h. Play

It’s called Variable Rate Operant Conditioning.

You know that feeling when you seem to not be able to stop scrolling in any app these days? That’s by design. That’s Variable Rate Operant Conditioning.

In operant conditioning, a variable-ratio schedule is a partial schedule of reinforcement in which a response is reinforced after an unpredictable number of responses. This schedule creates a steady, high rate of response.

This is what powers slot machines, pachinkos, Pokemon, Etsy’s search, TikTok, app stores, everything with an algorithm.

Your feed, regardless of the app and what you’re interested in, uses this with a level of sophistication (thanks to a decade+ of data) that makes it devastatingly potent. At this point, it might be so optimized and efficient that most people simply can’t escape or fight it. The 24/7 phone paradigm doesn’t give people enough time to separate and think. People get on the scrolling treadmill as soon as they can, right after dropping off the kids or right before bed.

It’s been warping our minds and it is impacting our societies in the worst way. You haven’t found something interesting. They found (know, remember, don’t share) what triggers you 1000% of the time.

We like to say and believe that Boomers are the reason everything is bad today, but the psychopaths using constant skinner boxes on us and optimizing them to get us on that rent-seeking shit, are cute and ruthless Gen-X and Millies.

A dollar bill that ended in my pocket. Kept it for the art. They’re a tattoo shop in Bakersfield.

‘been going down the rabbit hole of Shigeru Ban’s architecture this year.

Furniture House I

The wall are those wood shelves (plywood) and they structurally support the house. Brilliant.

Curtain Wall House

Terrace with giant curtains. Deceptively simple, bold, again brilliant.

Shutter House

Ideally, architecture should serve us like this house custom-made for a photograph. The glass shutters rolling up and down like industrial doors, the subtle play with interior, exterior, reflective, matte, textured (green walls) or smooth, it’s impressively molded around photographic and image concepts.

I applaud his dedication to finding new use for 100% sustainable architecture, simultaneously indulging wealthy clients and helping to make the world a better place. Not many do that.

He also made this thing in Paris (I also used to pass by this dead island leaving work), I’ll have to go check it out next time I’m there.

“Is it the show where…”

“Oh, I think it’s that one with…”

“Hold on I’m confusing this one with that one…”

“It came out last year, forgot to watch it…”

“Wait, isn’t it on this platform…”

Conversations with friends yesterday. We have so much fucking entertainment we don’t even register it. I don’t know man.

I’m thinking about it, and it’s making more and more sense.

Love for da game

Well she’s a professional basketball player, I work out my fade away turnaround Js every morning at sunrise since 2015. ‘nough said.

International flavor

WNBA players often play overseas in Europe, or have. As black folks who lived in a wide variety of environments, we would have a lot to talk about.

Between the sheets

Athletic bodies want to sweat. I feel like competitive sex would be super fun. We’d try to kill each other by Snu-Snu more often than not, and that would be dope.

Choices

Cat, no cat. Dog, no dog. Kid, no kid. All of them at once. I’m down with everything, boo. I’ll hold the fort while you go GET IT on the road.

Form factor

She could be a 5’7 point guard or a 6’12 center, she’d be my girl. Her holding the shelf while I’m on the stool screwing it in sounds like perfect teamwork and I’m all for it.

I need to get some Sparks season tickets ASAP.

I’m proud of what we achieved and keep pushing with my parents.

We don’t share much. They can live without music, I cannot. I have no idea what they’re watching on TV and they don’t know anything about blackness.

Our bond has been solid though. After seeing them this year (we made it!!!) with our future plans and having the conviction that we’re going to be well, the bond feels immutable. Maybe it’s because it is a conscious bond: they decided to adopt me, so did I. Maybe because it is a bond that allowed us to be who we want to be without conflicting each other. Mutually Applied Mindfulness, since we met. It was our duty.

They are fiercely independent and as close to incorruptible as one can be. I think that might be were I definitely took on them.

Give it up to honest, loving in a very lowkey sense relationships with relatives. A bit dry sometimes, but no spoiling means endurance.

Seeing my family after nine years keeps on giving, like an earthquake’s late seismic wave. The epicenter is my heart.

It was this year and feels like it was last year. In December 2022 I didn’t care about anything as I was a couple weeks away from going to visit the past, looking exactly how it was.

That Sunday morning breakfast with my parents and my sister, like nothing happened, after almost a decade and 13 hours in the sky, is carved into my soul. Even asking for the butter across the table felt fabulous. Still gives me the mental zoomies.

And then last summer. Soundtrack (without the wobbly bass, played on laptops and shitty headphones). Walking around my old neighborhood of Vincennes. The ground in downtown is white marble and stores left and right all seem to be unique and worth the try. I’m a tourist now.

I can’t wait to observe my folks’ faces when they’ll taste America and its California. Their smiles in the back of the minivan after dinner at a classic American restaurant. Or my dad’s giggle driving a 1971 Cadillac going down Hawthorne. Life is about making good memories and usually, you don’t need much to make good ones.

• You own your body. It is yours and yours only, forever.
• However ownership is adjacent in life. What’s important is access.
• Memory and synapses are like muscles; they grow when being used. Therefore use technology to extend yourself, not assist yourself.
• Technology is just tools. Cars are tools. Computers, guitars as well. Do not worship tools. Just use them.
• Communities are like feelings. They come and go. Individuals is what we are, and that’s why they stay with you.
• Long term over short tem, most of the time.
• Questions over dogma, every single time.
• Care about real numbers: number of people living under and above poverty, the optimal length for a wood beam, etc. Don’t care about fake numbers: number of steps, calories, views, JS libraries, hours spent in a game, etc.
• Hierarchy is fluid: someone might be a great mentor for something, and not to be listened to for other things.
• Happiness is a process, not a destination.

Got some stuff to distribute today.