The Golden-Plated Rule
I’ve been trying to think of a name for this for a couple hours now, on and off (between fits of debugging on Maven). I’m trying to capture the feeling I get when driving around Gainesville, FL…if you’ve ever been out on a Friday afternoon around the mall, you’ll know what I’m talking about. This is somewhere near the opposite of the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The golden rule doesn’t really apply in the impersonal aspects of life in Gainesville. I suspect that’s true of impersonal interactions all over, but this is the place where I really notice it. Driving in rush hour in Kansas City gives you a hint of this flavor, but here it’s liberally applied. The rule in effect here is the cynic’s version of the golden rule, and it reads something closer to this: Do unto others as those bastards would do unto you (if they had the chance). Honestly. I actually saw something I didn’t know was possible ...
Posted on March 21, 2008 4:57:35 PM EDT
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Living a More Intentional Life
Last night and again this morning, I snapped out of the preoccupations of my day to discover that I was brushing my teeth. Here’s a little insight into my personality: it’s a good thing I always do things like brush my teeth in the same way every time, or I probably would have started over again with parts I’d already brushed, and become preoccupied again. I might still be there now, were it not for the extreme ritualistic approach I take to these things. Later this morning, over breakfast, Emily mentioned a blog she’d discovered where the author and her family were trying to live for a year without making any unnecessary purchases. Apparently, she talked at length about the things they’d taken to Goodwill that had been sitting in boxes for 15 years, and how it had made her realize the junk quality of the items in many of the stores we flock to. This is all paraphrasing, of course. That conversation, in turn, reminded me of the book I’m just finishing: Big Box Swindle. In ...
Posted on March 21, 2008 11:22:49 AM EDT
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Throwback Tech Gone Horribly Wrong
Frankly, I can’t believe that the world didn’t see a plunge in the rate of heart attacks when digital alarm clocks were invented. We were out shopping a couple of weeks ago, and I found this cool little old-school wind-up alarm clock. It reminded me of my Grandpa Casey, so I bought it. I do think it’s a cool clock, particularly that this thing will run and run with just a few turns of a little key on the back. I know, it’s technology that we’ve had for hundreds of years…get over it. But think about how rare it actually is to have something that a designer didn’t at some point say, “Eh, just chuck a AA into the back. It’s no big deal.” Anyway, things were looking pretty good until the first morning I tried to actually use the alarm on said clock. I can’t imagine that the sound of someone setting off a bomb under my bedside table would get my heart racing more. 99% of the time, it just ticks along with this very comforting, rhythmic ...
Posted on March 4, 2008 10:54:34 PM EST
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When Globalism Hits Home
Do you ever think about where your money goes after you buy something? In a sort of classical scenario, your dollar ripples out through the community and actually has an amplified benefit on its health. I’m not sure I could explain the economic theory behind it, but it’s known as an economic multiplier. This dollar gets divided between profit, employee benefits and payroll, raw materials (or wholesale goods purchases), building maintenance, advertising, accounting, taxes, and so on. Every business providing a service or good that enables your purchase at that store takes a small cut, and your dollar helps to support many families and businesses in the process. When these people and businesses pay taxes, they in turn support police and fire departments, upkeep of city infrastructure like roads and power lines, hospitals, schools, and much more. The economic multiplier effect makes it possible for a community to be relatively stable and thrive, and it depends solely on the recirculation of money ...
Posted on March 4, 2008 10:41:50 PM EST
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