cool stuff i found #10

good homies, eidxmadeafterhours, ✨jazz✨

Apr 01, 2023

welcome back! woooooo this is the tenth drop of my newsletter! and unfortunately, i still owe the world 2 3 essays. luckily i have things in the work. in the words of dj khaled “we up to somethin.” this past week of ramadan has been a doozy for me, so i hope you’re keeping well if you too are fasting. if not, wish your friends well because lord knows they need it lol. anyways, my reading has been a bit lazy this week as they have all come from literally one author’s work (and their tweet; shoutout Nicole!). nonetheless, i think what they’ve shared is worth restating and sharing for you’re here for what i think of them so you can read what they think. without further ado, i give you the tenth issue

“Cool Stuff I Found” (formerly “Cool Shit I Found”) is a series where I create a highlight reel of cool stuff I’ve come across in the past week or just in general. I hope that this newsletter will inspire meaningful conversations and connections. As always, thanks for joining me on this journey of exploration and self-discovery.

This newsletter is broken up into the following:

I. Articles + Essays I’ve read

II. Visual Art + Media

III. Music I’ve been listening to

I. Articles + Essays I’ve read

This weeks essays have everything to do with friendship, and how friendships can cultivate qualities within us for better or for worse.

First we shape our social graph; then it shapes us by Henrik Karlsson

first up is Henrik’s essay, and it can be summed up by the age old adage “choose your friends wisely.” the thesis of this essay digs deep into that adage by providing you with a mental modal. your social circles that you participate in is what Henrik refers to as a “milleu,” as he discusses in the following paragraph, and this milleu has an outsized effect on your life. he makes an analogy using the mathematical concept of a graph and graph theory with “directed graphs” to simply say: all the interactions you have within network help you cultivate a sense of self, a sense of taste, and even a sense of morality. this essay states what you and i both already know, but seeks to provide a different way (more programmatic in some sense) of looking at these relationships we hold and the weights they have on us (yes this is a graph theory pun for those who know).

sparkly people and how to find them by Anson Yu

i read this essay and i thought of a few friend groups that i’m in. im blessed to say i’m surrounded by a bunch of smart, charming, witty, and kind people (shoutout 1-time daehoes, 3 algerians, unsophisticated dawgs, machousee) and i hope by being adjacent to them that i’m a quarter of what they are. the following paragraphs really reminded me of them. this essay provides you the reader with anson’s list, that i cosign, that they point out as a list of things they look for when hanging out with ppl. i hope this aids you in your life journey of cultivating fulfilling and meaningful relationships.

who do you admire? by Nix

to round out this tenth edition, on which the theme is clearly friendship, is the work of the author i had mentioned earlier. nix provides her own list of traits she looks for a friends, and, shoot, i might make a list of my own as well. this essay not only provides a list of really cool attributes to aspire to attain and look for in people, but is also a further exploration on the idea of how the social connections we have and maintain are a reflection of us. this passage does a great job of succinctly explaining that.

II. Visual Art + Media

Made After Hours and Eid

i saw shazia drop these on the TL and, well, yall know how heavy i mess with gradients lol. i thought these eid cards and gradient print were thoughtfully designed. you should check out their work at madeafterhours.

shazia 💫 @shazia_etc

risoprinted a set of fun springy eid cards ✨🌙💜

Rappers and AI

rdcworld dropping another banger lol

Mark Phillips @SupremeDreams_1

I already know rappers finna go crazy with this Ai technology soon 😂🤦🏾‍♂️

IG:ByShakes

i stumbled on this really aesthetic tiktok i rocked with, and idk how to embed tiky-toks here so here’s this. the artist is byshakes

haroon @haroonisdreamin

this is beautiful

III. Music I’ve Listened To

My roommate shared this with me a while back, and its really fun. but other than this, we in ramadan bb.

Thanks for reading this edition. Share this with your friends, your grandma, or your neighbor. And if you made it to the end of this essay and you didn’t just scroll, dm me a 🔮 on either twitter or instagram. or leave a comment! As always,

Sincerely,

Haroon

P.S. Check out my previous newsletter if you’re curious: Cool Stuff I Found #9