A couple neat (but not finished) color samples from my upcoming movie, Deadsick.

Dear algorithm, please visit upon me more videos of Europeans not being able to comprehend the wonders of the United States of America 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

There is a certain type of person everywhere now, especially online. He consumes endless information every day: philosophy, psychology, productivity, spirituality, neuroscience, business, self-improvement, history. He knows a little about everything and deeply experiences almost nothing. His entire identity becomes built around understanding instead of living. He watches videos about confidence instead of speaking confidently. Reads about discipline instead of becoming disciplined. Studies relationships instead of learning how to love. Consumes motivational content instead of taking action. He feels intelligent because he is constantly mentally stimulated. But stimulation is not transformation. Most of the time, knowledge becomes emotional protection. Reality is unpredictable. Reality humiliates. Reality exposes weakness. Books and ideas do not. Inside information, he can continue imagining himself as intelligent, deep, insightful, different from ordinary people. So he remains trapped in preparation. He constantly feels as if he is "becoming" someone, while his real life remains strangely untouched. He develops sophisticated language for problems he never confronts directly. He can explain human behavior beautifully while being unable to handle ordinary discomfort, rejection, uncertainty, loneliness, or risk. He slowly turns life into observation instead of participation. The internet rewards this personality heavily. He receives validation for sounding aware rather than becoming capable. Eventually, he begins confusing self-analysis with growth and information with wisdom. But beneath the intelligence usually exists the same thing: fear. Fear of failure. Fear of embarrassment. Fear of reality answering back. Because action destroys fantasy. The moment he truly acts, he can no longer hide inside potential.

One thing the UGC-heavy "build fast" world for the founders who survived the ecom boom really misses is a sense of mythology/longform story as a brand. In fact it robs the brand, and we'll see brands try and fail to abandon UGC and start mythmaking soon. Some have done this. They don't need UGC as a result.

I saw the trailer for The Social Network for the first time ever right before seeing The Town in theaters in September 2010. This trailer remains bonkers. Fincher is a mad man. How often can you tell someone you remember exactly where you were when you saw a *trailer*? Only David