J Jackson

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on the atlas — 8

highlights — 17

There was once in London a club of small men, whose qualification for membership lay in their not exceeding five feet in height; these dwarfs held, or pretended to hold, the opinion that they were nearer perfection of manhood than others, for they argued that primeval men had been far more gigantic than the present race, and consequently that the way of progress was to grow less and less, and that the human race as it perfected itself would become as diminutive as themselves. Such a club of Christians might be established in most cities, and without any difficulty might attain to an enormously…
Spiritual Dwarfs
For context, my mom is a landscape architect. My first design education was in spatial design. I grew up in LA, where my mom designed a few parks that I spent time in as a kid. She’d walk me through the park and explain things, like how she put sweeter-smelling trees in one spot so people would pause, or spikier plants like aloe in another to make passersby speed up. It was fascinating to see how spatial interventions could create behavioral change.
Sean Thielen-Esparza and the analog revival
A MiniDisc is a self-evidently compelling object—it looks sick. Using MiniDiscs creates a physical excuse for people to talk about supporting artists. It highlights the idea that art exists in the touch-points before it’s “complete. It’s also a test of my theory: can you create objects that embody values and give people a way to present those values in their homes? The discs are engraved, customised, and handmade in my studio. Owning one signals you were part of a limited group supporting an artist’s work.
Sean Thielen-Esparza and the analog revival
MiniDiscs are a way of documenting these in-between states. Each disc comes with an access code that lets people explore the project files and behind-the-scenes content.
Sean Thielen-Esparza and the analog revival
Adornment, signaling, and identity construction in fashion are the same as in technology, but the tech industry doesn’t understand this. Objects embody value systems, which people use to identify themselves. Are you a Meta Quest person or a Vision Pro person? Do you have a modded Nintendo Switch that signals you’re DIY, or a little Herman Miller thing that signals something else? Tech needs to learn that identity construction draws from fashion and outfit design. There’s a huge opportunity for people who sit at the intersection of both worlds and understand them deeply.
Sean Thielen-Esparza and the analog revival
That’s the logic of fashion. When you wear a Supreme box-logo hoodie, you look like a hypebeast. It’s branding yourself, literally. Objects tell stories. For instance, wearing Willy Chavarria or Eckhaus Latta might read as “gay Lower East Side.” The objects you wear—whether wired earphones or AirPods—say something about the tribes you belong to, the belief systems you hold, and how you identify with a group.
Sean Thielen-Esparza and the analog revival
But I think the basic version of it that’s gotten popularized, which is a little more simple than the original, is just the idea that if you’re a homeowner—just like, say, a taxi driver at the time of the introduction of Uber—you have this kind of scarce good, so be it a home or a taxi medallion, and you don’t want a lot of competition to come in. So if there’s more supply of homes, just like if there’s more supply of taxi medallions, the thought is, Hey. We’re part of this home-ownership cartel. If there’s more supply of homes, then the prices are going to go down. That’s going to devalue my …
The Political Psychology of NIMBYism - The Atlantic
David and his co-authors reason that if NIMBYism is about protecting property values, then renters should be less NIMBY than homeowners. But they find that when they ask people about new development or building more housing, the opinions of homeowners are, essentially, the same as their renter counterparts.
The Political Psychology of NIMBYism - The Atlantic
Interpreting freedom as the multiplication and rapid satisfaction of desires, men distort their own nature, for many senseless and foolish desires and habits and ridiculous fancies are fostered in them. They live only for mutual envy, for luxury and ostentation…. How can such a one fight? what is he fit for? He is capable perhaps of some action quickly over, but he cannot hold out long. And it's no wonder that instead of gaining freedom they have sunk into slavery, and instead of serving the cause of brotherly love and the union of humanity have fallen, on the contrary, into dissension and iso…
To Gaze and to Behold - by Charles Yang - Rough Drafts
It is not just that dating apps change individual peer-to-peer perceptions. They shape how we see people more broadly. By offering what appears to be an endless pool of potential partners, these apps encourage us to view people as a readily available resource rather than as full, unique individuals.
To Gaze and to Behold - by Charles Yang - Rough Drafts
This is also why I don’t enjoy Christian movies like “Best Christmas Pageant Ever”. They try to pigeonhole deep Christian meaning into mundane suburb drama. Their villains are shallow and their hero’s obvious. Indeed they violate the basic observation that Solshenitzyn made: “the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being”.
To Gaze and to Behold - by Charles Yang - Rough Drafts
ndeed, C.S Lewis loved fantasy because he believed that the faith of a child is inspired and awaken not by logical reasoning or a litany of duties, but by captivating their imagination to see the world beyond. As the saying goes, “If you want them to build a ship…teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea”
To Gaze and to Behold - by Charles Yang - Rough Drafts
In some sense, Christian life is training for properly perceiving and seeing the world and the other people.11 It is through rightly seeing that we can rightly love and act.
To Gaze and to Behold - by Charles Yang - Rough Drafts
As a result we are more and more directing the desires of men to something which does not exist — making the ratio-circle of the eye in sexuality more and more important and at the same time making its demands more and more impossible. What follows you can easily forecast! C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters, Chapter 20 The imaginations which people have of one another are the solid facts of society. Charles Horton Cooley
To Gaze and to Behold - by Charles Yang - Rough Drafts
Similarly, Jesus talks about treasure, he does not just describe a difference in perception, but also warns that our perception, how we gaze upon and take stock of value in the world, forms our hearts and desires too.9 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21 Our perception is not just a passive filter for how we view th…
To Gaze and to Behold - by Charles Yang - Rough Drafts
Most exegesis focuses on how Jesus expands the sin of lust from action to intent and thought. But understanding the importance of the gaze of the beholder helps us understand lust not just as a discrete mental offense, but as a polluting influence on the “eye of the soul”, that we should commodify a person, laden with the “weight of glory”, into just a body of flesh.7 Similarly, later in the Sermon, Jesus uses this concept again more broadly: The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full …
To Gaze and to Behold - by Charles Yang - Rough Drafts
And conversely, if we look to idols for our hope, we transform to become more like them, dead and lifeless: The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them. Psalm 135:15-18
To Gaze and to Behold - by Charles Yang - Rough Drafts