Sunday Reads #7
- After work, we’ll have each other. As AI automates work away, Clara Collier argues we’ll drift back to a “relational” economy where status runs on personal connections instead of markets. I’d say small-town Spain is very West End-like. Maybe that’s why I’m so averse to performative grinders and why, when I go back home and lead with “so what do you do?”, I feel so dumb.
It’s very clear that humans don’t need work or anything like it to live meaningful lives. Nor do we need the things that people who talk about “meaning” mean — individual self-actualization, personal growth, serving a greater purpose. We can get by just fine without any of them, as historically most of us have. What we absolutely can’t live without is a social framework for understanding ourselves in relation to the rest of our society and gaining the respect of our peers.
And this sounds about right.
- Ownership. You just know a human wrote this.
- Astra does Neruda.
- I know Rosalía is the oldest news. That does not make her any less good.
- Ángela está de vuelta.
- I read the fourth book of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels this summer. I had liked the previous three; I think analyzing why helped me enjoy this one even more. I recommended it to a friend and he asked me if it was a women’s book (whatever that means). It definitely is not. It’s a book about women’s relationships, maybe. But also about friendships, motherhood, growing up and leaving home, coming back… It’s so rich.
- Degrowth.
- Learning science and engineering through serious work.
Canal Saint-Martin, 2026.
Canal Saint-Martin, 1872. Alfred Sisley.
