Missing Cool in the Age of Endless Data

There was a time when “cool” wasn’t something you could Google. You couldn’t scroll past it on TikTok or have an algorithm recommend it to you. Cool was discovered. You had to catch it live, feel it, and hold onto it before it slipped away. Eddie Van Halen didn’t need SEO to blow audiences away—he just walked on stage and redefined what a guitar could do. Steve Jobs didn’t run polls before unveiling the iPhone—he simply stood in a black turtleneck, and the world leaned in.

Today, we’re drowning in data. More stats, more charts, more feeds than we could ever consume. Everyone is documenting, analyzing, and optimizing. But where did the cool go? Somewhere along the way, we traded mystery for metrics. We’ve got influencers but not icons. Viral moments, but not revolutions.

Cool isn’t about being everywhere—it’s about being undeniable. It’s that spark that can’t be explained in a spreadsheet, that moment when someone walks into a room (or plugs in a guitar) and you just know something’s changed. The internet democratized access, which is powerful, but it also diluted the magic. Everything’s visible, yet less feels legendary.

So, where are the Eddie Van Halens and Steve Jobs of tomorrow? They’re probably out there—but they’re harder to see because the signal is buried under so much noise. The next great mind or artist may not go viral; they might not fit into 30 seconds of content. Cool takes time, space, and a touch of mystery—things we’ve nearly erased.

Maybe that’s the challenge for us now. Instead of expecting cool to be handed to us by the algorithm, maybe we need to slow down, listen deeper, and look harder. The icons of the future are still coming—they just won’t look like the ones before. But when they arrive, we’ll know. Because cool isn’t dead. It’s just waiting for its next stage.