Hot Literati at On the Rag
- hailo
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
hello all of my beautiful Hot Literatis.
i have an undying love of the morning. I love the mornings. Fresh brain, and the way light is pure when it hits the trees, even in a place as urban as New York.
I'm having some wind-y thoughts today so i'm going to do my best to walk you through them all with me. First off, I'd like to state
The Importance of Having a Blog
I attended this Startup Grind event where this Venture Captialist Charlie O'Donnell pointed to blogging as the "brochure for your mind" as a knowledge worker. I thought that was a nice sentiment. He also reminisced about the fallout of 2008 in New York when no one thought the tech industry would flourish here. Now New York seems to be one of the Mecca's of the tech industry outside of San Francisco. I've never been to San Francisco. I almost moved there with an ex once, but then I realized I didn't want to live there. I wanted to live in New York. And go back to Kansas a lot. Anyways, last night I went to the
On the Rag Launch Party
I went with my friend Chris, who I'm very grateful has been getting me out on "the scene" more. I used to be afraid of "the scene." I exist in a lot of strange underground subcultures like the open mic world or the brief collection of friends I have from my stint at background acting.
I had a very good time at the Launch party. I hovered for a bit, as my brain adjusted to the croweded room. Then I started talking to a man in a purple sweater about how he wants to write but doesn't write. We talked about yearning and I talked about something I've written about in this essay I recntly finished called "Small Acts of Idolatry." I don't really know what to do with it, yet.
I talked to a man who just moved here in September, and then I ran into Olivia who gave me a very detailed list of how to get into J.D. Salinger. We met a few months ago at Baby Grand in the Lower East Side. Oh, how I love karaoke. We have a mutual friend from Kansas who texted me soonafter inviting me to the karaoke bar, having no idea that I'd just run into her friend. Kismet!! Earlier that day I went ot my first
We Work
The most I know about We Work is from the Apple TV show. It was interesting. Big. I took a meeting with a man I met at two different networking events and once he talked about his business and I talked about mine, we just started talking about God. Now, he wants to go to Bible Study with me. The only difference between us was that I do believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and he believes that Jesus was a Prophet. One of my old classmates described the same difference to me years ago in our dining room at the Princeton Charter Club.
He, my new business friend, told me that he could tell I had faith because of the "light in my eyes," and the "childlike innocence in me." That's a lot to gather from three conversations and someone's Instagram story, but hey, I'll take it.
So then, backtracking a bit, but a little bit forward now, Chris and I are on our way to the Launch Party and we're on the platform and this woman working for the
MTA
Couldn't push her cart through and just started telling everyone how proud she was of her daughter who'd just graduated college. She showed everyone photos. It's a beautiful way to treat a moment of waiting--declaring your pride in somebody you love.
At the Launch Party
A few nice people mentioned they followed Hot Literati, like one of the evening's readers and the musician Katja. I love it when you guys say hello, I promise I don't bite! And the psychoanalyst read about three men who all thought that they were Jesus and were put into a room together, or something like that. I could never think I'm Jesus. I love to forget about myself and just listen to other people, like a cloud. And I love to laugh.
After the readings, I ran into one of my old classmates from Princeton and someone from my Gym and a group of us just stood laughing and chatting for hours. I brought up some of my current obsessions like
The Matthew Effect
"The Matthew effect, or "accumulated advantage," is the phenomenon where initial, often small, advantages in resources, recognition, or skills compound over time, allowing those with more to gain even more while the disadvantaged fall further behind. Coined by sociologist Robert K. Merton in 1968, it applies widely to education, science, and economics"
I think I'm so taken up with this because I read it in a book about algorithms. And reading more about the internet and math and physics and business has really just lit my brain up in the most beautiful way. Sometimes I don't even want to talk, I just want to stand there and think about things and make new connections in my own mind. Like the reason that
I didn't watch the Met Gala
One of my first classes in school was the "Philosophy of Celebrity" and we read this paper that I think about every day. Celebrity is a commodity that started locally and has since been globalized. But within economics there is a phenomenon called differentiation and generalization that shows how we get used to things until innovation hapens.
And on new platforms the early adopters (because of network effects i think??) maybe get famous and potentially rich, but then the platform over time can become diluted. I guess what I'm trying to say is, people like to watch other people.
And societal distrust of technology companies is wayyy down, which shows the reception to the Met Gala because of Jeff Bezos' involvement. And/but technology is a tool and what AI will probably do long-term is give brands and businesses the tools to take a lot of the tech things they used to outsource and do them in house. Gen Z doesn't love big corporations anymore. I'd go so far as to say that because of TikTok's disruption of the influencer space and the constant hammer on the novelty bias of your brain, Gen Alpha may not even love influencers anymore. They want to be content creators, right?
I guess, to make an unfair generalization, we all want to be a part of something. And I had a lot of fun at the party, meeting nice people and being a part of "the scene."
And as Hot Literati continues to grow and get a little cult-y in some ways, I promise to try to keep on making it cute, fun, and meaningful, and I invite you to be a part of it. <3
Now for all of my readers in London, 1) I love u guys I want to come back so soon 2) below are some of my favorite spots from when I visited and why...
