Let Go and Haul: ‘The Messy Middle’, 2 new playlists and omg Diana Kunst
Journey: where we’re at
We’re in the messy middle and it’s going to be like that for a long time. More on that in a sec when I get to how fire Scott Belsky’s new book is.
Some unexpected things have been developing… in a good way! I can’t quite talk about them yet but damn it’s been busy!
Journal: what I learned
On Tuesday I had one of those meh mornings. You know, the one filled with exhaustion and uncertainty about e v e r y t h i n g. Just filled with self doubt and meh-ness. It makes no sense because of course I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing (and I think exactly what I was meant to be doing), and I’m so grateful for all that, so I try to give myself a talking to about these exact things bit the meh-ness is still there.
That evening I went to a Q&A with Scott Belsky about his new book The Messy Middle (at our bank actually. Who knew a bank could be so cool?), and the minute I started listening to the talk I was like ohhhhh this is why I feel the way I do it’s totally okay this is normal. We’re in the middle of the hard thing, there is no revenue, industry accolades or headline news (yet). Every week has incremental successes and failures. Every week is a constant war with self doubt, and we’re constantly digging into ourselves trying to be better, having more self-awareness, becoming better and faster communicators/executors and simply just… surviving. Scott describes it like taking a 10 day road trip with the windows blacked out.
Here are a few passages from the beginning that immediately had me like oh f yes, this is exactly it.
The Q&A made me realize, that if I keep doing this newsletter, that’s going to be the majority of it, documenting the messy middle. Small ups and downs. Little learnings. That bumpy path.
One of the nice ups this week was an exceptionally cool compliment from one of our investors. We were talking about his newsletter and he told me how obvious it is I understand culture (aw! I try!) and then went on to say normally people that get culture and have cultural foresight for the future start fashion companies or record labels… not tech companies, which is unusual and awesome. It was a very cool thing to hear, and it stuck with me all weekend. I started thinking about how I have often held back on sharing more cultural stuff (like fashion, for example) because it’s not a “tech leader” thing (and would people take me less seriously!?) but in reality, maybe I’m holding back from exactly the kind of stuff I should be sharing. On that note:
Jams: what I’m into
It’s playlist time! I just finished curating the best jams from October :)
It starts off with one of my favorite 70s jams (I don’t often put old music on these but I had this song by Jan Hammer Group on repeat so much this month I couldn’t help it. This month starts off introspective and chill and then works its way into the usual killer women rappers you know are my style by now. I somehow managed to end it with a techno track that is a Leonard Cohen remix. I have no idea how that worked but it sort of did.
Speaking of Jan Hammer Group, does anyone know if the instrument on this track is a clavinet? Or is it just some seriously sexy oscillating keyboard thing?
I’m low key obsessed with clavinets and made a whole playlist of clavinet music a few years ago. The clavinet is the god of jams. Just listen. That crunchy, dirty, funky amazing sound? It comes out of this:
This take on “Havana” is silly and ridiculous and I’m kind of in love with the editing. Unfortunately the keys are not a clavinet which is a shame (because that would be a great version of Havana) but the Shibe makes up for it. 😂😂😂
If you haven’t seen A$AP Rocky’s new video featuring FKA Twigs yet, you absolutely have to watch this. Both of them are so visual, watching what they’ve come up with under Diana Kunst’s direction is insannnnne. It’s been so cool watching Twigs share pole dancing on her Insta over the past few months (esp. after recovering from what sounds like a brutal surgery late last year) and she steals the end of this video with her dancing. She looks so fierce and powerful it’s truly inspiring to see how bodies heal and what we’re capable of. It looks like it’s shot entirely in NYC, (and even includes a scene in Popular Jewlery!) There’s also a cameo by cutting-edge French fashion duo Fecal Matter in the strip club scene. New York never looked so Bladerunner.