.@garyvee: "I've been in a 7-10 week cocoon around collecting becoming the next lifestyle genre." "I think it's about to completely blow the roof off." "I believe in 10 years, every Fortune 500 consumable product — apparel, CPG — will have a collectibles marketing strategy." "You saw lines around the door at Popeye's for the One Piece collectible. People flooding to a Dodgers game to get the One Piece collectible." "Differentiation in an AEO/GEO, agentic commerce world around collectibles and community to get people to stop their normal pattern of what they're just reordering — because they want to buy a deodorant that has a collectible of their favorite [entertainment thing]."

Aggregation isn’t “theft” It’s education, entertainment, curiosity, and often something genuinely soul-enriching. Many of us dedicate countless hours to finding, researching, explaining, editing, and sharing moments from the world that people may otherwise never see. Tiny rainforest cocoons, deep-sea creatures, rare behaviours, overlooked species, we bring wonder, knowledge, and perspective to millions of people scrolling through their day. That has real value. Not everyone has access to documentaries, scientific journals, expeditions, or the time to search for these things themselves. Content creators help bridge that gap and spark curiosity in people of all ages. We are not “thieves.” We are communicators, educators, storytellers, and an integral part of what makes this platform meaningful.

My newest essay "The Butterfly Touch": The seductive sensation of expectation permeates my body as the incipient bull market gently caresses my soul. As I jubilantly press the buy button, I know speculative excesses will propel my portfolio to new heights … at least until the maddening crowd awakens from its drunken reverie to reel in its optimism of a more glorious future and the physics of gravity reasserts itself over human financial markets. The future, as foretold by the gaggle of cheerleaders this time around, is replete with AI agents running amok, producing a thought to be unlimited economic bounty. The new masters of the universe, American and Chinese tech bros, build a substrate from which AI emerges into existence. Ensconced in their silicon encrusted palaces in San Francisco and Hangzhou their companies hoover up all available capital to build heaven on earth, at least for their shareholders and The Party, and when capital becomes scarce berate the political class of this era to support the printing of dollars and yuan to further extend their prowess. An orgy of construction focused on creating an AI utopia is not the only raging party. Another type of bro revels in the erection of a global edifice of death. Why should Pax Americana be the only purveyor of pain? Their glorious nation requires the most badass means to exterminate the enemies of the state because one cannot rely upon the mercurial permanently tanned emperor to rush to the assistance of his supposed allies. Therefore, it is essential to build bombs using printed money and conscript young men to face death for the glory of … I don’t know what. ... Let this essay permit the bull in your soul to emerge out of its cocoon and fly towards a profitable future, even as many untouchables in the global south, because of the wartime disruption in the flow of essential commodities, starve to death in the shadows where mainstream media refuses to shine a light on. Link to the full essay on my profile page.