Tis the season for some of our friends to be inactive in the group chat. It’s emo season baby. Scream movies and Pheobe. We’ve all been there but damnit, give us a sign of life. The Relay crew has yet to recluse in the chat but we’re definitely staying in this week. Some of us at least. Per usual, Jack is traveling and a few others are on boyfriend duty this weekend.
I (Ian) will be organizing my Notion, watching Gracie Abrams’ I Told You Things (Live) on Youtube a few times, and ordering in Chipotle.
Anyway, call your friends, treat yourself. Let’s get into it.
“How many special people change?”
— Liam Gallagher
“There is one rule, above all others, for being a man. Whatever comes, face it on your feet.”
— Robert Jordan
Top of Mind
Modern Life Is Attrition Warfare, (The Lindy Newsletter)
Modern life is attrition warfare. This explains the paradox of why we’re the most comfortable generation in history but also maintain the most low-grade misery. Every convenience comes with small bits of extraction built in. Every comfort has attrition baked into the model. We’re suffering because of how the abundance is delivered.
Dating apps, delivery fees, the constant stream of bad news being drilled into everyone’s eyes. It wears us down, not in one fell swoop with some big traumatic event but day by day, interaction by interaction, tax by little tax. If there is one thing Relay is trying not to be, it’s this.
There is an equal and opposite reaction to each of these examples of attrition warfare, however. Don’t sit idly by as your character is whittled away by the doldrums of modern existence. Just as the low-grade misery can accumulate; winning is done by doing the next right thing day in and day out.
Base Power, a Battery-Focused Power Company, Raises $1 Billion, (NYT)
Base Power’s raise announcement this week was successfully less interesting than the creative campaign that it paralleled. Remember a few years ago when our peers were embarrassed to be American? As if our failures excused nihilism toward the greatest human experiment to date. Base Power’s American Exceptionalism campaign is a reminder that while our “America First” administration continues to f*ck up (kudos on the peace agreement though), American exceptionalism is alive and well.
This also felt like a nod to the Don’t Work At Anduril recruitment campaign. All this to say — Make Industrialism Aesthetic Again.
Everything Is Television, (Derek Thompson)
One implication of “everything is becoming television” is that there really is too much television—so much, in fact, that some TV is now made with the assumption that audiences are always already distracted and doing something else.
The decline in populist reading and emergence of second screens continues to hijack our algorithms. Is this a niche feed situation or are we all seeing the same shit? This piece from Derek Thompson was timely as Blake Robbins shouts about The Attention Recession and as Niall Furgeson spooks us all back into an accelerated reading program. I’m writing to you from my Macbook with Jack’s TV playing an old live Oasis video in the background, and my AirPods in, listening to The 1975.
Consumer maxxing. Everything is TV.
ICYMI: Happy Hour Edition
72, 14,000+ foot peaks in 31 days, all linked together on a bike. As the article states, “people spend a lifetime trying to climb them all”. A truly herculean effort.
According to the Delta CEO, due to outdated air traffic control systems, some flight routes in the 50s were quicker than they are today. Reminds us of all those financial institutions running on legacy mainframes all over the country that we kind of just live with and ignore.
When software is oriented around you… It’s freed from the incentives that create dark patterns. Freed from the ads and unnecessary features that get in the way. And freed from disruptive notifications you can’t control.
Best of Substack this Week
The Bitter Lesson versus The Garbage Can —
I’m done thinking about dopamine —
(Jordan Call)Do artists get paid for making art? —
This Week in Relay’s Shopping Cart
Moleskin Part Timer Pant, Service Works (Jack)
I’m in search of a solid pleated pant, please find me in the comments if you would like to put forth a recommendations. Otherwise, these might be getting added to the cart.
Camden Loafers, J.Crew (James)
I’m back with a loafer quest update: the Buck Mason silhouette didn’t quite do it for me in person. I ended up getting a deal on the Camden loafers from J.Crew, and one week in, I’m loving them.
The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019–2025, Stripe Press (Ian)
I have zero technical understanding of LLMs and have heard the Stripe Press is the footnotes demon. Surely Dwarkesh will save me. I will be reading this while the boys continue on in their Red Rising journey.
It’s Not That Deep, Randy
Thanks for reading—or for mega scrolling all the way down here.
The internet is an overwhelming mess of headlines, ads, and mid takes from the worst people you know. Big Tech owns our attention spans. Everything is content. Nothing makes sense.
We’re not here to “fix discourse” or “build a better internet.” Relay is just our attempt to riff on what we’re already talking about at happy hour without feeling like we’ve been hit by a content truck. Some analysis, some memes, call it a day.
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Phoebe please
Dam I keep seeing Red Rising everywhere is it a sign to start it