#media/newsletter Link:: https://nadiaeghbal.com/basic Author:: Nadia Eghbal Summary:: What if we took being basic and being specifically anti-intellectual as a virtue? People, especially in SF are always going on about what they’re thinking and doing and professing their love to learn and create, but maybe what we need is to desire the freedom to be free to learn and think rather than the norm to ^uVOxkZPwz “When most people had to work outside for a living, being tan was undesirable. As their work moved indoors, the signals reversed: a pale complexion became associated with having to do work, while a tan suggested freedom to frolick in the sun all day. Similarly, if producing ideas becomes a symbol of work (having to think about stuff all day), rather than leisure (freedom to think about stuff all day), I wonder whether basic behavior will start to become covetable. Instead of signaling how much we’re thinking, maybe we’ll start to signal how much we’re not thinking. Rather than a private coping mechanism or a way to unwind, basic behavior would become a way to display total unawareness of those who toil in the idea mines all day; a blissful unfamiliarity with the social signal factory.”