Today is publication day for my new book "STATUS AND CULTURE: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change" from @vikingbooks (Link in bio to order.) It's my attempt to solve the "Grand Mystery of Culture": why we change our preferences over the years for seemingly arbitrary reasons. To find answers to that puzzle required looking at status, conventions, signaling, taste, authenticity, identity, class-based aesthetics, subcultures and countercultures, artistic innovation, fashion cycles, history and tradition — and how the internet changed everything.