What I learned last week (#159): bifurcation

Drawing of the TV room

A weekly selection of what I was reading, drawing, writing, and doing.


I’m WAY late with the WILLW post this week. Things seem to be backing up more and more, but I’m not going to say I’m busy. Everyone is. I’m just needing to prioritze other things at the moment.

Also, I’m not going to say sorry either. As stated in What If We Just Stopped Being So Available? that just seems ridiculous. I have lots of obligations just like you. Things are what they are.

For one thing, having multiple obligations and priorities means that we are, all of us, in a perpetual state of delay on something, and apologizing for that fact feels like having to apologize for your standard mode of being.

Ok so with that out of the way, you might want to know How the Potato Chip Took Over America right? Spoiler alert: They started as a kind of joke, as so many innovations do.

What about port-a-potty (or port-a-loos for my UK brethren)? They are The secret MVP of sports and supplying and cleaning them is a booming business.

On the work and technology front, some interesting thoughts in The Great Bifurcation on the metaverse-crypto-web3 topics that are all the rage right now.

Where I disagree is with [Mark Zukerburg’s] idea that the physical world and the digital world are increasingly “being overlaid and coming together”; in fact, I think the opposite is happening: the physical world and digital world are increasingly bifurcating. Again, to use myself as an example, my physical reality is defined by my life in Taiwan with my family; the majority of my time and energy, though, is online, defined by interactions with friends, co-workers, and customers scattered all over the world.

I’m really curious and interested in all these new models for working, creating, and selling things, but there seems to be a lot of over-excitement as well.

None of the crypto-craziness matters much either if it can’t be put to work solving some big problems. So, just for fun, check out Don’t Choose Extinction to have a little laugh and hopefully a helpful reminder of something that really matters.

See you next week! 👋🏼


Last but not least, check out what I’m up to now.

Comments welcome!

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