example: [Crumbl](https://crumblcookies.com/) vs [Kepano's Cookie](https://stephango.com/chocolate-chip-cookies) why engage in endless consumerism while you can be the maker and designer of the things around you you should designing with taste curating your own experience thinking & making decisions with judgement related: [[New expertise in the AI age = taste, value judgement, courage, and agency]] > Everyone wants to get into a car, eat a cookie, and have it all served to them. But I'm interested in why these things exist and making them myself. To me, that's the point of being alive. Why go from one place to another engaging in consumerism when you could be the maker of the world around you? > > This mass-market cookie is frustrating. It's a problem you can easily solve for yourself. **It is a lack of agency that people are not willing to read a recipe and make something at home.** It disconnects us from the basic foundations of life. > I often hear people say, 'I can't cook' or 'I can't draw.' Anyone can cook. Just read the recipe and do it. > > All the stuff that surrounds us—the butter, the chocolate, the flour—comes from somewhere. Someone planted seeds. The nature of being human is that you have to farm or hunt or pick berries and consume them. I feel like the world is crazy for not thinking about this all the time. west:: [[It's better to go too far and then dial back to test the edge]] -- testing how things work and why they work through testing them yourself [[Being alive and the duty of the senses]]