#WISDOMWEDNESDAY WITH LOOP - OCTOBER '25

Real Value in a World of Fast Everything

Finding our humanity in the Age of Algorithm.

A letter from our co-founder, Itee Soni.

This October, I've been thinking a lot about what we keep - and what we let go of. What truly endures in our wardrobes, our homes, and our hearts? And as we figure that out, how do we make that clarity the new normal?

We're living through an age of “fast everything" - what I've come to call Algorithmic Deluge. It's a tidal wave of digital noise where bots shape markets and manufactured outrage crashes stock prices (remember the Cracker Barrel logo controversy?). First came fashion, flooding our closets with clothes that lose meaning before their first wash. Now, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales recently warned, the internet is drowning in bot-speak, pushing false urgency for things we don't need and opinions that aren't real.

"All the noise in the world and all these people ranting, that's not the real thing. The real thing is genuine human knowledge, genuine discourse, genuinely grappling with the difficult issues of our day. That's actually super-valuable."

- Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia Founder

Even progress has been hijacked. AI-powered resale platforms like Phia promise smarter consumption, yet a groundbreaking study reveals that secondhand shoppers now mirror fast-fashion behaviors - hoarding, flipping, treating pre-loved items as disposable. We're recycling the same broken mindset.

When French regulators defined ultra-fast fashion as 12,000 new styles (not garments, styles!) a day, they weren't praising innovation - they were diagnosing a sickness. This digital churn fuels tangible harm: more fast fashion made from more virgin polyester means more petrochemical drilling, linking our scrolling habits directly to environmental decay.

But here's the truth they don't want you to know: the most radical act today isn't to want more - it's to want better.

As designer Glenn Martens observed, we've become people who consume visuals, not clothes. We chase dopamine from a "like" or a new purchase, while craft, story, and soul get lost. But small brands like Aesop prove there's another way. While retail collapses, Aesop grew from 100 to 400 stores by selling something algorithms can't replicate: a moment of pause. They built a door you must walk through - an experience rooted in touch, scent, and human presence.

That's the power of building community as a moat. Small brands don't just sell products - we build belonging. At Loop Swim, we close the loop by transforming plastic bottles into swimwear designed to last and answer the same urgent question: How do we create beauty that cares back?

Science now confirms what intuition always knew: expensive things aren't inherently better - but paying more wires our brains to care for them deeply. That's not consumerism; that's consciousness.

So, let's write a new playbook, starting now:

- Value longevity over novelty - POP MART's hype faded and stocks tumbled by 30% wiping out US$13b. But quality endures. Invest in things that have a story you'll want to tell in ten years.

- Create friction - delete shopping and buy-now-pay-later apps. Unsubscribe from the emails. Let your cart with 267 items sit for a week. Make mindless consumption just a little bit harder.

- Build community as your moat - because real human connection remains our strongest shield against digital noise. #WisdomWednesday by Loop exists to equip you with tools to disrupt the myth that more is better. When we learn together, we grow together. So, support the brands that build real, human communities around them.

As William Morris once urged, "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." In our overwhelmed world, that advice is revolutionary.

The most sustainable choice isn't the newest - it's falling in love with what already lasts. It's choosing the human-scale story, again and again, over the algorithmic shout.

[Explore these ideas further in my conversation with The Peeled Pomegranate Podcast]

Loop Co-founder, 
💞 Itee Soni