Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

Flow. Style, identity and the games we play. osullivanpatrick.substack.com Vancouver Joined May 2010

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

4 days ago

@haruka_no_yume I loved late nights like this at Kinryu Ramen

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

a week ago

Across sub-groups, even style-based groups, men dress primarily for one thing: safety & belonging. We’re dressing to manage social risk as part of a default automatic survival function. But at what cost? osullivanpatrick.substack.com/p/you-look-how…

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

3 months ago

x.com/i/article/2055…

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

3 months ago

My latest piece explores how most of our decisions run on autopilot through our unconscious interpretive lens. This keeps us safe but stuck… And how to be at the source. open.substack.com/pub/osullivanp…

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

3 months ago

1975. The theme: After-dark sophistication, couple dynamics, infinite black backdrop.

Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

10 months ago

Seagram's ad, August 1978. Severe. Black void background. Black evening wear, black leather club chair. Zero context. What about the social dynamics? She's in command. Composed. Poised. He's leaning in, staking his claim, but it's not affection, is it? Is viewer being

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

3 months ago

@sfowler Exactly. Well said

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

3 months ago

We think of problems that we are personally "stuck" with as being not within our control. But what if a part of you is incentivized to maintain the problem because it delivers what the survival mechanism within us wants: familiarity/ safety/ predictability. Our identity seeks to protects itself by perpetuating patterns that don't deliver real satisfaction. We're left with the feeling that something's missing. This is very hard to see. And harder to accept that we'd sabotage ourselves.

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

3 months ago

Hard to see... but enormous power in it if you can.

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

3 months ago

I put this Q&A together around one question that keeps coming up: Why would I actually want certain problems? This is hard to see. Hard to accept. Here’s the piece: open.substack.com/pub/osullivanp…

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

3 months ago

April, 1977 70s ads often told a story. Or left a space for you to insert your own interpretation. There's a dynamic composition between positions of the players, but also a social dynamic: "Hey René, aren't you going to introduce us to your new lady friend?" Is the girl in the back a serendipitous passerby? Also, of course, beautiful suits. Long lines, strong contours.

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

3 months ago

@remnantsofpast Beautiful

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

3 months ago

DAVE: My wife starts fights out of nowhere. I walk in the door wanting to decompress and she starts up. Spoiler: At a deeper level, Dave wants the fights. osullivanpatrick.substack.com/p/break-the-st…

Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

3 months ago

My latest article explores why we're addicted to the thing we insist we don't want. In this case, marital fights. Our identity's running game to reinforce its own self-image. The result is getting stuck. How do we break the cycle? osullivanpatrick.substack.com/p/break-the-st…

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

3 months ago

The dialogue sketches I've been writing on my Substack have been a kind of cognitive working through process for me to test-drive this material of the automaticity which we are. Not easy stuff.

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

3 months ago

Our identity’s objective differs from our own. Identity seeks confirmation of who its self-definition... based on the past. So it's strongly biased towards towards risk aversion, inertia, justification and being right. When we act as our identity, we get stuck.

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

3 months ago

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

4 months ago

Creating an elegant leg line. Pants ad, Esquire, September 1972

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

4 months ago

Cerruti ad Esquire, November 1975

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

4 months ago

How do you get access to what you don’t know that you don’t know?

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

5 months ago

Do you think your thoughts? Or do your thoughts think you? A powerful distinction. My latest piece: osullivanpatrick.substack.com/p/you-dont-thi…

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Patrick O’Sullivan @_osullivan

5 months ago

My latest piece. A dialogue sketch that explores what the "I don't do introspection" take could be hiding. Wealth and power don’t exempt the player from the game of personas. In fact, wealth and power may create larger blindspots due to arrogance. osullivanpatrick.substack.com/p/billionaire-…