Spreadsheets serve as weapons of mass cost destruction
We need to be bored more. This is an important read.
Once you’ve seen it, it’s everywhere.
We’ve been led into a culture that has been engineered to leave us tired, hungry for indulgence, willing to pay a lot for convenience and entertainment, and most importantly, vaguely dissatisfied with our lives so that we continue wanting things we don’t have. We buy so much because it always seems like something is still missing.
A flourishing economy mostly depends on an unsatisfied population and a declining environment.
I see so many people intent on cramming something into every hour of their weekend as if doing nothing was an admission of slothfulness. And if they have kids, they push that culture onto them too. You need margins, kids need them even more. Minds need to wander a little.
Interesting take on (Silicon Valley) privilege versus exposure to the current Covid-19 pandemic.
They’re simply succumbing to one of the dominant ethos of the digital age, which is to design one’s personal reality so meticulously that existential threats are simply removed from the equation. The leap from a Fitbit tracking your heart rate to an annual full-body cancer scan or from a doorbell surveillance camera to a network of autonomous robot sentries is really just a matter of money. No matter the level of existential security, the Netflix shows we stream are the same.
I've certainly thought about this myself as we sit comfortably at home while delivery drivers and shop staff risk exposure to supply us with anything we need.
A former Boston Globe reporter on his now homeless life. A tense and depressing read.
