‘Premium mediocre*’ and ‘domestic cozy**’ are concepts which you may not be familiar with but they are some of those coined by Vankatesh Rao, an LA based writer and consultant, on Ribbonfarm his low-fi blog which we were entranced about in a recent article in the 50th anniversary issue of Courier magazine. His ‘constructions in magical thinking’ aims to deep dive into emerging cultural and business trends.
One of his hot takes from the interview include that the “age of the big viral-hit long-form, built around memes and clickbait-y writing techniques, is over” and he intriguingly cites an essay by Danish programmer David Heinemeier Hansson who describes burnout as a result of being under-purposed rather than over-worked. He reckons “memes are done” and it’s “all about vibe-driven culture” as evidenced on TikTok. “The Tower of Babel that was the early social web has collapsed. Decentralized and divergent culture is upon us.”
*”food that Instagrams better than it tastes…mediocre with just an irrelevant touch of premium, not enough to ruin the delicious essential mediocrity…seeks to control the narrative.” – the preserve of Millennials in many ways.
** “an attitude, emerging socioeconomic posture, and aesthetic, that is in many ways the antithesis of premium mediocrity…indifferent both to being misunderstood and being ignored.” – cooking at home and knitting, for example. It’s a Gen Z trait.
