Daily Log Digest – Week 41, 2025
2025-10-12
Helga Paris on Feminism and Equality
Helga Paris: Women at Work - The 'Unforeseen Beauty' of East German Factory Workers In 1984 - Flashbak #photography #feminism
“From the very beginning, a different self image prevailed in the field of photography. In the west, the new artistic fields such as photography and video were often utilised by women from a feminist perspective. This was different in the GDR. Here, equality prevailed. Women in the garment business worked just as hard as their male colleagues. Feminism sees men as enemies – it’s an ideology. We women in the GDR had nothing against men; on the contrary, we had equal rights. We demanded equal rights when necessary, and we got them. Did that happen in the west? Probably not. That’s embarrassing”
– Helga Paris
Daniel Kahneman chooses assisted suicide
"It's time to go": Nobel Prize winner opted for suicide in Switzerland | blue News #death
I wish more people in the future have the same options as Kahneman had.
Although Daniel Kahneman neither suffered from dementia nor required dialysis, he said he noticed an "increase in mental lapses and a decline in his kidney function".
His decision seems to have been based less on his famous scientific thinking and more on a very personal feeling. He wanted to retain his autonomy until the end and to shape his own end.
Kahneman knew that many would see his decision as premature. But that was exactly what he intended, he wrote: If you wait until a life is "obviously no longer worth living", it is already too late.
Therefore, his move was inevitably premature. He had spoken about it with some people close to him, and even though they initially resisted, they had finally accepted his decision.
Lessons from Japan's Hikikomori
What do Japan’s hikikomori reveal about our lonely world? | Psyche Ideas #isolation #loneliness
In this new period of virtualisation, precarious labour and vanishing communities, hikikomori reveal the underlying logic of our changing societies: participation counts only when it is tied to productivity. They are not simply outliers who have cut themselves off from the world, revealing the extremes of isolation. Instead, they show us the values that many of us share in our age of overwork and loneliness. That’s how Japan’s hikikomori, once dismissed as anomalies, now appear as mirrors reflecting the estrangements felt by countless others – regardless of whether they have a job.
Coffee Prices
Hell Hath No Fury Like a Coffee Drinker in 2025
I recently felt the sticker shock of a 250g bag of coffee beans here in Berlin. At one hip coffee shop, they were selling between 15€ to 20€.
I also realised one of the reasons I was paying far less for coffee in India was because I was paying for locally grown beans. I am yet to encounter any coffee shop in Berlin selling beans from India.
Roasted coffee prices at the grocery store are up 22% in the past year, more than any other item tracked by the government. Prices at some coffee shops are going up too. $10 latte, anyone?
Lots of things are more expensive, but coffee isn’t like cereal or chicken. The daily fix is all that’s keeping millions from a throbbing headache and foul mood. So while people may wince at the price, they’re buying it anyway–and reserving the right to rant.
The price increases are due to bad weather in the world’s coffee-growing regions and the Trump Administration’s tariffs.
Lawmakers in September introduced bipartisan legislation that would exempt coffee products from tariffs, invoking historical outrage over the price of another beverage staple. “Americans started a revolution over a tax on tea,” said Ro Khanna (D., Calif.). “If you drink coffee every morning, how can you not be mad about that?”
Coffee drinkers exemplify a paradox at the heart of the U.S. economy. Consumers feel pessimistic, worried about the job market and inflation. Though they may trade down in some ways—including by making coffee at home—they continue to spend more overall, keeping the economy chugging.
Americans spent $12.7 billion on packaged coffee in the past year, up from $12 billion a year earlier, according to NielsenIQ.
2025-10-13
The Bay Area is cursed
The Bay Area is cursed - by Sasha Chapin #sf #tech #valley
The Bay Area has a curse. It is the curse of Aboutness. Social life here is not regarded as something people do naturally, an organic element of being. It has to be About something. In New York, it’s an important component of the human repertoire to dress up nicely, gather, drink and eat, be part of the throng. In the Bay, most gatherings have the sweaty air of Purpose. Discussions are held to uncover new information, not because it is good to be around each other. Conversations feel like podcasts and the hosts are not funny. Someone recently said to me: “I’m tired of drinking in living rooms with overly smart people.”
People are dreaming up the future here, who have never fully experienced their own bodies or emotions. They talk philosophically about how to reshape society, but don’t know what society feels like. They’ve never been able to rely on peers, or receive care informally. San Francisco is an avoidant city, and Berkeley is an anxious colony. The most awkward people I’ve ever met write widely read posts about the secrets of charisma and attraction. Psychology is one topic haunting the city here, because so many have a rough go of it. But the main topic is, of course, AI. A friend’s group house had “days since AI mentioned” as a counter written on the whiteboard, I never saw the number rise above 2.
Why are young people getting married again?
Why are young people getting married again? | Dazed #marriage #genz
To clarify, Shannon is not saying that marriage is inherently right-wing, but that it is perceived as conservative and traditional because of its long patriarchal history. In her book, Marriage, A History, Stephanie Coontz quotes historian Margaret Hunt, who states that marriage was “the main means of transferring property, occupational status, personal contacts, money, tools, livestock and women across generations, and kin groups.” To this day, it is men who benefit from marriage, as Clementine Ford highlights in her article: “Marriage is an inherently misogynistic institution – so why do women agree to it?”, as reports show that married men live longer than married women, are generally happier and healthier and see their economic prospects improve.
Our parents’ behaviour often makes us roll our eyes in annoyance, but their hold over our lives is far-reaching. It can feel wrong to defy their expectations, not just because they are our parents but because, as Michel Foucault argues, the family is now a site of key sovereign power (as we no longer rely on the monarchy or religion as heavily as we used to). As a result, the family serves as a disciplinary apparatus that actively (and effectively) enforces social norms and self-discipline.
26-year-old Gillian feels coerced into marriage, not through pressures from her family but because of Labour’s new dehumanising and classist immigration policies. “I never really thought about marriage until the White Paper this past May upped the salary minimum for a work visa from £29K to £41K. I came here on a student visa, met my lovely boyfriend, got a full-time job, and was on a steady work visa. Suddenly, I was ineligible to renew, and one of the only routes to staying is a spouse visa.” She continues: “It puts an insane amount of pressure on our lives… Neither of us really believes in marriage, but the legal privilege of being married has become something of a defining factor in preserving my life.”
2025-10-15
Janteloven
What is Janteloven? The Law of Jante in Scandinavian Society #scandinavia #danish #culture
TIL.
Janteloven’s social code dictates emphasis on collective accomplishments and well-being, and disdains focus on individual achievements. It is an underlying Scandinavian philosophy principle that applies across Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. Understanding Janteloven is paramount to understanding both the history and modern-day cultures of these countries.
- Rule 1: Do not think you are anything special.
- Rule 2: Do not think you are as good as we are.
- Rule 3: Do not think you are smarter than we are.
- Rule 4: Do not imagine yourself better than we are.
- Rule 5: Do not think you know more than we do.
- Rule 6: Do not think you are more important than we are.
- Rule 7: Do not think you are good at anything.
- Rule 8: Do not laugh at us.
- Rule 9: Do not think anyone cares about you.
- Rule 10: Do not think you can teach us anything.
But, in a capitalist society, those with the means of production also get the credit for success. Though all Scandinavian countries have a socialist welfare model, their economic model is capitalism and increased global trade only underscores the fact. The result is that the Scandinavian countries encourage a system in which individuals strive to be financially and socially successful, while also eschewing the self-promotion that often accompanies this kind of success.
Found this (strangely) via: On DHH’s “As I Remember London”
2025-10-16
Coolest Neighborhoods in the World
39 Coolest Neighbourhoods in the World in 2025 #world #travel #neighborhoods
Good list!
2025-10-17
What do bubbles leave behind
Pluralistic: The AI that we’ll have after AI (16 Oct 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow #ai #bubble
Cory Doctorow at his humourous best
Some bubbles leave nothing or next-to-nothing behind. Enron left nothing behind but the cooling corpse of a CEO who popped his clogs before he could be sentenced to life in prison. Worldcom left behind a CEO who survived long enough to die behind bars…and a ton of fiber in the ground that people are still getting use out of (I'm sending these keystrokes to the internet on old Worldcom fiber that AT&T bought and lit up).
Crypto's not going to leave much behind: a few Rust programmers who've really taken security by design to heart, sure, but mostly it'll be shitty Austrian economics and even shittier JPEGs.
So what kind of bubble is AI? That's the $2 trillion question