Hi Friends,
Greetings from Brooklyn!
Welcome to the 15 new people who subscribed this week. There’s plenty to read out there so I’m humbled that you chose to invite me into your inbox.
On Monday, I handed in my Google badge after ten years working for a company that in many ways feels like family to me. Here’s 10 things I’ve learned during my time at Google.
As for what’s next, I’m stoked to be joining Stripe where I’ll be focused on advancing programs like Stripe Climate and Stripe Press globally. There are many things that drew me to Stripe but probably the top three are the long-term vision of its founders, its writing culture and the intellectual curiosity and quirkiness of the people I’ve met who work there. I can’t wait to dive into the world of payments and carbon capture.
Until next week,
Florian
Soundscapes
The minute I sat down at our table, I knew I wouldn't be able to eat there. The speakers were blasting cheap dance music breaking the cosy embrace of the Irish pub interior.
The urge to leave took over the awkwardness of walking out without ordering a single item on the menu. My friend and I put our coats back on and headed out the door.
My favorite restaurants, cafes and bars all have one thing in common. They recognize that music is part of the language of a place. They know that no culinary prowess can survive the destructive force of a musical mismatch.
You might say music is a matter of taste. It sure is. But what is being played doesn’t matter that much. What counts is how in tune it is with the environment. Justin Bieber is guaranteed to ruin your introspective 8am cappuccino the same way an out-of-tune cello takes down the whole orchestra.
In the late 1970s, Brian Eno invented a new genre which he coined “ambient music”. Eno introduced us to the idea of music playing a role as the landscape of our experience rather than being its main protagonist. “Ambient music”, he thought, “must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.”
Music that is both ignorable and interesting is the simple and yet delicate equilibrium that defines our experience of a place. My wife and I once dined at a French restaurant in the East Village. It was so good we religiously stopped talking at every first bite of a new dish they brought to our table. A carefully curated playlist of French Electro was faintly playing in the background. You could tell that music was just another ingredient the chef had decided to cook with. It was never intrusive but from time to time, a tune from our youth added a layer of memories to our culinary experience.
In some ways we are all disciples of Eno. We have increasingly integrated music to be in the background of our everyday routines. A quick scroll through Spotify’s homepage takes us to an infinite library of playlists tailored to every occasion. There’s “beast mode” for your intense workouts, “kitchen swagger” to get you in the mood for chopping some onions or “Chillin’ on a Dirt Road” for an activity I can’t say I relate to very much.
Perhaps then Brian Eno’s untold legacy is that we have raised our expectations about his golden rule being scrupulously applied everywhere we go.
Weekly Wisdom
🧘 On Stoicism: This piece takes aim at our modern endearment with Stoic philosophy and its shortcomings to guide our actions. It’s a long read but well worth your time.
💡 Tip of the Week: When you’re listening to a podcast or reading an article about a topic you want to learn more about, resist the temptation to take notes as you go. Wait until the end and then write whatever you can remember. That forces you to reformulate what you remember in your own words making it stick better than if you’re just taking notes of the technical jargon you hear on the go.
📷 Ruth Orkin: This week, I went to the Fotografiska museum to see Andy Warhol’s collection of Polaroid pictures. But the highlight ended up being discovering Ruth Orkin, a 20th century photographer I had never heard of. Her ability to capture beauty in the mundane of every day life blew me away. See for yourself.
Lateral Thought
“Hindsight, the ability to explain the past, gives us the illusion that the world is understandable. It gives us the illusion that the world makes sense, even when it doesn’t make sense.”
Morgan Housel
Soundscapes
Music is life! I cannot work or cook without music playing in the background. It's so integral to setting the mood. I loved your take on how we incorporate music in our lives <3
Florian, I loved the mini-essay on music. When deeply concentrating on work I exclusively listen to non-vocal, chill electronic. When jamming through emails or simple tasks I blast upbeat pop hits or super upbeat Latino music. Each mood, each style of work has it's own music. There's a place for 80s synth, grunge and alternative, etc etc.