The old flex was what you bought.
The new flex is what you built.
An essay on status, taste, and what actually matters now.
Part I
Status was a receipt. You earned money, you spent money, and you made sure everyone could see you'd spent money. The corner office. The designer label visible on the outside. The premium tier of everything.
"The old flex was visible, purchasable, and ultimately, shallow."
The internet made information free. AI made creation free. When anyone can make anything, having things stopped being impressive.
And then: “what have you made?”
The new flex is building something.
Not talking about it. Shipping it.
The new flex is taste.
Knowing what's good before everyone else does.
The new flex is range.
Not being boxed into one lane. Doing five different things well.
The new flex is curation.
In a world of infinite options, what you choose reveals everything.
The new flex is learning in public.
Not pretending you always knew. Showing the process.
The new flex is quitting the performative.
No more posts for the algorithm. Make things for the work itself.
The Evidence
A payments company runs a publishing house.
That's a flex.A strategy director builds 14 products without writing code.
That's a flex.A sneaker brand is founded by one person with a point of view.
That's a flex.A culture blog runs for 25 years because one person refuses to stop.
That's a flex.
What have you actually made?
What do you know that nobody taught you?
What would you do if nobody was watching?
That's your flex.
The New Flex is a project by Mike Litman at Cultural Capital Labs.
Mike has built 14 products without writing a line of code. His flex is taste.