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The Metrics of Backpacks

artpractical.com

41–50 of 52 posts

Re: The Metrics of Backpacks

#41
Entertaining read. I quite liked it. Also a weird feeling to be one of the tangential villains in the story.

Though I imagine I would conclude that either the person doesn't trust me or they're an idiot if they don't incorporate my data into their world view.

Re: The Metrics of Backpacks

#42

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

I went there to see what they had to say about backpacks too, and was taken aback to find it wasn't about that at all, but I decided to read enough to find the connection and was very surprised with what I found.

I don't read a lot of introspective stuff, I focus almost entirely on learning something from what I read, but this piece is truly exceptional and it gave me a much deeper insight to what working in a tech center city really feels like.

And it confirms my decision to leave the "Big City" long ago, before the tech boom, and to not go back, was a great one.

Re: The Metrics of Backpacks

#43
So much of this account resonates with my experience as a UX ("X!" Must be technical!) developer in the Bay Area. I love this line particularly: "A film of pseudoscience sticks to everything we touch."

Re: The Metrics of Backpacks

#45

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?

[deleted]

Re: The Metrics of Backpacks

#47

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 custo…

He had found a Market-Matic machine which had provided him with a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a real comment. The way it functioned was very interesting. When the Reply button was pressed it made an instant but highly detailed examination of the subject's taste buds, a spectroscopic examination of the subject's metabolism and then sent tiny experimental signals down the neural pathways to the taste centers of the subject's brain to see what was likely to go down well. However, no one knew quite why it did this because it invariably delivered a cupful of liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a real comment.

Re: The Metrics of Backpacks

#48

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 custo…

He had found a Market-Matic machine which had provided him with a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a real comment. The way it functioned was very interesting. When the Reply button was pressed it made an instant but highly detailed examination of the subject's taste buds, a spectroscopic examination of the subject's metabolism and then sent tiny experimental signals dow…

When one tells the truth there is no guarantee that the listener lives closely enough with the truth to recognize it as such, the filters of their life often obscurring the simpler reality that some few others choose to inhabit.

All that is important is living and telling one's truth because, in the end, most people don't even know who Dunning & Kruger are, let alone that McArthur Wheeler bears a great resemblance to the vast majority of humanity in the early 21st Century.

Re: The Metrics of Backpacks

#49
As humanity we need a greater purpose. We need to constantly expand and move into more difficult frontiers. It is what defines us as a species and the challenge keeps us collectively sane.

We need to push as a species into Space. To mine asteroids and setup bases. We need to get our home planet off fossil fuels and maintain it as a haven of life, with a smaller and more productive human workforce.

Re: The Metrics of Backpacks

#50
post #37
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Standardizing and quantizing is also what enables conceptual proliferation which makes reality increasingly intractable. Understanding this is why China had Chuang Tzu and continuity in civilization. Things shouldn't be the slave of reason, they should be a slave of the senses. Love, Hume/Buddha :) perception in terms of quantization has that old problem 'with a hammer everything looks like a nail'... everything look…

> Things shouldn't be the slave of reason, they should be a slave of the senses People say that. But then they are horrified when someone kills another one because it made them angry. Or when a man rapes a woman because he couldn't control his senses. They say they want a "human touch" and "emotion instead of logic", but don't like the consequences of truly doing that.

The solution IMHO is not to substitute the emotions, but to understand, control and channel them by equanimity, concentration, meditation, investigation and mindfulness.
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