All weight isn’t bad. All things that hold us back are not bad.
Earth’s gravity holds us back, but it also keeps us from floating off into outer space.
Historically, most geeks—including me—have thought that people who use computers should learn enough to be their own tech support. We did, and it doesn’t seem that difficult to us, and it’s kind of infuriating that so many of the questions we’re badgered with sound fundamentally ignorant: people who don’t understand what the difference between memory and hard drives, can’t figure out how to launch an application if it doesn’t have a dock icon or a desktop shortcut, and can never find the document they saved last week because they don’t have the faintest clue what a directory is.
The model we’re moving toward, though, is premised on the idea that computers shouldn’t require routine tech support. Again, look back at game consoles: an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 is a fully programmable computer with networking capability, offline storage, removable media, the whole shebang, yet all of that is invisible to the user. What file system does a Playstation use and what directories does it put your downloaded games in? The correct answer is: “Who gives a shit?”
We’re all stardust.
Would we (the market) benefit from more pandering by marketers churning out average stuff that gets a quick glance, or would we all be better off with passionate renegades on a mission to fulfill their vision?
check your next pair of levi’s for “a care tag for our planet” with some practical tips on how to reduce the climate/environmental impact of caring for your jeans. these tags will also have a message that encourages consumers to donate their unwanted clothing.
the idea was created by ddbo west, goodwill of san francisco’s pro bono agency, after goodwill estimated that about 23.8 billion pounds of clothing ended up in US landfills each year. and on a side note: it’s really refreshing to hear that a huge agency like ddbo is doing pro bono work. that makes all of this soo much better, especially when you think about just how extensive this initiative really is.
Perfect example of how companies can show a small amount of accountability and make a large difference.
Apple has a way of making the future.
Ask yourself what you would die for so that you may know the reason you’re living.
(Source: raamdev.com)
As soon as this can be made simpler, it will be.
(via mnmal)
Packing light offers less tangible but very real benefits. It’s a chance to pare down and simplify our lives, to discover what is truly essential and what is not. It’s a reminder that we’re more than the sum of our possessions. As I’ve written before, it’s always a revelation to discover how much of our impedimenta we don’t really need.
Researchers from the independent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life phoned more than 3,400 Americans and asked them 32 questions about the Bible, Christianity and other world religions, famous religious figures and the constitutional principles governing religion in public life.
On average, people who took the survey answered half the questions incorrectly, and many flubbed even questions about their own faith.
Those who scored the highest were atheists and agnostics, as well as two religious minorities: Jews and Mormons. The results were the same even after the researchers controlled for factors like age and racial differences.
“Even after all these other factors, including education, are taken into account, atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons still outperform all the other religious groups in our survey,” said Greg Smith, a senior researcher at Pew.
That finding might surprise some, but not Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists, an advocacy group for nonbelievers that was founded by Madalyn Murray O’Hair.
“I have heard many times that atheists know more about religion than religious people,” Mr. Silverman said. “Atheism is an effect of that knowledge, not a lack of knowledge. I gave a Bible to my daughter. That’s how you make atheists.”
Over the weekend, writer Andrew Sullivan linked to the findings of a 2003 study on “The role of eyebrows in face recognition.” The study concludes that when a person removes his or her eyebrows (either by shaving them off or digitally removing them in a photograph) it is very difficult to recognize that person.
More than half of the people looking at images of celebrities will fail to name the celebrity when their eyebrows are missing. And, since most of us aren’t as famous as Richard Nixon, it’s safe to bet that if we were to remove our eyebrows that most people wouldn’t recognize us, either.
I’m mentioning this study because it is fascinating to me on two levels. First, I thought it was cool. Who comes up with the idea for testing this sort of thing?
Second, I instantly thought about the human desire to express ourselves through stuff. We buy doo dads and knick knacks and a seemingly unlimited supply of things to proclaim, “this is who I am!” We think our stuff tells the world who we are, but our eyebrows — little bits of hair that nature automatically provides — say more than our possessions ever will.
Remove a favorite chair from your home or toss out your beloved t-shirt and everyone in your life will still recognize you. Shave off your eyebrows, and even your closest circle of friends will have to stare at you for awhile to realize that they know you. I’m not suggesting that you shave off your eyebrows, rather that you remember this strange study as further proof that your stuff isn’t you.
No one can magically create a 25 hour day, and all the lifehacking in the world won’t stop the ticking of the clock.
Minimalism gives us the advantage of being able to ruthlessly eliminate that which does not contribute to our lives in order to more effectively spend our time, the most finite resource of all.
