Elsewhere Issue 26
Discerning, remembering, choosing and feeling
Hello - consider this a moment elsewhere. A weekly digest on career, culture and design.
“Does a masters degree matter anymore?”
I’m going to answer this with research first and then spiritually.
A Masters degree was previously a scarce signal, it showed that you were a leap above everyone else and therefore was more meaningful. The extra level of education really was a differentiator. But over the last 20 years it became more accessible & available with online formats, therefore more of the norm so the impact isn’t as felt. The only caveat to that is if a masters ties directly to an employment gap or license like in technical fields like engineering or health it does still matter a lot.
MBA’s specifically are more useful if you’re looking to switch careers, industries or employers. But would be advised against if you’re just looking to level up where you already are.
My emotionally driven advice would be to dig into the WHY of wanting to do a masters. If it’s purely monetary (no shade to that), then maybe it’s not the smartest thing to do. But if it’s to learn, expand, become an expert in something new, refresh how you think about a certain topic, meet new people and you have the means to do it for that reason then I think why not. Formal education isn’t the be all and end all, my bachelor of comms at 18yrs old was a massive waste of time. But, I do think going back to formal education when your eager to learn and dedicated is a whole other experience and something I would like to do in this lifetime.
So do Masters degrees matter anymore? Not as much as they used to, but that still doesn’t mean there isn’t some great reasons and drivers to do them. It just truly depends on what you are looking to get out of it.
-Remi
Submissions line: submit over on our IG stories every Friday or connect@ponnd.app
The Relationship Is the Job by Anu Atluru, Working Theorys (Substack)
In a world where automation is coming for both manual and cognitive labour, what remains untouched? Anu proposes “Relational Labor”. She poses the question that may be plaguing more of us than we care to admit “When do we prefer a flawed, imperfect human instead of a perfect machine?”. If you have a free post to claim on Substack, we recommend considering this one if you’re chewing on your job, place in the world etc.
Read it → here
The Perpetual Present-Tense by Rayne Fisher-Quann, internet princess (Substack)
This piece refuses to be described as bite sized, so don’t say I didn’t warn you. Rayne takes aim at cultural criticism’s favourite tense “Now more than ever” or as she sometimes calls it “urgent tense”. Through the latest and growing panic over heteropessimism ( aka the gender war), she demonstrates how declaring every problem unprecedented severs it from history, obscures its real causes and leaves us with flimsy solutions. A piece that encourages us to look backwards before declaring the present “unprecedented”.
Read it → here
In The Market for “Lemons” by George Akerlof
In The Market for “Lemons”, Akerlof explains what happens when buyers can no longer reliably tell good quality from bad. Because buyers cannot see the difference, they are unwilling more for the better option. As a result good sellers leave, the bad ones stay and the “lemons” begin to take over. Technically about used cars but feels applicable to almost any system where sincerity can’t be verified, and so in its place performance is rewarded.
Read it → here
Did the feed ruin taste? by Georgia Hampton w/ Kyle Chayka, Never Post
Georgia Hampton sits down with Elsewhere regular Kyle Chayka to ask whether personal taste can survive the puppeteering of online interest. Popularity has always had a fraught relationship with taste, but the feed now manufactures ubiquity at industrial scale. The algorithm may introduce us to what we love, then plays it back with such relentless greed that we eventually grow bored of it. A conversation that returns discernment to its rightful place: with us.
Listen here → here
This life gives you nothing by Jonah Weiner, Blackbird Spyplane (Substack)
A monumental year-end essay on what happens when you start to “think in tweets” and “see in posts” long enough that the lines between a screen and the world infront of you start to merge. Borrowing its title from Knausgaard, "this life gave you nothing, it only made time pass", Weiner asks what remains when our attention is hijacked, formatted and turned into someone else’s asset.
Read it → here
This week in events:
Sydney
Tue 28 July 6.00pm || New Wave: Build A Backyard Tour
Thur 30 July 6.00pm || Creative Direction for Image Makers
Melbourne
Thur 30 July 3.00pm || The Executive Marketing Meetup Episode 3
Thur 30 July 6.00pm || Human Kind
London
Tues 28 July 6.30pm || Inhabitation Modelmaking and Collage Workshop
Wed 29 July 6.00pm || Sonura Sessions: Beatmaxxing
Tues 4 Aug 7.00pm || Service95 Dinner Service x Holy Carrot
New York
Tues 28 July 6.00pm || after hours: a happy hour for new york’s creatives and founders
Tues 28 July 6.30pm || Beyond the Feed: The Post-Creator Economy
Sun 4 Aug 7.30pm || (Dis)consent: A Night of Performance
Until next week,
Bella & Remi
About the authors:
Elsewhere is a Ponnd Publication, written by Bella & Remi; best friends of eight years and now co-founders of Ponnd World and Three Martini Lunch.
Bella is our CEO, a Leo, ex-ballerina, who’ has built businesses across design and technology, usually by following whatever felt interesting, urgent or slightly inconvenient at the time.
Remi, our CMO, an Aquarius, full-time woo girl, who specialises in positioning, narrative & distribution with a focus on how ideas move through culture to reach the right audience.
We founded Ponnd because the tools we use to represent ourselves professionally, nurture connections and attract opportunity feel outdated (kind) and a little bit fkd (honest). It is our mission to create spaces and tools that improve the lives of professionals. Honouring the fact that no two paths look the same.
You can join us over at:
Ponnd.World - All your work, in the one place. Beautiful, instantly.
We also offer 1-on-1 portfolio consulting. Feel free to book a call with us.