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The Metrics of Backpacks

artpractical.com

11–20 of 52 posts

Re: The Metrics of Backpacks

#11

I don't get it. Was hoping to learn something about how to make the perfect backpack. ;-)

I feel pretty shallow for saying this but I was hoping for information on perfectly adjusting one's backpack based on their anatomy/measurements. Who has time for literary beauty when so many dumb things occupy one's mind :D

There's nothing shallow about this. If you are carrying 75 pounds on your back for 7 days, you had better size a pack that fits your dimensions and then pack it according to best practices. Why experience unnecessary pain and discomfort? Do it right.

Re: The Metrics of Backpacks

#12
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel pretty shallow for saying this but I was hoping for information on perfectly adjusting one's backpack based on their anatomy/measurements. Who has time for literary beauty when so many dumb things occupy one's mind :D

There's nothing shallow about this. If you are carrying 75 pounds on your back for 7 days, you had better size a pack that fits your dimensions and then pack it according to best practices. Why experience unnecessary pain and discomfort? Do it right.

In the context of the article, it is shallow.

Re: The Metrics of Backpacks

#13
Something special happens when one reads a piece of such ineffable beauty. Beyond thought or specific emotion, we are affected, taken to some other undefined place. It happens very rarely for me, perhaps due to my lifetime of tech-oriented pursuits, but it certainly happened to me today and I am thankful for Ms. Gannon's soul-bearing work of beauty.

On another note and only because I am a paying, very satisfied customer, I have to recommend MasterClass. I was originally simply interested in watching Gary Kasparov's chess class with my 10yo son, but when I saw the list of experts in writing, music and media production, we decided that $90 for one class was inferior to $180 for a year of all the classes (and we live in public housing so this was no easy investment). It has been an outstanding decision. I literally did this within the past week and watching Judy Blume and Neil Gaiman and Margaret Atwood with my 12yo daughter has been nothing less than revelatory. I also have enjoyed Will Wright and Herbie Hancock and Malcolm Gladwell and Frank Gehry and Hans Zimmer; excellence and passion inspire us. The production on the classes is its own master class in educational video creation in the internet age, but their choice of educators is its own special kind of genius.

My favorite, however (and surprisingly, to me), has been the poet Billy Collins. We need more poets' hearts in this digital world of MBAs ruthlessly squeezing the populace and our beloved Mother Earth for everything the laws they crafted will allow. I applaud Victoria Gannon for her wonderful piece of poetic prose. Her poet's heart has inspired me this morning and I need all of that I can get in this world of callous competition.

Re: The Metrics of Backpacks

#14
post #8

> Dustin wants me to know that it was his decision to not hire me. “I have to feel really good about a person before I bring them on, and I don’t feel that way about you,” he says. Whenever I took a decision to fire somebody, I always made a point of openly taking responsibility for it. I thought it was the right thing to do; I was sick of people who couldn't stomach making a decision, and that I could at least look…

I think most people want to know why they are being fired and they deserve that information communicated delicately.

Some might want to know who fired them when it is not obvious, but few would actually benefit from knowing this.

Re: The Metrics of Backpacks

#16

huh, so i'm about halfway trough and i'm having a hard time following what the writer is talking about. To me this feels like someone with ADD trying to tell me something but gets distracted every other sentence. is it just me?

I abandoned about halfway through when I realized it wasn't going to get to a discussion of backpack design and I had no idea what the actual point was. You're not alone.

Re: The Metrics of Backpacks

#17
post #16

huh, so i'm about halfway trough and i'm having a hard time following what the writer is talking about. To me this feels like someone with ADD trying to tell me something but gets distracted every other sentence. is it just me?

I abandoned about halfway through when I realized it wasn't going to get to a discussion of backpack design and I had no idea what the actual point was. You're not alone.

Hope you guys manage to convince your wives to watch some sci fi!

Re: The Metrics of Backpacks

#18
"What dismays me about technology is this: not the machine itself but the way its architecture echoes outward, imposing a grid of quantification on everything it touches. The sadness of numbers interferes with our thoughts, begs us to apply logic to warm, messy things. What becomes of the ambiguity of feeling? That which can’t be immediately identified is derided, denied, and eventually erased." Amen.

Re: The Metrics of Backpacks

#19

huh, so i'm about halfway trough and i'm having a hard time following what the writer is talking about. To me this feels like someone with ADD trying to tell me something but gets distracted every other sentence. is it just me?

I clicked because I am interested in backpacks having seen someone hitch with like 8 possesions and no money from singapore to india just a month a go. As I was reading this article at first, It was choppy at the beginning... switching back and forth seemi ngly, I sort of felt I had to adjust my focus and re-read a few times to understand... this to me is a sign... a sign of a new way of thinking or terrible writing. I had an intuition this could be a good piece. I was not disappointed.

Gotta give it some attention, this is lit/literature. Reading that communicates a novel way of thinking requires attention. Then when that thinking is commonplace later, it may become "more readable". Consider what it felt like to read more adult literature in high school.

Re: The Metrics of Backpacks

#20
post #18

"What dismays me about technology is this: not the machine itself but the way its architecture echoes outward, imposing a grid of quantification on everything it touches. The sadness of numbers interferes with our thoughts, begs us to apply logic to warm, messy things. What becomes of the ambiguity of feeling? That which can’t be immediately identified is derided, denied, and eventually erased." Amen.

Standardizing, gridifying and quantiazing it's what allows our modern huge world to exist.

> Social scalability is the ability of an institution –- a relationship or shared endeavor, in which multiple people repeatedly participate, and featuring customs, rules, or other features which constrain or motivate participants’ behaviors -- to overcome shortcomings in human minds and in the motivating or constraining aspects of said institution that limit who or how many can successfully participate. Social scalability is about the ways and extents to which participants can think about and respond to institutions and fellow participants as the variety and numbers of participants in those institutions or relationships grow. It's about human limitations, not about technological limitations or physical resource constraints.

https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2017/02/money-blockchains-...

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