1/ Today @stripepress is releasing the first two mini-documentaries in a series we’re calling Tacit. They’re vignettes of craftspeople who provide a pretty compelling answer to the question, “after AI, does mastery still matter?” This episode features Christophe Laudamiel, master perfumer at Osmo. Christophe is the creator or co-creator of dozens of scents, most notably, Polo Blue by Ralph Lauren, Abercrombie Fierce, and Tom Ford Amber Absolute. We spent a week with Christophe, following him from his office, to his home (which too, looks suspiciously like an office), observing him as he built fragrances essentially from scratch, isolated problematic notes (TIL: certain fragrance notes, when put together, can produce an unfortunate ‘wet dog’ smell), and even discovered new molecules. Christophe is an archetype of individual we’re obsessed with: *he’s* obsessed with mastery for its own sake. For the past 30 years he’s been at the forefront of perfumery, and now he wonders if and how computers can augment his craft.