Later on today I’m gonna be writing about this weird little guy, and what I think it implies about the present and near future of material production and the things you’ll be buying and using in the next few years!
Discussion
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@adamgreenfield I have one of these. It was an impulse buy, based on a gushing YooToob video. But darned if that little thing hasn't proved surprisingly useful in more ways than I initially imagined.
And yes, for USD$22, the manufacturing quality is outstanding.
Favorite bits:
- Rechargeable (USB-C)
- Long battery life
- 180° swivel main lamp
- Variable brightness
- Magnetic base
@adamgreenfield
Ooh, I have this little fella but in green. So bright, so light weight. Data point: I discovered its existence due to a Youtube video on EDC (every day carry items).
@gwendolenau I think the intimate, routine and iterative interaction with online fan communities is a big part of what makes the New Exuberance the New Exuberance. MTK!
(Preview: the entire existence of the Wuben brand feels like a textbook example of what I call the New Exuberance, from Kickstarter to Pearl River Delta fabrication to Reddit-based interactions with customers; the aesthetics, form factor and UI signal a decisive turn away from long-established mainstream convention, and a folding-in of ideas from games and popular culture; little flashlights are the trilobite of the Cambrian explosion in design & production; #degrowth is doomed.)
New Patreon is up, with mere minutes left before midnight! Today I consider the Wuben G5, as promised, and what it implies about “the present and near future of material production.” Read, enjoy, and feel free to share if you do. https://www.patreon.com/posts/147949143
@adamgreenfield I was ready to be mad about this but I’m glad I actually read it.
@mycorrhiza Oh! What was the prospectively mad-making bit?
@adamgreenfield Well you should know that I’m just your bog standard degrowther. I mean, I occasionally keep a blog called “degrowther.” So your approach to this “new exuberance” phenomenon — and our material culture in general — doesn’t 100% align with my feelings. But you’re doing some good documentart work here, and I appreciate your thoughtful observations on this stuff regardless of whether I agree completely.
@mycorrhiza You know my sentiments are w/you, in nonsuperficial ways. But I genuinely don’t know how we degrow the economy [sic] should production comprehensively escape constraint in the way expression has in the past decade, decade & a half. I’d love to believe we’ll figure out how to make what we need in ways that converge on what the planetary ecosystem asks of us. I’m not convinced that remains a possibility, & I feel about the right to production the way I feel about that to expression.
@adamgreenfield
Degrowth is inevitable. The only variable is if we do it now, we can choose our degrowth paths. The longer we wait, the more options will be stripped away. Nature will win. Systems will balance one way or another.
@neverbeaten Preaching to the choir, boss. (I called it “nonconsensual degrowth.)
@adamgreenfield I have a pair of more conventional Wuben flashlights. They work fine, run on standard 18650 cells, but they’re machined with edges that are uncomfortably sharp.
@c0dec0dec0de We’re getting there! Stand by.