Caught My Attention Ed. 07: Working with your Hands and TechnoFeudalism

How one venture capitalist unwinds in a typical week

Many of you know, I crochet and sew to decompress from work. After a long day of listening to founder pitches and debating the future of the digital and physical worlds, crafting puts me in an almost meditative state, where I can clear my thoughts and anxieties from the day through calming, repetitive, hand gestures. And you can always tell how stressful of a day I’ve had by how tight my tension is! I resuscitated this practice in Covid and it’s one of the best leftovers I have kept in my fridge since.

Working with your hands has proven benefits on cognition and mood, according to the New York Times. Theories root in the notion that complex hand movements engage the brain more vigorously and aid in the maintenance of more neural pathways. And whether we can attribute the lifted mental state to the hand movements or the novelty of the task itself, the evidence that working with your hands has positive effects is clear. LINK.

I believe in this practice so much that I am actually starting a new-age Sewing Circle in Brooklyn, where founders, investors and friends can come together to work on hand-based projects like drawing, knitting, or embroidery. We are hosting the series monthly at BigNight, and by reading this you have gotten your official invite! LINK TO INVITE.

Often, when I crochet for multiple hours, I end of listening to podcast or audiobooks. Occupying my hands while listening actually aids in my comprehension, which is also why hanging out with other people while crafting creates deeper conversation (hence the above Sewing Circle slash art therapy sessions).

This week, I was recommended an audiobook from Reddit on the future of capitalism post AI, a book called Techo Feudalism, What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis. It’s a fascinating historical catalogue of late-stage capitalism and the future of our survival in a new era the author coins “cloud capital” where our attention, identity, and content drive capital reproduction (rather than physical labor as contribution in earlier epochs). LINK.

An added benefit to crocheting is that I can be present in the physical world while I listen to the future of the digital one. My current project? A teddy for my new bebe (coming in September).

Let me know what YOU do to decompress!