51–60 of 61 posts
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Not really related at all to this discussion, and not technically the first line (though its on the first page), but this line from Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer was the most captivating book starter for me ever: "I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive." How could you not keep reading after that?
Similar to the writing on Nikos Kazantzakis tomb "I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free."
Oooh. Po Bronson is probably my favourite author. There's something about his writing style that pushes my buttons. It's probably worth nothing that he used to do a lot of writing for Wired magazine (eg http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/6.12/hotmale.html ) and his second novel, The First $20m Is Always The Hardest, was about a startup ( http://pobronson.com/index_first_20_million.htm ). His site has lots of excerpts…
also, the article can be read in one page here: http://www.fastcompany.com/node/45909/print print version tho :)
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Ways to do these things have been around for decades, but it's not in the interest of the producers of homes and employers to do them. Look into some of the inventions by R. Buckminster Fuller. He invented a house that cost thousands, easily transported, made of aluminum, and sturdy, but it never caught on. Probably because he didn't spend time marketing it, but the mobile home and large home manufacturing companies…
I don't think evolution has a whole lot to do with this. Evolution takes place on a much longer time frame, so we're mostly talking about cultural norms here. Furthermore, whatever "trait" leads to accumulating sports cars and mcmansions is not heritable. There's something called the Matching Hypothesis in sociology that basically says people end up pairing with those on the same "level" (in whichever way that person…
I'd very much like to see us focusing on improvement of our societal and economical infrastructures (education, sustainability, personal growth, pursuit of happiness and purpose, medical & technological advancement, etc) than to stay victims of our "evil" infrastructures (overly influential political lobbyism, corporate en-slavery of its workforce, and greed/thirst for financial domination). But this isn't something that can happen until there are several societal shifts, and perhaps some cultural memory loss.
(Please note that my use of progressive and anti-progressive are apolitical references and should not represent actual values of political parties or interests!)
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I don't deny it, but no-one points a gun at your head and says "eat these Pringles".
Don't underestimate persuasion techniques. If they can convince an entire group of people to simultaneously commit suicide, they can probably convince them to eat Pringles.
I think it's evil the amount of energy and resources that go into creating unnecessary desires in people in order to cultivate a consumer class. It's time to reap the benefits of our technological advancements, by working shorter weeks, finding less expensive ways to build shelter (houses), and becoming more proficient in local food generation.
If you want to consume less and work a shorter work week, then do it. Save money and buy store brands rather than advertised brands, don't buy as much, etc.
Our system rewards timeliness over nearly anything else. Home construction companies bid on how quickly they can build the property while staying "on quality" and "on track." Therefore they're not going to let their blue collar guys work less hours per week. They want to churn out as many houses as quickly as they can.
This strategy of working less will only work for a select few, who have the nerve, smarts, and strategy to design a custom life that permits it. They'll have to be bold and push against the grain, and inform anyone they conduct business with how they operate. It won't be easy. And that alone will make it less likely that it will happen for a large number of people to do it.
I think it's evil the amount of energy and resources that go into creating unnecessary desires in people in order to cultivate a consumer class. It's time to reap the benefits of our technological advancements, by working shorter weeks, finding less expensive ways to build shelter (houses), and becoming more proficient in local food generation.
Did you read the same article I did? Trying to figure out the connection with this comment :)
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I sympathize with this view, but the problem is, all it takes is someone else willing to work longer hours in the same role to make you undesirable as an employee.
...unless you can get more done by working shorter hours. In my experience, the people that work the longest hours waste the most time at work. Work expands and contracts to fill time.
It's the wrong way of thinking of course, but it's rampent.
And think about it this way... if a company was full of amazingly productive people who got 40 hours worth of work done in 20 hours, do you think they'd let them leave at 20 hours into the week but still pay them for 40 hours worth of work? No, they'll just find a way to double the workload to make even more maximization of their production capability.
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...unless you can get more done by working shorter hours. In my experience, the people that work the longest hours waste the most time at work. Work expands and contracts to fill time.
Unless you're super-human, there will still be someone willing to do exactly what you're doing but for more hours. But again, I agree with you.
This approach excludes working on most social network stuff or things built on the top of it just for the sake of being another 'social' thing.
Cmon people, what's 'social' is happening behind the scenes in our lives, not in teh networkz.
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...unless you can get more done by working shorter hours. In my experience, the people that work the longest hours waste the most time at work. Work expands and contracts to fill time.
Never underestimate the power of the illusion of getting more done by working longer hours. Many employers find people who work shorter hours to be snide or arrogant even if they're accomplishing more. Many employers still think that they need an army of complacent slave horses working at top speed to be an effective way to eliminate contempt and organic corruption in their employee pool. It's the wrong way of thinki…
I remember even reading about a company that years ago cut back everyone to 30 hours per week (with 3/4 pay) due to a recession at that time. They discovered that everyone was more productive at 30 hours and happier as well. Once the recession ended and the company was on more solid ground, they went back to 40 hours. Go figure.
37 signals doesn't keep office hours and I'm sure there are others out there. Just gotta keep looking.