this your brain on B2B 🫟

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• 🦿 HIP REPLACEMENT 🦿 this week has Jenny Rothenberg of Smooth Media, who chats with Ben Dietz and I about the world of new talent management and how that intersects with generational differences while also exploring B2B fashion, why Gen Z hates LinkedIn, and how life became work (and we all became worse for it). Listen onSubstack, Spotify, and YouTube!!

As France joins the teen social bans, it feels like some heat around AI went up given the “escaped” model and the big ChatGPT scandals. None of this is to mention Google’s first negative cash flow due to AI (alongside…Alphabet making big cash?) or Anthropic repackaging surveillance as “teaching Claude a skill.” Things are interesting in the AI space, as some spooking is happening. Obviously! Meanwhile, the “winners” here seem extremely questionable.

Welcome back, Gen Z protests — which never really ended. This situation is quite messed up, given young people are pushing against the ruling class’ corruption and the failing of youth by the old. Sound familiar? Just wait until teen climate activism 2.0 awakens.

To the reckoning item from Thursday, more from widening the lens of climate disaster.

Another week, another public American murder.

Something I missed — which I feel most have missed, so shout out to Team Zeteo for pressing the issue. This is all for “security” purposes, which feels questionable and problematic, just like every other military thing going on now from Trump. See also: conflict of interest investments in Kazak mines, Russiagate being not-real, and an Epstein accomplice being found dead.

And why are these warnings being made? Because of the aforementioned American imperialism! I share the second item to give you some hope, as it shows an instance of a Republican standing up for something good, like protecting AIDS aid in Africa.

I really can’t do this right now.

Please…do not fuck this up Michigan! Pairs very poorly with the story directly above — and conversations about out-of-state UGC creators being paid to be pro-Stevens.

Life is messy. Unpredictable and chaotic, the whole point of living is to ride a wave of constant change, training your core to stay balanced no matter what comes. We talk about longing for friction and charms, craving whimsy — but I’m not sure that’s actually what we want: most of us want predictable lives. Routine, similarities, things that to be “normal,” an unshakable ordinariness. Is that why prediction markets are seeing such a boom? Because we’re trying to tame the untameable? Probably.

This may be why so many of us — especially the very online, myself included — have given up our lives in the name of career concepts. Online culture promised cultural depth but has yielded troves of memes and information but mostly surface-level digital connections with thousands of strangers who won’t stop to consider each other as fully formed humans. This results in an emptiness, an uneasiness with unpredictability that we long to put a shape to. At this moment in time (The past two decades? Since the 2010s? The 2020s?), a lot of Millennial and Gen Z cultures have been hollowed out by “this.” Formerly “this” would be replaced by the church, a shared local interest, or perhaps volunteering for a cause. Now, “this” has been replaced by something less scary and more sad: work, or more accurately the idea of work. The voids created by social media and using technology have left us feeling shallow, with an empty culture and no personality. When paired with being lobotomized by jobs and desperate for career stability, we’ve shifted from humans connecting with other humans and into an icky B2B flow state, when being on and off the clock blurs as we see each other as timecards to punch.

Rewind to the late 2010s, when a trend of stories started to emerge about the struggle to make time with friends. Let’s map this —

• “Scheduling leisure time with friends — for movies, drinks, bike rides — can make these otherwise enjoyable activities feel like chores,” the New York Times wrote in 2016. This is why we frequently cancel plans, all because our assistants (Us.) got too tired of scheduling for their bosses (Also us.). This story may or may not have been our crying canary, or at least a yellow flag in the Google Calendar.

• This sensation inspired much head nodding that still swells: “How to Make Plans with Friends Without the Scheduling Nightmare,” Oprah, 2016; “A Cancellation Plague Is Upon Us,” Glamour, 2018; “The Scheduling Woes of Adult Friendship,” The Atlantic, 2019; “Why You Never See Your Friends Anymore,” The Atlantic, 2019; “You Need to Make Time for Your Friends. Here’s How,” The New York Times, 2024; “Why do our relationships suddenly feel like... work?,” Cosmopolitan, 2025; “When friendship means scheduling a dinner date four weeks out,” Vox, 2025; “Son’s wife makes him ‘family scheduler,’ chaotic planning ensues,” Washington Post, 2026.

• That trend is trailed by stories of flaky friends and cancelled plans: Stylist, 2017; Vice, 2018; Harper’s Bazaar, 2018; Self, 2019; Vice, 2020; The Guardian, 2025; Business Insider, 2025; New York Times, 2026.

• And that trend is trailed by guides for making friends in mid-life, as if knowing more people would somehow solve this issue: Vox, 2016; The Guardian, 2018; The Atlantic, 2022; Vice, 2023; Self, 2024.

• This brings us to the friendship recession, lonely men, and Gen Z antisocialness, which are likely byproducts of our seeing each other as co-workers or partners in optimization: El País, 2023; The Atlantic, 2024; The Guardian, 2024; The Ringer, 2024; Wired, 2024; The Guardian, 2025; The Independent, 2025; Esquire, 2025.

• Where does that land us now? In an economy of tech and entrepreneurial solutions to solve all these friendship woes: Rodeo, Howbout, Wyzr Friends, and Apple Freeform for scheduling, a confusing mess of invitation platforms, the push in “friend-making” apps, and the trend of social clubs to make friends.

“Are we caught in a culture of never-ending catch-ups?” Dazed mused toward the end of last year. And…duh, not because “life is work” but because we no longer have social fluency but are well versed in corporate performance. Paired with our dehumanizing each other, we’re left to confuse relationships and “being human” with a job — which means we apply the same tools of “work” to life. Thus, we’ve all become 1990s overworked and uncaring dads from 1990s films, each of us a Mrs. Doubtfire trying to keep his family together. The culture and aesthetics of work have filled in our absence of culture, which started benignly enough by making friends at work (“Making Friends Is Hard But Work Can Help,” Forbes, 2022; “How to make friends at work,” Fortune, 2022) and spiraled into the qualities of work becoming the qualities of life (“College Kids Schedule Literally Everything on Google Calendar,” Wall Street Journal, 2025; “Why ‘admin nights’ are the new book club for busy adults,” CNN, 2026; “The dating event where your mates make the pitch for you,” The Guardian, 2026). This could be why optimization culture is witnessing a backlash because life with a constant agenda, KPIs, and a persistent boss/worker dynamic is antithetical to life which means everything is work — and we might finally be catching on because…is labor really all we dream about? Instagram is becoming LinkedIn as LinkedIn becomes Facebook (and TikTok). Discussions go viral on Twitter about if you’re a Microsoft Teams of Slack company, with business decisions feeling somehow akin to sub-culture. “Coworkers be like,” remote work woes, and everyone has something to say about LinkedIn not working. Actual counter-cultures and real communities are folded in — or consumed — by this too: see the trend of gay people talking about other gay people at work (or gay culture at work in general). Don’t even get me started with friendships being replaced with networking.

In economically precarious times like these — when the number of non-working Americans has reached an all-time high — work is a culture, which someone will point back to the 1960s as an origin (if not well before then). It’s an object we all obsess over because it can be the literal difference between life and death now, or living well and slipping into precarity, if not obscurity. That explains our “work culture” leak and why every relationship is a playacting of a business relationship. The deeper and sadder reason why we’re experiencing this B2B-ification of life might also be because we’ve lost art, that we’ve become illiterate, with the cultural palates and attention spans of the immature, disinterested in the art because it doesn’t have a defined ROI. Technically people like you and I are creatives, but true counter-culturalists no longer exist as they occupy a space of (digital) gig workers, aspiring tech positions or marketers or something in between, who are hoping to “score big” with a brand deal and not create as a means of synthesizing lived experience. Charli XCX musing about marketing is a bad thing, a statement that she cares not for art but for “business.” Cannes Lions becoming a “cultural destination” means trade shows are mainstream culture, that they’re replacing culture conventions like ComicCon. “Fashion” and “culture” influencers who are actually executives or corporate leaders illustrate a reality television blurring from “I admire their taste.” to “I want their bank account.” Tech brands becoming lifestyle brands transforms the aesthetic objects of life into ad spaces. Olivia Rodrigo pivoting from dating musicians to dating some AI private equity man in finance is a peek into the modern artist’s way. Same for you, Nicole Kidman!

Perhaps things don’t feel spontaneous or life feels flat because we’ve traded the excitement of unpredictability with capitalized solutions. Celibacy “becoming cool” is definitely a response to women being mistreated by men and asserting bodily autonomy but also a mass move to hashtag thrive at work, to prevent someone from getting in the way of either your 9-to-5 or 5-to-9 bread making. We talked about cultural sameness and fragmentation in the comments last week and I wonder if for many of us the B2B-ification of life is a clear example of how that happened: it is the logical end to over-optimizing everything. When you become a docile, good, quiet worker who longs not for art you become a docile, good, quiet citizen who longs not to think abstractly. You take orders. You don’t ask questions. You don’t seek challenges and you bond over shared tools instead of shared progress. A poor economy and poor prospects makes us all lust for work and not life — but we’re more than that. In the confusion of “third places” with malls, high streets, and branded sites, where “culture” is bought by those hoping to network, the office becomes home and your home an office. Job your love, someone said — and we laughed! But she said what we were all thinking, our minds so fucked up under the influence of technology and career catastrophes that we stopped making much sense.

My must-read of the week, especially for anyone who lived in LA in the 2010s. Umami wasn’t amazing but it was a cultural experience that shaped Millennial culture. What a fall!

A similar story for a different industry, as shifting from handmade goods to dropshipped bullshit and AI slop really doomed them. We can pinpoint the fall to around 2023. Sorry, Olivia: your girl power promo is only gonna help so much!

Second must-read of the week, about the incoming battle for the sky, as explained by physicist Laura Grego. And I thought the light-at-night satellites were bad! Just wait until you hear about the moon.

Good news for all you little gay people in my phone!

I am an anti-Brick person as I don’t believe a piece of tech can “fix” behavior and that such tech preys upon those desires. The Light Flip phone feels different though, in that it seeks to undo versus solve. I’d try it! I just need to get out of working specifically in social wah wah ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Kyle Gordon’s “Mr. Jambo” is a great piece of satire, jabbing at a certain type of American whiteness. This interview on the song gives a peek into his process.

This interview is from a month ago, which I read recently as I was reading through my stack of New York magazines I haven’t read yet. She’s such a delightful freak! This definitely inspired me to get back to my book work, as I’ve been so disenchanted and uninspired as of late — but JCO will kick your ass back into gear! Also I confess I have read none of her books, which the story zooms in on: she’s so well known and so respected but “few” have read her many works (66 novels!).

Last New York item but…Chelsea Handler, if you are reading: I always abide by these rules and have great manners. I am a perfect house guest and have never been to Mallorca!

For using ants in a dessert. Why? Because the bugs “are not among the 10 insect species approved for human consumption.” I assume the chef will be out soon and, yes, I would have tried this dish.

If you’re not familiar with Beetle Moses’ work, let me assure you: you probably have and didn’t know it. If this is your first time encountering his work? Buckle up, because you are in for a treat.

Beetle (Real name: Harris) is a Miami-based cartoonist, a comic artist whose creations frequently go viral across Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram. His comics combine very normal expressions of life with fantastical and literally otherworldly elements, creating a space within two or three or four (or more) panels that reflect the absurdity of these times for what they are: fucking ridiculous. Aliens laughing at human fashion, angels and demons working out to suit their tropes, Marxist monkeys jumping on a bed, getting a second job as a bigfin squid, and — my personal favorite — working a closing shift with the wise old tree. He takes life and gives them a gentle push, revealing just how dumb and stupid things can be sometimes. And that we should probably care less and more at the same time!

His work is somewhat singular, carrying on the very 2010s breakout vibe of Perry Bible Fellowship and the 2000s staple Toothpaste For Dinner into the 2020s. Curious what inspires him and what he’s been into in advance of his forthcoming book, I sent him an email to see what trends he’s following and to also better understand the state of web comics now. Settle in for some thoughts on the business of creativity, the need for new aesthetic styles, and why the magical and surreal appeal to our tired state.

Tell me about a trend you’re following that you’re really into.
I had to think for a moment because I am #quirky and I don’t consider myself a super trendy person. One trend I do participate in is the wave of people like myself, who are starting small businesses around their creativity. We’re in the middle of a cultural shift in that regard, which we haven’t collectively sorted out yet. But I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts. And I love following the work of other independent artists.

What’s a trend you hope never dies?
I hope this trend continues of independent creators online being tapped to work on big productions, like movies and TV shows and stuff. Plenty of successful independent creators will tell you you don’t need a “big break” opportunity to be given to you. Which is true, I think being a self-starter rewards indie artists across all fields in tremendous ways in the internet era. You can’t sit around and wait for someone to bless you with a life-changing opportunity, you just need to buff out your portfolio. Meanwhile we’ve been watching old school industries (Hollywood, a lot of the comics world, etc.) just fumble over and over again for being way too risk averse. There’s a mutual benefit to be had there for both outsider artists and their respective industries, and at the time of this interview, I think those industries are waking up to that. I hope that trend continues because I love to see weird indie voices get the spotlight.

What’s a trend you are so over?
I’m really over revivalist styles. Maybe it’s always been there, but the internet has exacerbated it so much. For example, I feel like we’ve been doing Y2K revivalist style for a decade now. Music, fashion. I’m kind of over Hello Kitty, sorry to say. There’s gotta be something different we could be doing. I think we could let go of the past a bit. I’m also tired of hearing about the future. I want more art that defines this era instead of trying to pull from another one.

Are there any trends in modern comics that you think are defining the moment?
There’s a million and one things I could point to — this question alone I think could constitute its own interview — but I’ll narrow it down to something I’m noticing as an especially recent trend. My world is webcomics, a truly wonderful artform which I think more people should try their hand at. Webcomics are probably in their third “wave” from my perspective, but like any evolution of styles, it’s not so clean cut. The wave before mine was defined by relatable comics, which absolutely ruled the internet and defined the moment for webcomics in the 2010s. Relatability is a common aspect of webcomics because of the nature of the medium. It’s a form of cartooning which can be shared or replied to instantly, in contrast to the newspaper days where there were several layers of separation and time between the artist making the work and the reader seeing it. But here’s the difference: in the 2010s, relatable joke writing sounded like “I like cheese and sitting on the couch.” True and relatable and honestly funny in the right framing. Today, it’s way more atomized. You have your classic shitposts, which are pretty timeless. But “relatable” work sounds like “I have sustained some form of trauma, but there is still a part of me which chases that feeling for reasons I haven’t completely figured out yet.” Not inherently funny, but evocative, and a good writer knows how to package that feeling in a way that makes someone laugh or react emotionally.

Why is the fantastic a good counter-balance to the contemporary?
Well, first of all, thank you very much for taking the time to analyze my work and its themes. I do think about this stuff when I’m writing and drawing, so it means a lot to know my readers are picking up what I’m putting down. I personally love watching people interact — little social moments, funny behavior, unpleasantries — and I think this voice is very much in my writing. There’s often a character in my strips that is clearly exhausted, because that’s how we’re all feeling. Sandwiching that realness in a situation which is fantastic or weird is just funny to me, so it’s in my work a lot. There is definitely an escapist element to my work, which I’m sure many independent artists relate to. It’s a lot of sitting and drawing at a desk, so I enjoy coming up with funny scenarios and weird characters to feature in this world I’ve built.

Be sure to follow Beetle on Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and or Patreon and don’t miss his forthcoming book, out in October.

For the unfamiliar, Corinna Fulgeri is a niche TikTok celebrity known for being super awkward normcore and a hypochondriac. For those who do know her, she’s doing a countdown to her 25th birthday and Sephora sent her gifts to align with the countdown. For Day 19, she posted the most incredible unboxing video. Gel da dosh. I lost count of how many times I’ve watched it — and I’m not the only one who thinks so!

The best contenders for new EU bank notes.

What political party is your dog? I’m not sure, but I think one of mine is a moderate Democrat straight guy and the other is a queer anarchist.

Every so often I think about Princess Jane and, unfortunately, she’s back and worse.

A shot/chaser of the keen skill gay/queer people have to turn anything into a meme.

A great week to be a Montessori Boy fan, as they got their due. Their latest was great too.

This damn ice cream video irritated the fuck out of me.

Petition to use only these idioms now.

I really, really miss your show, ROSIE ODONNELL.

Yes, he really did make a Covid song. I fact checked this!

We gotta put this fucking cow in jail. PERVERT!!! Also: look at this loser deer.

And, finally, the billion dollar app I wish I could create.

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