Founders

Repost from the author of Mastering Uncertainty, Matt Watkinson:

s/o https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-watkinson/

1/ Seventy-five years ago the sociologist David Reisman made a profound observation about society.

He explained that there are three major influences on our decision-making:

Tradition directed: we do it because we’ve always done it.
Inner directed: we do it because it’s concordant with our character.
Other directed: we do it because everyone else is doing it.

He postulated that the rise of consumerism would alter the balance away from tradition and inner directed behaviors and make us increasingly other directed.

📍            product @ grayscale • zachharris.xyz

Id argue the same consumer infrastructure that enables influencers and “likes” also lets individuals assemble bespoke identities, resurrect forgotten traditions, and assert personal values through what they buy. In that sense, contemporary consumerism is at least as inner‑ and tradition‑directed as it is “other‑directed.”