Capsule #80 ft. Ryan Bassil

Hiii everyone,

Happy new year!!! I hope you had a wonderful break. 🫶 

Popping in this week with some things for you to read and consider during the first week of January, as you explore resolutions and reflect on the year that’s just passed. I’m also asking you to share your 2025 predictions and I’ll report back next week with our collective list.

Scroll for the usual stuff: the first Hot & Not of 2025 with Ryan Bassil, and some recs to help you ease into the year.

With love,

Holly x

First up — a request!

Please share your predictions for 2025 and I will share back our collective Capsule list next week!

And now: a note on resolutions…

I know there’s a lot of anti-resolution sentiment out there and I agree with some of it — changing your life overnight isn’t a thing, and if you haven’t done something for years, maybe you’re just not that into it. But there’s no denying that the first week of a new year feels different. We haven’t yet settled into our regular routine, we’re feeling the nostalgia of new years gone by, and looking ahead with a bit more hope (or at least consideration) than usual. For these reasons, I think making some resolutions or goals or just choosing some ways of thinking to help frame your life is a good idea.

With that said, here are some things I wanted to share with you as you figure out what that means for you:

1️⃣ Every resolution has an inverse, and sometimes prioritising one side leaves you wanting the opposite. For example: “say yes more” is the inverse of “learn how to say no,” being more spontaneous is on the other side of being more organised and making plans, and exercising more might means you have less time for other stuff that matters to you like reading or seeing friends. This is not a bad thing, it’s just to say that feeling pulled to certain ways of living now is a good way of identifying your desires, but may not be a fixed thing. A few weeks of saying yes to everything leaves you wanting rest, and being great at the gym is all well and good until you realise you haven’t read much or seen many movies this year. I find life easier to navigate when I see it as a series of ebbs and flows across different areas - topping up some cups while others falter, then switching so the pendulum can swing back a different way.

2️⃣ That being said, there are two decision making-adjacent quotes from last year that have stuck with me and I think are valuable if you’re inclined to overthink stuff. First, from Jemima Kirke, of course: “what the hell, sure.” A really good one to keep with you, a gentle reminder that not everything has to be super deep, you can just try and see how you go. Next up, from influencer Hollie Mercedes, when asked how she makes big decisions: “I get a feeling and I just go with it. Don’t think about it too much, no point lol”. And there you have it - two sentences it might take you months of therapy to get to, distilling wisdom we all know deep down - that any decision is better than floating in limbo, that you don’t know how something will be until you try it, and that making a decision either way on something is only the first step, and ultimately, not that important.

What comes after decision is the real bit.

3️⃣ However!!! Something I want to spend more time mulling over in 2025 is purchasing decisions. This comment from Jessie Bush’s renovation account is worth reflecting on: “I find it incredibly hard to differentiate between what I actually love, and what I’ve just seen 300 times. Likewise, the fast pace of social media and trends means that even ideas you genuinely love can feel ‘played out’ before you even incorporate the idea into your own home.”

Jessie is talking about renovating and decorating a home, which is higher stakes of course, but the same applies to buying clothes and pretty much anything else. I can’t come off social media for my work, but as Jessie says, I can introduce references that are older or not just targeted ads, and spend more time mulling it over. I can’t remember half of the stuff i “desperately wanted” at some point in 2024, which is good evidence against compulsive spending in 2025.

4️⃣ Which leads us to another great guiding quote, as referenced in the Capsule trends essay a few weeks back:

This is maybe all you need to take away from this issue. What are the things you’ve been thinking about or feeling for a long time? What things excite you in a slow burn, consistent way? Equally, what things spike up as a result of envy? What battles are you chasing but constantly losing? Food for thought!

5️⃣ And finally — some tweets I saved to share with you on this topic this week:

Love to stop worrying about forgetting books and films and instead resting assured that they’re all swirling around in the soul bucket broth forever and ever.

This week, Ryan Bassil popped into Capsule to share what’s 🔥hot🔥 and what’s not 🙅‍♀️ …

Ryan was previously editorial director at VICE and is now freelance. He’s currently producing short video essays about pop culture, and you can find him on TikTok here.

📺 Watching: We Live In Time in the cinema, smartly released on New Year’s Day when we’re all acutely aware of time. Also Mina Le’s video on the colour grading of Wicked which makes for good background listening as you take down decorations. And yet another Doechii rec, very much worth your time: the video for ‘Denial is a River’, an homage to black sitcoms. Also Apple TV is free this weekend!

📖 Reading: The Andrew Garfield profile in GQ, this list of books to read in 2025, and this thread of anticipated movie releases this year. Exciting stuff!

🎧 Listening to: Bird’s Eye, Ravyn Lenae’s album, ‘BMF’ by SZA, and the new year episode of the Polyester Podcast.

As you’d expect, in late December each year, searches relating to new year’s resolutions spike. Here’s some Google search data for you, courtesy of Bramble and I. The top trending “how to be more ___” searches are “Active at home”, “Comfortable with your partner”, “Productive at work”, “Innovative” and “Mature in a relationship”. Can you relate? And some more insights — people are searching for the Atomic Habits book (of course), “vision board ideas”, and “the anti planner”. We’re nothing if not predictable!

If you’d like to adopt Bramble or one of her friends, click here to learn more.

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear how you’re finding Capsule - let me know here. And if you have a friend who might like it, do refer them! 🥺

See you next week 💋

In some of the products we recommend, we may earn a small affiliate commission. We only ever recommend things we genuinely like and would buy, and this small revenue driver goes directly towards keeping Capsule going. Thank you for the support. 🫶