Relinquishing authority

In case you missed it…

• We have a limited number of microchipped press-ons left over from our Clone launch party

• Prune waded into the “ugly cake” debate 

• Blank published an excerpt from Stephanie Wambugu’s Lonely Crowds 

This week, Reggie James came on Tasteland to talk about hardware, light wash jeans and faith vs. doubt in Silicon Valley. Read an excerpt below or keep scrolling to listen to the full episode.

Francis Zierer: You recently published a book, Hardware 2024. What's your favorite piece of hardware from last year? 

Reggie James: Probably the USB Club transport. I DJ and I collect files. It's a full terabyte solid state drive. So I'm not really concerned about files getting messed up. There’s this spot downtown called Vowels, it's a Japanese store, but they have this archive library of these vintage books and zines from Japan and you can scan pages and take them with you. So sometimes if I'm digging for a reference, I'll take my USB down there, scan some stuff and then bring it back. The other one I have right here is the Teenage Engineering TP-7 voice recorder. 

FZ: The book is anchored by an interview with Jesper [Kouthoofd], the founder of Teenage Engineering. Can you tell us a little bit about that conversation? 

RJ: Yeah, that conversation was really special. He's not necessarily known for being out in public like that in terms of recorded interviews. I asked for like 20 favors to get to the team. And then one of his right hand guys, I was fortunate enough to become friends with. He did a pre-screening interview with me. And then he was like, “Okay, Jesper is either gonna be in San Francisco or LA this month. So just stay flexible.” And he ended up being in San Francisco. He gets off a flight from Tokyo. I met him at his hotel, he's dropping laundry off at the front desk and he's like, “Do you want to get a beer or something?” And it's 2 p.m. in San Francisco. And I'm just like, “Dog, there are no bars that are open in this town right now.” And we end up at this really shitty dive bar in downtown SF. And we pound beers for three hours. So the interview gets progressively looser and more fun. And by the end, he's talking about Silicon Valley like a Vatican and it gets very fun. 

Daisy Alioto: I think Silicon Valley has really lost touch with any relationship to spiritual wellness.

RJ: Even their version of spirituality is simply an ingredient for further personal efficiency. Their goals are actually not spiritual. It's to code for 10 hours straight. I think a core sense of spirituality—and I'm not even saying this from a Christian framework—is a relinquishing of authority, but that's not what's happening here. The last thing these people ever will do is relinquish authority, both on a systemic level or on a personal level. 🌀

Spiritual tech and secular tech ft. Reggie James