✳flâneur — a map of the web's best reading

Being a Writer in the Age of the Influencer

robkhenderson.com · 2,776 words · saved by 1 readers

For most of human history, our ancestors looked around and copied whoever seemed to be doing something effectively. If a hunter or fisherman brought home huge catches, others took note. They imitated his methods. They imitated his tools. But just in case, they would also imitate his clothes. They imitated the little song he hummed while cleaning the spear he used. The logic was straightforward. If you can’t neatly separate what works from what doesn’t, you copy everything. As belief systems developed, people came to see skill and good fortune as signs of divine favor. If a fisherman was successful, maybe the gods had blessed him. So people treated anything connected to the successful person as a possible source of power. A tool, a piece of clothing, a personal habit. Any of it might hold some of the magic that led to his success. For humans, prestige serves as a binding force. A respected figure becomes a symbol of the group. Anything tied to that person becomes a small badge of belong

Being a Writer in the Age of the Influencer Rob Henderson Dec 07, 2025 323 13 57 Share Left: Pablo Picasso, Self-Portrait at the age of 18 , c. 1900, Museu Picasso, Barcelona, Spain; Right: Pablo Picasso, Self-Portrait at the age of 25 , 1907. My Modern Net. Human beings are high-fidelity imitators. For most of human history, our ancestors looked around and copied whoever seemed to be doing something effectively. If a hunter or fisherman brought home huge catches, others took note. They imitated his methods. They imitated his tools. But just in case, they would also imitate his clothes. They i

Explore this link on the map →

saved by

related reading