51 Sources the Culturally Fluent Already Know

There’s a particular kind of person who, upon encountering something excellent, immediately wants to know who else knows. Not to share it but to locate themselves relative to it.

You are that person. I’m not judging. I built a whole newsletter out of the same affliction, of which ‘SOURCE CODE’ is its purest expression.

The uncomfortable part is that taste has become a positional good, which is economist-speak for a thing whose value depends entirely on other people not having it yet. A beach is not a positional good. A reputation for knowing things first, very much is. Which means every list like this one is quietly self-defeating: the moment I publish these names, I’ve spent some of what made them worth publishing.

I’ve made peace with that. You should too, because the alternative (hoarding references like a dragon on a pile of Instagram handles) is a genuinely miserable way to move through culture, and everyone can tell you’re doing it.

So here are 51 people who upon closer inspection will show you they’re behind a lot in culture today. Some of them are behind the biggest artists in the world today, others are just simply… vibey? Well… nobody’s asking you to like all of them.

Take what's useful and ignore the rest. That's how these are meant to be read.

Bye bye now.

For our next volume of SOURCE CODE we want to hear from you. And so… send us your nominations to dotdottdottmedia@gmail.com

• Brandon Tan | Global Fashion Director, GQ

• Thor Shannon | Senior Director, David Zwirner

• Alice Delahunt | Chief Customer Officer, On

• NM3 | Industrial Designers

• Amanda Webster | Culture Photo Editor, NYT

  

• Fulvio de Bonis | Founder, Imago Artis Travel

• Miles Pope | VP, Style Talent & Activations, Vuori

• Jody Quon | T Magazine’s Next Editor

• Jess Green | SVP North America, Toteme

• Drieke Leenknegt | New CMO, Balenciaga

• Szilveszter Makó | Photographer & Art Director

• Gaia Cozijn | Photographer