I experienced something last night that was impactful to the point where it feels like having a long form conclusive thought is probably worth the energy it takes to produce one….
So it started out when I shared this on the internet
And over confidently stated that "this is how I see the world and this is how the future should look"… whether or not I entirely meant it (there is one too many dildo shaped/ textured things in there, not enough color, wood, stones, etc. but whatever) is really not relevant because what came next was one of the few moments of clarity in my adult life & I think it’s worth sharing.
So slightly more context…
After I fired that off— I took my first bath in years at the Airport hotel in Oslo and turned on ‘500 days In UCLA’ a documentary Ye (one of my favorite artists) made during the stretch of his life where he’d been freshly labeled bi polar (turns out he was just autistic in the end) and his dad was being treated for stage 2 cancer at UCLA because of the abundance of competent doctors…
I paused the video after he explained the importance of making someone feel through your work. Emphasizing that thoughts are cheap but feelings are eternal.
This flung me into a long reflection about what I’m trying to make people feel and moreover what that says about what (1) I want to feel (2) what I want to share with people to feel (3) see if people feel the same way… I guess it’s like relating through a different sort of medium.
I quickly jumped to the chaos of my childhood (and I’m sure if my brother is reading this, at this point he’s thinking— “lol, what a pussy” … and I’m sure for some reading this they’re thinking “wow, what a terrible brother” … and to you— stop being a pu$$y)… and who I was before during and after some of the more eventful adversities and excitements of the life of young me. And it’s the relationship between that chaos and how I’m kinda just a guy that likes to be left alone with his thoughts ideas, a guy that likes to love and be loved— and chaos was sort of this stark counterpoint to my natural way of existing…. Being me was like hearing a loud shriek in a room spa with a soft water feature and beautifully damped acoustics.
As a function of the juxtaposition between me and my environment— I’ve evolved into someone that’s constantly trying to create serenity and warmth… both in the environments I have to exist in (my living room, my office), the clothes I wear… and the products I can’t help but try and make because well— I like products a lot.
So! Lots of context— here is where things really got weird.
I opened twitter and Eric Jang from 1X Technologies replied to my photo above with:
I had no idea what he meant by that.
My dad had been telling me I’d love woody Allen/ relate since I was 7 years old— it’s been in the backlog since.
… But Eric is usually pretty witty and sometimes intelligent (lol) so I thought I’d ask chat GPT wtf he was talking about.
The output had me shookith to say the leasts:
CHAT GPT:
If someone replied “this is a Woody Allen ahh future” to your tweet with that moodboard, they’re poking fun in a very online, ironic way—basically saying your vision of the future feels overly tasteful, sterile, hyper-designed, and self-serious in a kind of neurotic, mid-century-modern-meets-therapy-pod way. It’s not really an insult—it’s more like a lovingly sarcastic roast that your future looks like it was designed by a minimalist with anxiety.
DAR:
Wait how does it suggest minimalist with anxiety?
CHAT GPT:
Great question.
That “Woody Allen ahh future” comment implies minimalist with anxiety because:
1. Super controlled, soft aesthetics — The beige, rounded, ultra-designed forms scream “nothing unpredictable can happen here.” It’s like someone tried to design serenity itself—but maybe went a bit too far.
2. Therapeutic energy — Everything looks like it belongs in a high-end therapist’s office or a futuristic mental health pod. There’s a low-key vibe of “I’ve optimized my environment so I don’t spiral.”
3. Muted emotional tone — The color palette is calm to the point of repression. It’s like the future decided feelings were too messy and designed them out.
4. Neurotic perfectionism — The details are so refined and intentional, it feels like someone was overthinking every millimeter. That’s the anxious minimalism—trying to calm the mind by smoothing every edge, literally and metaphorically.
It’s not an insult—it’s actually kind of a vibe. Just a self-aware one.
DAR:
Wait but how did that perfect of a mapping come from such few words? What about woody Allen suggests that and what does aww mean?
CHAT GPT:
Ah, you’re catching onto something sharp here—how so much subtext and mood can be packed into just “Woody Allen ahh future.” Let’s break it down:
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1. Why “Woody Allen” sets the tone
Woody Allen isn’t just a filmmaker—he’s a cultural archetype of a very specific personality and aesthetic:
• Neuroticism: His characters (often played by himself) are anxious, over-intellectual, and emotionally self-sabotaging.
• Hyper-verbal: Everything is over-explained, over-analyzed, and wrapped in layers of overthinking.
• Dated modernism: His world is usually rooted in mid-century New York, with turtlenecks, bookshelves, jazz, and therapy.
• Pretentious-yet-fragile aesthetic: People love Bergman and Kierkegaard but cry after sex.
So when someone says “Woody Allen,” they’re invoking not just a director, but a whole neurotic, overthought, intellectually delicate vibe.
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2. What “ahh” adds
The “ahh” isn’t a real word—it’s internet dialect, like a sigh or sound effect that adds emotion, usually irony or exasperation. In this case:
• “Woody Allen ahh future” = a future so artsy, anxious, and over-designed it feels like living inside a Woody Allen monologue.
• It’s also mocking how emotionally loaded everything looks—like the furniture needs therapy.
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3. How it maps to your image
Your moodboard is super tasteful, minimalist, muted, and emotionally… ambiguous. It’s beautiful, but in a way that also suggests high-functioning anxiety: controlled, polished, quiet. That exactly mirrors the Woody Allen archetype, just in design instead of dialogue.
⸻
It’s basically Gen Z’s way of saying:
“This future is fire but it’s giving… therapy-core.”
And it’s wild how compact that is in 4 words.
END OF LLM X DAR CONVERSATION
… so bar not relating much to crying after sex… for the first time in my life— I had been reduced down to 4 words.
If you look at anything I’ve every created, the way I setup up my
Space, my obsession with acoustics, my taste in just about anything was pretty much a coping mechanism…
I felt simple.
I spent most of my life thinking I was some sort of Gordian knot of complexity and uniqueness (don’t get me wrong— I still am)… just to be one shotted with 4 words in tweet format.
… and honestly, it felt great.
So why does this matter? Why am I telling you this?
Well first and foremost it doesn’t matter that much and I’m telling you this because you’re on MY website.
But, I think there is some things I learned from this.
- People should reduce each other to 4 words more often: I wish people would help people understand themselves more— we could save ourselves a lot of time and grief this way
- Being reduced down to the point of understanding yourself is actually quite empowering: you trade the mystery and the feeling of thinking you are one in a billion for real understanding— functionally making you better at wielding… yourself (as if you are a sword, of course)? This makes you both more able to express, channel and explain yourself but also makes you more understanding of the differences between AND similarities between yourself and others… why some may love who you are or hate who you are… why some may love your style or hate your style.
- Art and creation is like ink blob paintings: I realized that those ink blobs they ask you to look at and interpret in psychologists offices are the exact reverse of art and creation. Instead of being asked what you see and having that be something they deconstruct into emotional profile— you transfer what you feel into something other people see and one day you meet someone and they tell you something a therapist woulda told you during an ink blob session.
- Therapy maybe isn’t a scam? All in all— this is experience was what I think is called… therapeutic? Feels empowering… maybe this what a good therapist does? Still not gonna go tho so couldn’t tell you… And sure maybe therapy would have resulted in similar conclusions much faster— but the process and journey of thrashing up against the walls, creating things I love all to be reduced, or rather fully understood, in 4 words by Eric Jang of 1X Technologies… is so much more fun than telling a stranger how I feel… why not 1 billion strangers, right?
- Last but not least— what I’m also finding that’s potentially most important is it’s like everything else that feels monomentous in life… you kinda just go “oh wow… thats amazing… I’m never going to be the same…” and then you quickly move on to tomorrow… go buy some Groceries… take a shit… call your mom and get on with life … and in the face of profound self discovery is quite beautiful :) life is so meaningfully meaningless (in the best way I could imagine).
Keep expressing yourself and maybe you might just figure out something about you and for that it all becomes worth it… at least it did for me.