The Monday Media Diet with Mindy Seu

On Virtue Hoarders, Mercury Retrograde, and the power of Notes

Mindy Seu (MS) is a designer, teacher, writer, and technologist among many other things. Thank you to Clemence for the introduction. Have a great week. -Colin (CJN)

Tell us about yourself.

My name is Mindy Seu, and I find titles tricky. I fall into the multi-hyphenate category as a designer, teacher, writer, technologist, archival enthusiast, pseudo-internet-historian, learner … and others depending on the project. I’m also a Professor at Rutgers University and Critic / Adjunct Lecturer at Yale University, both in the Schools of Art. This past January, my first book Cyberfeminism Index was published, gathering three decades of online activism and net art. I recently finished a five week book tour in Europe and I’m recalibrating before I jump into a mini tour in Latin America and start a Visiting Professorship at UCLA in Design Media Arts, my Alma Mater. I recently co-designed the new Rhizome site with Laura Coombs, and my latest essay “The Metaverse is a Contested Territory” was published in Pioneer Works’s Software for Artists Book: Untethering the Web, edited by Willa Koerner and Tommy Martinez. I use Prof. Dr. style on my website for easy HTML & CSS updates. 

Describe your media diet. 

I’m constantly listening to podcasts: Code Switch, Ear Hustle, Planet Money, Modern Love, Freakonomics, e-flux, Al Jazeera, Interdependence, For the Wild, How I Built This. I tend to read non-fiction and essays significantly more than fiction, though I have a lot of respect for soft science-fiction. 

WITI Classifieds:

We are experimenting with running some weekly classifieds in WITI. If you’re interested in running an ad, you can purchase one through this form. If you buy this week, we’ll throw an extra week in for free on any ad. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop a line.

How to Make New Friends: Nobody teaches adults this! But after hosting 100s of small parties, I found what works. The 2-Hour Cocktail Party

The BrXnd Marketing X AI Conference is happening on 5/16 in NYC. Early Bird tickets are 20% off until the end of the month. Get your 20% off ticket today!

What’s the last great book you read?

Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class by Catherine Liu packs such insightful commentary into a small pocketbook about elite workers who labor in a world of performative identity and virtue signaling. 

What are you reading now?

The Whore of New York by Liara Roux. Liara and I met on a panel on consent organized by Fiona Duncan and Esra Padgett for Pillow Talks x Pornhub, and since then have become close. She’s a very evocative writer, detailing her experiences growing up and how they impacted her life as a sex worker and activist. 

What’s your reading strategy when you pick up a print copy of your favorite publication?

For journals, I go straight to the table of contents or the footnotes. I love reading footnotes before jumping into the main text. I recently learned of the term “x-dexing” (rather than “indexing”), for non-linear, hyperlinked reading.

Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?

Emily Segal recently published Mercury Retrograde under her new experimental queer press Deluge.

What is the best non-famous app you love on your phone? 

The only app I have on my iPhone dock is the Notes app. I use it the most out of all of the apps, for to do lists, quick notes or ideas, itineraries. Though, I’m also an avid G-Sheets enthusiast. Even my CV is in a spreadsheet! 

Plane or train?

I fly all the time, but I definitely prefer trains. Unfortunately, trains in the US are not the easiest to use, but in European countries, if it’s less than 8 hours, trains are definitely more enjoyable than planes. Plus, they have a much lower carbon footprint. 

What is one place everyone should visit? 

Throw in some headphones and take a walk from Central Park to lower Manhattan and then across the Manhattan Bridge. This can’t be done piecemeal; it needs to be one long walk for the full effect. Whenever I go to a museum on the UES, I take different versions of this stroll on my way back to my home in Brooklyn Heights and it fills me with so much joy, passing by folks from all walks of life and seeing neighborhoods change so vividly. This is also my time to cold call a friend for a chat while I meander.

Tell us the story of a rabbit hole you fell deep into.

At the moment, I’m deep in research about OnlyFans and its impact on feminist economies and subscription-based content creation, especially for “high risk” labor. From a wide angle, OF does allow for the autonomy and self-sufficiency of content creators, but this comes at the cost of high takebacks, strict content moderation, and little external solidarity with sex workers, though they create the foundation of OF’s revenue. (MS)

—

Thanks for reading,

Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Mindy (MS)

—

Why is this interesting? is a daily email from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy (and friends!) about interesting things. If you’ve enjoyed this edition, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you’re reading it for the first time, consider subscribing.