will matter that you know how to fix your own clothing when there are no more tailors left and people will just be like, throw it out and get a shirt that will last you five days. It will matter. And that is how you hold on to style. humanity in a world that likes to squeeze it out of all of us. Small things, simple things. At least that's what I think, and I could be wrong. I could be wrong.
But it upsets me that at least in the U.S., a lot of these kind of cities that didn't have an exponential boom in the 90s or in the 80s, and instead they're having it now. Bro, they look the exact same. Charlotte looks the same as Austin. That looks the same as Nashville. It just does. And you can fight me on it in the comments. It looks the same. The ideas are the same.
There will always be a breakfast Sando spot in all of these cities. Because it's marketable to people who their entire personality is not that individual. It's not. And I'm part of the problem. I indulge in it. I agree. I'm not a saint in this at all. Sometimes I fear that I think I'm more unique than I actually are. That I actually am, I should say. But you know what?
Just have an eye out for the old things. Have an eye out. Appreciate the old things. We're so easy... It's so easy to be dismissive of it. And just be like, this is so mid. Why would anyone like this? Who cares, right? Right? But there's a reason they've lasted so long. There's a reason we keep things in museums.
There's a reason that things that are old and have had significance and have been passed down have that significance. It's like, what makes something valuable? Sure, the price that a market puts on it, but also your attachment to it. A camera that could be used to document your entire life is going to have a different amount of personal worth than a camera that you bought yesterday. It just will.
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