finalize october 2024
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David Eisinger
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[1]Austin Kleon
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• [2]Blog
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• [3]Books
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• [4]Newsletter
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• [5]Speaking
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||||
• [6]About
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||||
• [7]Contact
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||||
• [8][9]
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You are here: [10]Blog / [11]Miscellany / A good assistant to your future self
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A good assistant to your future self
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Monday, March 20, 2023
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[12][IMG_2886-600x600]
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This morning I was flipping through my copy of the [13]Bicycle Sentences
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Journal that illustrator [14]Betsy Streeter sent me and I was quite taken with
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this final paragraph by Grant Petersen. (I’m a big fan of [15]his blog and [16]
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Just Ride.)
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He touches on [17]why I keep a diary, why I keep it [18]on paper, and the magic
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of [19]keeping a logbook. The mundane details can bring back sublime memories,
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and [20]what you think is boring now may be interesting in the future: “What
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seems bland when you write it down… will seem epic in thirty years.”
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I have a new studio routine where when I’m unsure of what to write about, I
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[21]revisit my notebooks each year [22]on today’s date. (I have notebooks going
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back 20 years, daily logbooks going back 15, but I’ve kept a daily diary for 5
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years now. That’s where a lot of gems are buried.)
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Flipping through these notebooks will usually yield something worth writing
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about. (This morning, it was [23]William Burroughs on language.)
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Reading my diary this way, which I first learned from [24]reading Thoreau’s
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diary, also shows me the cycles and patterns of my life.
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(For example: [25]Cocteau Twins and the beginning of spring are somehow
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intertwined in my life. What does that mean? And what does the fact that their
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lyrics are barely understandable mean when matched with the Burroughs? Spring
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is a season of rebirth… When babies are new, they babble and make noise without
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language… do they sound like spring to me for this reason? You can see how
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these thoughts, none of which I had when I woke up this morning, come forth
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from just reading myself.)
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[26][Screen-Shot-2023-03-20-at-11]
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Another way to think about it: Keeping a diary is being a good research
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assistant to your future self.
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This is the advice that art critic [27]Jerry Saltz has tweeted over the years:
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[28]Be a good assistant to yourself. Prepare and gather, make notations and
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sketches in your head or phone. When you work, all that mapping,
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architecture, research & preparation will be your past self giving a gift
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to the future self that you are now. That is the sacred.
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[29]I’ve never had an assistant. I am my own best assistant. My assistant
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-self is my past self loving my future self who’ll need this previous
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research when I reach for something in my work. My assistant-self has
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gotten ideas for whole articles, essays from minutes of research online.
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[30]Artists: The beautiful thing about giving yourself a little break & not
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working – those are the times when new ideas flood in from the cosmos & set
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your “assistant self” in motion, the self that will be there for your
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“future-self.” Curiosity and obsession always fill the vacuum.
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[31]Artists: Be your own best assistant. Do your research. Get your tools
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and materials in order. These will be the ancestors, spirit guides and
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self-replicating imagination of your work. This will allow art to reproduce
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itself in you. You’ll thank yourself during & afterwards.
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I have my many moments of self-loathing at my own lack of progress, but one
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thing I have done right, at least in the past half decade or so: I have been a
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good assistant to my future self.
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Joan Didion said of re-reading notebooks, “I think we are well advised to keep
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on nodding terms with the people we used to be.” This is especially true if
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they have bothered to preserve themselves so we can visit them later.
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Yes, a diary is [32]a good spaceship for time travel: for meditating on the
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present, flinging ourselves into the future, and visiting ourselves in the
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past.
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Filed Under: [33]Miscellany Tagged: [34]bicycles, [35]diaries, [36]jerry saltz,
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[37]NOTES ON WRITING AND DRAWING, [38]time travel
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[39][ ][40][Search]
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||||
About the author
|
||||
|
||||
[41]Austin Kleon
|
||||
|
||||
[42]Austin Kleon is a writer who draws. He’s the bestselling author of [43]
|
||||
Steal Like An Artist and other books. [44]Read more→
|
||||
|
||||
• [45]
|
||||
• [46]
|
||||
• [47]
|
||||
• [48]
|
||||
• [49]
|
||||
|
||||
Subscribe to my newsletter
|
||||
|
||||
Join the 200,000+ readers who get it delivered free to their inboxes every
|
||||
week:
|
||||
|
||||
[50]On This Date
|
||||
|
||||
• 2020: [51]Peanuts, remixed
|
||||
• 2019: [52]Drawers
|
||||
• 2018: [53]The right book at the right time
|
||||
• 2017: [54]Seasonal time
|
||||
|
||||
Get the 10th anniversary gift edition
|
||||
|
||||
[55]Steal Like an Artist 10th Anniversary gift edition
|
||||
|
||||
Listen to the audiobook trilogy
|
||||
|
||||
[56]The Steal Like An Artist Audio Trilogy
|
||||
|
||||
Read my books
|
||||
|
||||
[57]Keep Going [58]Show Your Work [59]Steal Like An Artist [60]The Steal Like
|
||||
An Artist Journal [61]Newspaper Blackout
|
||||
|
||||
Order t-shirts on demand
|
||||
|
||||
[62]t-shirts
|
||||
|
||||
Recent posts
|
||||
|
||||
• [63]How do you draw time?
|
||||
• [64]A plan and not enough time
|
||||
• [65]Autumn leaves (a September mixtape)
|
||||
• [66]Human resources
|
||||
• [67]Cut out verbs
|
||||
|
||||
More about me
|
||||
|
||||
• [68]Books I’ve written
|
||||
• [69]My newsletter
|
||||
• [70]Books I’ve read
|
||||
• [71]Twitter
|
||||
• [72]Instagram
|
||||
• [73]Tumblr
|
||||
|
||||
Search this site
|
||||
|
||||
[74][ ][75][Search]
|
||||
Follow me elsewhere
|
||||
|
||||
• [76]
|
||||
• [77]
|
||||
• [78]
|
||||
• [79]
|
||||
• [80]
|
||||
|
||||
© Austin Kleon 2001–2024
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||||
|
||||
• [81]Blog
|
||||
• [82]Books
|
||||
• [83]Newsletter
|
||||
• [84]Speaking
|
||||
• [85]About
|
||||
• [86]Contact
|
||||
|
||||
This site participates in the Amazon Affiliates program, the proceeds of which
|
||||
keep it free for anyone to read.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
References:
|
||||
|
||||
[1] https://austinkleon.com/
|
||||
[2] https://austinkleon.com/
|
||||
[3] https://austinkleon.com/books/
|
||||
[4] https://austinkleon.substack.com/
|
||||
[5] https://austinkleon.com/speaking/
|
||||
[6] https://austinkleon.com/about/
|
||||
[7] https://austinkleon.com/contact/
|
||||
[8] https://twitter.com/austinkleon
|
||||
[9] https://instagram.com/austinkleon
|
||||
[10] https://austinkleon.com/
|
||||
[11] https://austinkleon.com/category/miscellany/
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||||
[12] https://www.rivbike.com/products/bicycle-sentences
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||||
[13] https://www.rivbike.com/products/bicycle-sentences
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||||
[14] https://www.instagram.com/betsystreeter/?hl=en
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[15] https://www.rivbike.com/blogs/grant-petersens-blog
|
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[16] https://geni.us/pLVPGGl
|
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[17] https://austinkleon.com/2018/02/20/what-is-the-point-of-keeping-a-diary/
|
||||
[18] https://austinkleon.com/tag/paper-is-a-wonderful-technology
|
||||
[19] https://austinkleon.com/tag/logbook
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||||
[20] https://austinkleon.com/2021/01/31/what-you-think-is-boring-now-may-be-interesting-in-the-future/
|
||||
[21] https://austinkleon.com/2017/12/15/on-the-importance-of-revisiting-notebooks/
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||||
[22] https://austinkleon.com/2017/10/21/on-this-day/
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[23] https://austinkleon.com/2023/03/20/errors-in-western-language/
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||||
[24] https://austinkleon.com/2018/11/13/a-year-of-thoreau/
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[25] https://cocteautwins.com/
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[26] https://twitter.com/jerrysaltz/status/1556296370440400896
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||||
[27] https://twitter.com/jerrysaltz
|
||||
[28] https://twitter.com/jerrysaltz/status/1556296370440400896
|
||||
[29] https://twitter.com/jerrysaltz/status/1559535799896576000
|
||||
[30] https://twitter.com/jerrysaltz/status/1559886618575732738
|
||||
[31] https://twitter.com/jerrysaltz/status/1606742728024494080
|
||||
[32] https://austinkleon.com/2014/01/19/a-good-spaceship/
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||||
[33] https://austinkleon.com/category/miscellany/
|
||||
[34] https://austinkleon.com/tag/bicycles/
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||||
[35] https://austinkleon.com/tag/diaries/
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||||
[36] https://austinkleon.com/tag/jerry-saltz/
|
||||
[37] https://austinkleon.com/tag/notes-on-writing-and-drawing/
|
||||
[38] https://austinkleon.com/tag/time-travel/
|
||||
[41] https://austinkleon.com/about/
|
||||
[42] https://austinkleon.com/about/
|
||||
[43] https://austinkleon.com/steal/
|
||||
[44] https://austinkleon.com/about/
|
||||
[45] http://facebook.com/mr.austin.kleon
|
||||
[46] http://instagram.com/austinkleon
|
||||
[47] http://tumblr.austinkleon.com/
|
||||
[48] http://twitter.com/austinkleon
|
||||
[49] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8uQnyh7DAfp4uX9RN7XxEw
|
||||
[50] https://austinkleon.com/on-this-date/
|
||||
[51] https://austinkleon.com/2020/10/02/peanuts-remixed/
|
||||
[52] https://austinkleon.com/2019/10/02/drawers/
|
||||
[53] https://austinkleon.com/2018/10/02/the-right-book-at-the-right-time/
|
||||
[54] https://austinkleon.com/2017/10/02/seasonal-time/
|
||||
[55] https://austinkleon.com/steal/
|
||||
[56] https://austinkleon.com/steal-audiobook-trilogy
|
||||
[57] https://austinkleon.com/keepgoing
|
||||
[58] https://austinkleon.com/show-your-work
|
||||
[59] https://austinkleon.com/steal/
|
||||
[60] https://austinkleon.com/journal
|
||||
[61] https://austinkleon.com/newspaperblackout/
|
||||
[62] https://cottonbureau.com/people/austin-kleon
|
||||
[63] https://austinkleon.com/2024/10/01/how-do-you-draw-time/
|
||||
[64] https://austinkleon.com/2024/09/27/a-plan-and-not-enough-time/
|
||||
[65] https://austinkleon.com/2024/09/26/autumn-leaves-a-september-mixtape/
|
||||
[66] https://austinkleon.com/2024/09/24/human-resources/
|
||||
[67] https://austinkleon.com/2024/09/20/cut-out-verbs/
|
||||
[68] https://austinkleon.com/books/
|
||||
[69] http://austinkleon.com/newsletter
|
||||
[70] https://austinkleon.com/category/reading/my-reading-years/
|
||||
[71] http://twitter.com/austinkleon
|
||||
[72] http://instagram.com/austinkleon
|
||||
[73] http://tumblr.austinkleon.com/
|
||||
[76] http://facebook.com/mr.austin.kleon
|
||||
[77] http://instagram.com/austinkleon
|
||||
[78] http://tumblr.austinkleon.com/
|
||||
[79] http://twitter.com/austinkleon
|
||||
[80] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8uQnyh7DAfp4uX9RN7XxEw
|
||||
[81] https://austinkleon.com/
|
||||
[82] https://austinkleon.com/books/
|
||||
[83] https://austinkleon.substack.com/
|
||||
[84] https://austinkleon.com/speaking/
|
||||
[85] https://austinkleon.com/about/
|
||||
[86] https://austinkleon.com/contact/
|
||||
209
static/archive/austinkleon-com-zppigr.txt
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209
static/archive/austinkleon-com-zppigr.txt
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@@ -0,0 +1,209 @@
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[1]Austin Kleon
|
||||
|
||||
• [2]Blog
|
||||
• [3]Books
|
||||
• [4]Newsletter
|
||||
• [5]Speaking
|
||||
• [6]About
|
||||
• [7]Contact
|
||||
• [8][9]
|
||||
|
||||
You are here: [10]Blog / [11]Miscellany / Beyond survival mode
|
||||
|
||||
Beyond survival mode
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||||
|
||||
Friday, January 18, 2019
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[11363958_682236831908301_987442953_n-600x600]
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There’s a turn in Dougal Robertson’s [12]Survive The Savage Sea that really
|
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touched me. It comes on the family’s 25th day as castaways: the sea calms down
|
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and there’s a “glorious sunset and a peacefulness of the spirit.” The group
|
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takes turns singing songs to each other. And then:
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|
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I felt that we had already gone beyond thinking in terms of survival. We
|
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had started living from the sea as an adapted way of life… we no longer
|
||||
thought of rescue as one of the main objectives of our existence; we were
|
||||
no longer subject to the daily disappointment of a lonely vigil, to the
|
||||
idea that help might be at hand or was necessary. We no longer had that
|
||||
helpless feeling of dependence on others for our continued existence. We
|
||||
were alone, and stood alone, inhabitants of the savage sea.
|
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|
||||
Nina Katchadourian talks about how much of the book (her favorite) is really
|
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about [13]what it’s like to be a family, and I think that’s why this scene
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||||
touched me so deeply.
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|
||||
There are moments with children, even in a boring, safe, suburban existence
|
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like mine, where you just feel like you’re in Survival Mode. And every once in
|
||||
a while it lifts and you feel like you’ve moved beyond just surviving, and you
|
||||
feel like you’re actually living. The children eat their food. You all tell
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stories and laugh. Books after tubs with no whining. You’re a quartet, and
|
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you’re all performing the same music.
|
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|
||||
The reasons these evenings are so wonderful is because they are so rare, and in
|
||||
such stark contrast to those Survival Mode days, when you’re just trying to get
|
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rid of the day as well as you can.
|
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|
||||
I’m now thinking about a passage that comes later in the “Analysis” section,
|
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when Robertson offers his thoughts on surviving in castaway situations:
|
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|
||||
If any single civilized factor in a castaway’s character helps survival, it
|
||||
is a well-developed sense of the ridiculous. It helps the castaway to laugh
|
||||
in the face of impossible situations and allows him, or her, to overcome
|
||||
the assassination of all civilized codes and characteristics which hitherto
|
||||
had been the guidelines of life.
|
||||
|
||||
“A well-developed sense of the ridiculous”—I cannot think of a better trait for
|
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a parent!
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|
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Filed Under: [14]Miscellany Tagged: [15]comedy, [16]dougal robertson, [17]
|
||||
parenting, [18]survive the savage sea
|
||||
|
||||
[19][ ][20][Search]
|
||||
About the author
|
||||
|
||||
[21]Austin Kleon
|
||||
|
||||
[22]Austin Kleon is a writer who draws. He’s the bestselling author of [23]
|
||||
Steal Like An Artist and other books. [24]Read more→
|
||||
|
||||
• [25]
|
||||
• [26]
|
||||
• [27]
|
||||
• [28]
|
||||
• [29]
|
||||
|
||||
Subscribe to my newsletter
|
||||
|
||||
Join the 200,000+ readers who get it delivered free to their inboxes every
|
||||
week:
|
||||
|
||||
[30]On This Date
|
||||
|
||||
• 2020: [31]Peanuts, remixed
|
||||
• 2019: [32]Drawers
|
||||
• 2018: [33]The right book at the right time
|
||||
• 2017: [34]Seasonal time
|
||||
|
||||
Get the 10th anniversary gift edition
|
||||
|
||||
[35]Steal Like an Artist 10th Anniversary gift edition
|
||||
|
||||
Listen to the audiobook trilogy
|
||||
|
||||
[36]The Steal Like An Artist Audio Trilogy
|
||||
|
||||
Read my books
|
||||
|
||||
[37]Keep Going [38]Show Your Work [39]Steal Like An Artist [40]The Steal Like
|
||||
An Artist Journal [41]Newspaper Blackout
|
||||
|
||||
Order t-shirts on demand
|
||||
|
||||
[42]t-shirts
|
||||
|
||||
Recent posts
|
||||
|
||||
• [43]How do you draw time?
|
||||
• [44]A plan and not enough time
|
||||
• [45]Autumn leaves (a September mixtape)
|
||||
• [46]Human resources
|
||||
• [47]Cut out verbs
|
||||
|
||||
More about me
|
||||
|
||||
• [48]Books I’ve written
|
||||
• [49]My newsletter
|
||||
• [50]Books I’ve read
|
||||
• [51]Twitter
|
||||
• [52]Instagram
|
||||
• [53]Tumblr
|
||||
|
||||
Search this site
|
||||
|
||||
[54][ ][55][Search]
|
||||
Follow me elsewhere
|
||||
|
||||
• [56]
|
||||
• [57]
|
||||
• [58]
|
||||
• [59]
|
||||
• [60]
|
||||
|
||||
© Austin Kleon 2001–2024
|
||||
|
||||
• [61]Blog
|
||||
• [62]Books
|
||||
• [63]Newsletter
|
||||
• [64]Speaking
|
||||
• [65]About
|
||||
• [66]Contact
|
||||
|
||||
This site participates in the Amazon Affiliates program, the proceeds of which
|
||||
keep it free for anyone to read.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
References:
|
||||
|
||||
[1] https://austinkleon.com/
|
||||
[2] https://austinkleon.com/
|
||||
[3] https://austinkleon.com/books/
|
||||
[4] https://austinkleon.substack.com/
|
||||
[5] https://austinkleon.com/speaking/
|
||||
[6] https://austinkleon.com/about/
|
||||
[7] https://austinkleon.com/contact/
|
||||
[8] https://twitter.com/austinkleon
|
||||
[9] https://instagram.com/austinkleon
|
||||
[10] https://austinkleon.com/
|
||||
[11] https://austinkleon.com/category/miscellany/
|
||||
[12] https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0924486732/wwwaustinkleo-20/ref=nosim/
|
||||
[13] https://austinkleon.com/2019/01/08/of-course-well-make-it/
|
||||
[14] https://austinkleon.com/category/miscellany/
|
||||
[15] https://austinkleon.com/tag/comedy/
|
||||
[16] https://austinkleon.com/tag/dougal-robertson/
|
||||
[17] https://austinkleon.com/tag/parenting/
|
||||
[18] https://austinkleon.com/tag/survive-the-savage-sea/
|
||||
[21] https://austinkleon.com/about/
|
||||
[22] https://austinkleon.com/about/
|
||||
[23] https://austinkleon.com/steal/
|
||||
[24] https://austinkleon.com/about/
|
||||
[25] http://facebook.com/mr.austin.kleon
|
||||
[26] http://instagram.com/austinkleon
|
||||
[27] http://tumblr.austinkleon.com/
|
||||
[28] http://twitter.com/austinkleon
|
||||
[29] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8uQnyh7DAfp4uX9RN7XxEw
|
||||
[30] https://austinkleon.com/on-this-date/
|
||||
[31] https://austinkleon.com/2020/10/02/peanuts-remixed/
|
||||
[32] https://austinkleon.com/2019/10/02/drawers/
|
||||
[33] https://austinkleon.com/2018/10/02/the-right-book-at-the-right-time/
|
||||
[34] https://austinkleon.com/2017/10/02/seasonal-time/
|
||||
[35] https://austinkleon.com/steal/
|
||||
[36] https://austinkleon.com/steal-audiobook-trilogy
|
||||
[37] https://austinkleon.com/keepgoing
|
||||
[38] https://austinkleon.com/show-your-work
|
||||
[39] https://austinkleon.com/steal/
|
||||
[40] https://austinkleon.com/journal
|
||||
[41] https://austinkleon.com/newspaperblackout/
|
||||
[42] https://cottonbureau.com/people/austin-kleon
|
||||
[43] https://austinkleon.com/2024/10/01/how-do-you-draw-time/
|
||||
[44] https://austinkleon.com/2024/09/27/a-plan-and-not-enough-time/
|
||||
[45] https://austinkleon.com/2024/09/26/autumn-leaves-a-september-mixtape/
|
||||
[46] https://austinkleon.com/2024/09/24/human-resources/
|
||||
[47] https://austinkleon.com/2024/09/20/cut-out-verbs/
|
||||
[48] https://austinkleon.com/books/
|
||||
[49] http://austinkleon.com/newsletter
|
||||
[50] https://austinkleon.com/category/reading/my-reading-years/
|
||||
[51] http://twitter.com/austinkleon
|
||||
[52] http://instagram.com/austinkleon
|
||||
[53] http://tumblr.austinkleon.com/
|
||||
[56] http://facebook.com/mr.austin.kleon
|
||||
[57] http://instagram.com/austinkleon
|
||||
[58] http://tumblr.austinkleon.com/
|
||||
[59] http://twitter.com/austinkleon
|
||||
[60] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8uQnyh7DAfp4uX9RN7XxEw
|
||||
[61] https://austinkleon.com/
|
||||
[62] https://austinkleon.com/books/
|
||||
[63] https://austinkleon.substack.com/
|
||||
[64] https://austinkleon.com/speaking/
|
||||
[65] https://austinkleon.com/about/
|
||||
[66] https://austinkleon.com/contact/
|
||||
302
static/archive/aworkinglibrary-com-nhumyz.txt
Normal file
302
static/archive/aworkinglibrary-com-nhumyz.txt
Normal file
@@ -0,0 +1,302 @@
|
||||
[1]Practice the future →
|
||||
|
||||
• [2]Reading
|
||||
• [3]Writing
|
||||
• [4]Thinking
|
||||
• [5]About
|
||||
• [6]Subscribe
|
||||
|
||||
[7]
|
||||
|
||||
A working library is a blog about work, reading & technology by Mandy Brown
|
||||
|
||||
2024-09-19
|
||||
|
||||
[8]Coming home
|
||||
|
||||
What do they do,
|
||||
the singers, tale-writers, dancers, painters, shapers, makers?
|
||||
They go there with empty hands,
|
||||
into the gap between.
|
||||
They come back with things in their hands.
|
||||
|
||||
[9]Le Guin, Always Coming Home, page 74
|
||||
|
||||
I’ve [10]written before about the restlessness inherent to screens, the
|
||||
inability to ever linger or pause or catch your breath. It’s a strangely
|
||||
disembodied experience, a sense of ceaseless, rustling motion when nothing is
|
||||
moving at all: electrical pulses flash and gasp beneath the oceans, your mind
|
||||
strains to catch up, your body remains still save for a few twitching digits,
|
||||
the shell that’s left behind when your spirit evacuates for the mirage of
|
||||
higher ground. We become as smooth and reflective as the screen itself, all
|
||||
glassy surfaces and metallic edges obscuring the hollowness within. No need to
|
||||
fantasize about what it might be like to upload your consciousness to the
|
||||
machine—most of us are already there.
|
||||
|
||||
It’s curious, the way we refer to media that comes at us as a stream, whether
|
||||
of moving pictures or sentence fragments, as if it were the mere flow of cool,
|
||||
fresh water running smoothly and gently at our feet. But all it takes is one
|
||||
big storm, and your friendly little stream becomes a gushing torrent of mud and
|
||||
debris, strong enough to fling cars and houses out of its path, to smash your
|
||||
own fragile body—itself mostly water and so perhaps sympathetic to the display
|
||||
of power—against the rocks.
|
||||
|
||||
One meaning of the verb “distract” is to separate, to draw apart. To separate
|
||||
the body from the spirit. To draw apart, or perhaps to draw out, as of a small
|
||||
animal lured from its den by the smell of fresh grass, only to be met by dust
|
||||
and talons. Another meaning is madness.
|
||||
|
||||
To step into the stream of any social network, to become immersed in the news,
|
||||
reactions, rage and hopes, the marketing and psyops, the funny jokes and clever
|
||||
memes, the earnest requests for mutual aid, for sign ups, for jobs, the clap
|
||||
backs and the call outs, the warnings and invitations—it can feel like a kind
|
||||
of madness. It’s unsettling, in the way that sediment is unsettled by water,
|
||||
lifted up and tossed around, scattered about. A pebble goes wherever the river
|
||||
sends it, worn down and smoothed day after day until all that’s left is sand.
|
||||
|
||||
At some point I became acutely aware of a sense of scattering or separation
|
||||
whenever I glanced at the socials. As if some part of me, or some pattern or
|
||||
vision that I cupped tenderly in my hands, was washed away, wrenched from my
|
||||
grasp before I quite realized what it was. I think of the orb spiders I often
|
||||
glimpse in my tiny city backyard, delicate webs balanced on two leaves of the
|
||||
rhododendron and the stem of a laurel. In my own work, I’m weaving ideas,
|
||||
stories, prophesies, metaphors, dreams by the shore of this great, inconstant
|
||||
stream, and every so often a wave rises up and swallows the whole affair. I
|
||||
can’t predict when a wave will come; I can, at this point, count on it coming.
|
||||
|
||||
A wise spider would move a little ways away. But not too far, because this is
|
||||
where the life is. And so I find myself thinking about how I might get some
|
||||
distance, what it means to move uphill a ways, to weave my web safe from the
|
||||
spray. To get out of the flood zone. To come home.
|
||||
|
||||
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
|
||||
|
||||
Some weeks ago, I quietly shipped a new content type on A Working Library, such
|
||||
that I am now writing [11]short, [12]social-[13]shaped posts on my site and
|
||||
then sending them off to the various platforms. This is not a novel mode of
|
||||
publishing, but rather one borrowed and adapted from the [14]POSSE model
|
||||
(“publish on your site, syndicate elsewhere”) developed by the IndieWeb
|
||||
community. While one of the reasons oft declared for using POSSE is the ability
|
||||
to own your content, I’m less interested in ownership than I am in context.
|
||||
Writing on my own site has very different affordances: I’m not typing into a
|
||||
little box, but writing in a text file. I’m not surrounded by other people’s
|
||||
thinking, but located within my own body of work. As I played with setting this
|
||||
up, I could immediately feel how that would change the kinds of things I would
|
||||
say, and it felt good. Really good. Like putting on a favorite t-shirt, or
|
||||
coming home to my solid, quiet house after a long time away.
|
||||
|
||||
A website is, among other things, a container. The shape of that container both
|
||||
constrains and makes possible what goes within it. This is, I think, one of the
|
||||
primary justifications for having your own website. Not just so you can own
|
||||
your stuff (for some meaning of “ownership,” in a culture in which any
|
||||
billionaire can scrape your work without permission and copyright only protects
|
||||
the rich). Not just so you have a home base among the shifting winds of the
|
||||
various platforms, which rise and fall like brush before the fire. Not just so
|
||||
you can avoid setting up camp in a Nazi bar. But also so that you can shape the
|
||||
work—so that you can give shape to it, and in that shaping make possible work
|
||||
that couldn’t arise elsewhere.
|
||||
|
||||
I made a decision many years ago to shape my work around the books I read. If
|
||||
I’m being completely honest, I don’t recall spending a lot of time thinking
|
||||
about that decision or contemplating the consequences of it. It seemed right
|
||||
and so I ran with it. But it has since given rise to a kind of scholarship and
|
||||
writing that I’m not sure I would have landed on were I writing on some
|
||||
all-purpose platform, or fitting my work into someone else’s box. It’s allowed
|
||||
me to cultivate the soil to suit my purposes—rather than having to adapt my
|
||||
garden to the soil I was given. Not every seed I’ve planted has thrived, of
|
||||
course. But after all these years, some are quite hardy, while others have made
|
||||
some very rich compost. And I find myself often amazed by what emerges: not
|
||||
only the seeds I planted but a great many I never anticipated, connections and
|
||||
stories I didn’t see until I was right on top of them, until they were tangled
|
||||
at my feet. Dark velvety leaves amid glossy blooms, thorns and small sour
|
||||
fruits, vines that weave and climb and show me the way.
|
||||
|
||||
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
|
||||
|
||||
This is, objectively, a difficult way to publish. There’s a great deal of
|
||||
friction between an idea or phrase coming to mind and the words making it out
|
||||
into the world. And I don’t mean the writing itself (which, as every writer
|
||||
will tell you, is dreadful), but the actual mechanics of sharing that writing.
|
||||
I mean, I am the fool who opens their damn terminal every time they want to
|
||||
publish; in recent weeks, I have spent a not insignificant number of hours
|
||||
writing some absolutely criminal CSS. I cannot, in good conscience, advise this
|
||||
path for anyone with sense. But the choice to do so suits my own proclivities:
|
||||
a desire to tinker not only with the words but with the strata underneath them,
|
||||
and a long-running interest in the material reality of publishing. And more
|
||||
often than not, I find that what I need is some friction, some labor, the
|
||||
effort to work things out. Efficiency is an anti-goal; it is at odds with the
|
||||
work, which requires resistance and tension in order to come into being.
|
||||
|
||||
This is one of the many reasons why I find the current conversation about [15]
|
||||
so-called generative AI so immensely frustrating: there’s all this hype about
|
||||
making everything easier and faster, about how we can eliminate all the work
|
||||
involved in the making of words and images. But no one arguing for this seems
|
||||
to have asked what’s left when the work is gone. What is the experience of
|
||||
asking for something to appear and then instantly receiving it? What changes
|
||||
between the thought and the manifestation? I fear that nothing changes, that
|
||||
nothing is changed in such a making, least of all ourselves. But then, what
|
||||
does it mean to be unchanged, for your feet to pass so lightly over the ground
|
||||
they don’t so much as disturb the sand? Even the dead make change in the world,
|
||||
as their bodies decay and and are transformed into food for beasts and bugs and
|
||||
trees. But in eliminating the effort, in refusing the temporality of making,
|
||||
the outcome of an “AI”-driven creative process is a phantasm, an
|
||||
unsubstantiality, something that passes through the world without leaving any
|
||||
trace. A root that twists back upon itself and tries to suck the water from its
|
||||
own desiccated veins.
|
||||
|
||||
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
|
||||
|
||||
There was a time when I felt some resonance between spending time in the social
|
||||
stream and doing my own work. As if the movement of the water imparted some
|
||||
energy or power I could make use of, and then return. But it’s been a long time
|
||||
since I’ve felt that way. I grieve that loss: a great number of my closest
|
||||
friends are people I met in the halcyon days of Twitter, and I find I still
|
||||
often long for that kind of connection, the ambient awareness of people in
|
||||
whose company I felt at home. But I know that longing to be a kind of [16]
|
||||
nostalgia, an unrealizable wish to return to a past that never was quite as I
|
||||
remember it. I do not want those memories to be a burden, like stones weighing
|
||||
down my pockets. I want, instead, to carry them lightly and tenderly, to have
|
||||
the fortitude to accept the grief that comes with leaving the past where it
|
||||
belongs.
|
||||
|
||||
A word about the Fediverse is warranted here. I believe that we desperately
|
||||
need to be experimenting and developing methods of communication that aren’t
|
||||
beholden to either the advertising industry or the brittle egos of
|
||||
billionaires. Hitching our means of finding each other and forging
|
||||
relationships to those insatiable appetites is to invite scarcity and fear into
|
||||
our most intimate alliances. We need room to talk and to take up space, to
|
||||
listen and to be heard, to organize ourselves, absent that exponential scale of
|
||||
manipulation. And I think that something like the Fediverse, which seeks to
|
||||
locate power in small communities, and functions at the level of a protocol
|
||||
rather than a company, moves us in the right direction.
|
||||
|
||||
And yet: as much as the Fediverse is different (the governing structures, the
|
||||
incentives, the moderation, the absence of ads and engagement tricks), so much
|
||||
of it is also unsettlingly familiar—the same small boxes, the same few buttons,
|
||||
the same mechanics of following and being followed. The same babbling,
|
||||
tumbling, rushing stream of thoughts. I can’t tell if we’re stuck with this
|
||||
design because it’s familiar, or if it’s familiar because we’re stuck. Very
|
||||
likely it’s me that’s stuck, fixed in place while everything rushes around me,
|
||||
hoping for a gap, a break, a warm rock to rest awhile on. Longing for a mode of
|
||||
communication that lifts me up instead of wiping me out.
|
||||
|
||||
And so I remain at an unresolvable juncture: the intersection of the very
|
||||
strong belief that we must experiment with new modes and systems of
|
||||
communication, and the certain knowledge that every time I so much as glance at
|
||||
anything shaped like a social feed, my brain smoothes out, the web of
|
||||
connections and ideas I’m weaving is washed away, and I tumble downstream, only
|
||||
to have to pick myself up and trudge heavily through the mud back to where I
|
||||
belong.
|
||||
|
||||
It’s exhausting. It is, at this point in my life, unsustainable. I cannot dip
|
||||
into the stream, even briefly, and also maintain the awareness and focus needed
|
||||
to do my own work, the work that is uniquely mine. I cannot wade through the
|
||||
water and still protect this fragile thing in my hands. And perhaps I owe to my
|
||||
continued senescence the knowledge that I do not have time for this anymore.
|
||||
Perhaps it’s age that grants the wisdom to know where my attention belongs and
|
||||
the discipline to be able to direct it. The great power of a middle-aged woman
|
||||
is that she knows where to [17]give her fucks.
|
||||
|
||||
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
|
||||
|
||||
Will it be weird, to write this way? Probably. I’m tossing the same words into
|
||||
(currently) three totally different networks, each with their own affect and
|
||||
moods and characters of the day. I’m keeping my distance, such that I likely
|
||||
won’t hear the replies (at least, not with any timeliness) or see the ripples
|
||||
my words make, should they make any at all. But maybe we need more weird—not in
|
||||
the very recent sense of the word, but in the sense of prophesy or potential, a
|
||||
spell or charm, the magic, the wild, the wyrd—that which is becoming, rather
|
||||
than that which has already passed us by.
|
||||
|
||||
In Madeline Miller’s beautiful retelling, the Greek witch-goddess Circe comes
|
||||
to understand the difference between her own magic and the greater gods’
|
||||
divinity:
|
||||
|
||||
Let me say what sorcery is not: it is not divining power, which comes with
|
||||
a thought and a blink. It must be made and worked, planned and searched
|
||||
out, dug up, dried, chipped and ground, cooked, spoken over, and sung.
|
||||
|
||||
[18]Miller, Circe, page 83
|
||||
|
||||
Circe is surprised to learn that she loves the work of magic, loves it even
|
||||
when it’s infuriating and frustrating, when it’s filthy and exhausting. (The
|
||||
reader is not, I think, surprised.) But she doesn’t learn that love until she
|
||||
is exiled, left alone on an island, her only companions the birds and lions and
|
||||
wild boars. There she comes to see what her sorcery really is. There she goes
|
||||
into the gap, and discovers that magic is dirt and muscle, work and will,
|
||||
effort and choice.
|
||||
|
||||
Later, she returns to the world. Not to the world of the gods—which she comes
|
||||
to realize is a lifeless place—but to the mortal world, carrying her small
|
||||
herbs and potions, her wisdom. But as far as she travels, the island remains
|
||||
her home, the place she always comes back to.
|
||||
|
||||
My own magic is a small one: to write in order to uncover what I think; to
|
||||
prefigure a future of work that serves the living; to listen intently as people
|
||||
speak aloud a story of themselves that is, in the speaking, being rewritten.
|
||||
But it is mine. For too long I have tried to make space for it along the banks,
|
||||
to keep one foot in the water, to speak my incantations into the wind while the
|
||||
river slips the sediment out from under me and pulls me ever deeper.
|
||||
|
||||
No longer.*
|
||||
|
||||
Related books
|
||||
|
||||
[19]Always Coming Home
|
||||
|
||||
Ursula K. Le Guin
|
||||
|
||||
[20][le-guin-al]
|
||||
|
||||
An archeology of the future.
|
||||
|
||||
[21]Circe
|
||||
|
||||
Madeline Miller
|
||||
|
||||
[22][miller-cir]
|
||||
|
||||
This is a subversive and triumphant retelling of the story of Circe, daughter
|
||||
of the sun-god Helios.
|
||||
|
||||
Newsletter
|
||||
|
||||
Occasional reading notes delivered to your inbox
|
||||
|
||||
Email address [23][ ] [25][subscribe]
|
||||
• [26]RSS
|
||||
• [27]Colophon
|
||||
• [28]Copyright © 2008-2024 Mandy Brown
|
||||
• [29]mandy@aworkinglibrary.com
|
||||
• [30]@aworkinglibrary
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
References:
|
||||
|
||||
[1] https://everythingchanges.us/
|
||||
[2] https://aworkinglibrary.com/reading
|
||||
[3] https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing
|
||||
[4] https://aworkinglibrary.com/thinking
|
||||
[5] https://aworkinglibrary.com/about
|
||||
[6] https://aworkinglibrary.com/subscribe
|
||||
[7] https://aworkinglibrary.com/
|
||||
[8] https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/coming-home
|
||||
[9] https://aworkinglibrary.com/reading/always-coming-home
|
||||
[10] https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/out-of-time
|
||||
[11] https://aworkinglibrary.com/thinking/202408071000
|
||||
[12] https://aworkinglibrary.com/thinking/202408301732
|
||||
[13] https://aworkinglibrary.com/thinking/202409090848
|
||||
[14] https://indieweb.org/POSSE
|
||||
[15] https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/smoke-screen
|
||||
[16] https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/who-we-wish-to-become
|
||||
[17] https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/unified-theory-of------
|
||||
[18] https://aworkinglibrary.com/reading/circe
|
||||
[19] https://aworkinglibrary.com/reading/always-coming-home
|
||||
[20] https://aworkinglibrary.com/reading/always-coming-home
|
||||
[21] https://aworkinglibrary.com/reading/circe
|
||||
[22] https://aworkinglibrary.com/reading/circe
|
||||
[26] https://aworkinglibrary.com/feed/index.xml
|
||||
[27] https://aworkinglibrary.com/colophon/
|
||||
[28] https://aworkinglibrary.com/copyright/
|
||||
[29] mailto:mandy@aworkinglibrary.com
|
||||
[30] https://mstdn.social/@aworkinglibrary
|
||||
555
static/archive/freddiedeboer-substack-com-wmatij.txt
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555
static/archive/freddiedeboer-substack-com-wmatij.txt
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@@ -0,0 +1,555 @@
|
||||
[1][https]
|
||||
|
||||
[2]Freddie deBoer
|
||||
|
||||
SubscribeSign in
|
||||
Share this post
|
||||
[https]
|
||||
|
||||
To Learn to Live in a Mundane Universe
|
||||
|
||||
freddiedeboer.substack.com
|
||||
Copy link
|
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Facebook
|
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Email
|
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Note
|
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Other
|
||||
|
||||
To Learn to Live in a Mundane Universe
|
||||
|
||||
[13][https]
|
||||
[14]Freddie deBoer
|
||||
Sep 16, 2024
|
||||
208
|
||||
Share this post
|
||||
[https]
|
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|
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To Learn to Live in a Mundane Universe
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|
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freddiedeboer.substack.com
|
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Copy link
|
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Facebook
|
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Email
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Note
|
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Other
|
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[21]
|
||||
159
|
||||
[22]
|
||||
Share
|
||||
[23]
|
||||
[https]
|
||||
we’re all just one more card in the catalog, man
|
||||
|
||||
Scott Alexander has [24]responded to my advice that we should not imagine
|
||||
ourselves to be living in some sort of revolutionary epoch. You can decide for
|
||||
yourself if he’s convincing. I continue to maintain the basic point that a) we
|
||||
are definitionally more likely to live in ordinary times than extraordinary and
|
||||
b) we are conditioned to overstate our own uniqueness and importance, not even
|
||||
as a matter of intellect or character but as a basic reality of cognitive
|
||||
science, a consequence of living as a consciousness. I would say that, for one
|
||||
thing, his schema would suggest that someone living in the 1810s or 1860s or
|
||||
1910s had just as much cause to think that they lived in extraordinary times as
|
||||
we do, and yet Alexander certainly seems to think that now is more important
|
||||
than then. I do want to address this one point.
|
||||
|
||||
Freddie sort of starts thinking in this direction[25]^6, but shuts it down
|
||||
on the grounds that some people think technological growth rates have
|
||||
slowed down since the mid-20th century. Usually the metric that gets
|
||||
brought out to support this is changes in total factor productivity, which
|
||||
do show the mid-20th century as a more dynamic period than today. So fine,
|
||||
let’s do the same calculation with total productivity. My impression from
|
||||
eyeballing [26]this paper is that about 35% of all increase in TFP growth
|
||||
and 15% of all log TFP growth has still happened during Freddie’s lifetime.
|
||||
|
||||
Let’s take as given the claim in the last sentence is true: it’s still
|
||||
inarguable that meaningful technological growth has dramatically slowed in the
|
||||
last 50 years compared to the 100 prior years, to choose an arbitrary but
|
||||
useful comparison. And if that’s true, it suggests that the notion of
|
||||
continuous exponential human growth is nonsense. And if that’s true, it doesn’t
|
||||
in and of itself disprove the narrative that ChatGPT is the Mahdi and will
|
||||
usher us into paradise, but it does make the overarching narrative of a simple
|
||||
exponential climb into a godlike metahuman future harder to maintain. If human
|
||||
development has already slowed significantly, shouldn’t that suggest that it
|
||||
may very well slow further?
|
||||
|
||||
I will again refer people to Robert J. Gordon’s [27]The Rise & Fall of American
|
||||
Growth, which is where the 1870-1970 and then 1970-current split is best
|
||||
articulated. I read it, and it’s a classic academic book that ponderously pours
|
||||
data on to the same basic observations over and over again. (Just like, for
|
||||
example, Capital in the Twenty-First Century and many many others.) That’s what
|
||||
an academic book of that type is meant to do; It’s just that I don’t expect
|
||||
anyone else to feel moved to read it. What makes it so valuable, though, is
|
||||
that Gordon spends so much time looking at very specific economic segments and
|
||||
not just demonstrating that productivity and growth have slowed but why they’ve
|
||||
slowed in very specific terms. And I can’t point to a single piece of evidence
|
||||
that does a better job than that book. I would, however, suggest that some
|
||||
common sense would be useful here. I’ll spare you from doing my “time traveler
|
||||
from 1910 traveling to 1960 vs a time traveler from 1960 traveling to 2010” bit
|
||||
in the main text, but you can read it in a footnote below.[28]1 The fundamental
|
||||
observation is simply that beyond the various productivity and growth numbers,
|
||||
the lived experience of being human changed dramatically more from 1870ish
|
||||
through 1970ish than in the 50ish years since then. To repeat myself, a vast
|
||||
majority of what we call the advances of modernity stem directly from the
|
||||
development of cheap, stable, relatively safe, reliable refined fossil fuels,
|
||||
from electricity generation to cars to planes to modern heating systems to
|
||||
fertilizers.
|
||||
|
||||
[29]
|
||||
[https]
|
||||
[30]source
|
||||
|
||||
What I’m suggesting is that people trying to insist that we are on the verge of
|
||||
a species-altering change in living conditions and possibilities, and who point
|
||||
to this kind of chart to do so, are letting the scale of these charts obscure
|
||||
the fact that the transition from the original iPhone to the iPhone 14 (fifteen
|
||||
years apart) is not anything like the transition from Sputnik to Apollo 17
|
||||
(fifteen years apart), that they just aren’t remotely comparable in human
|
||||
terms. The internet is absolutely choked with these dumb charts, which would
|
||||
make you think that the technological leap from the Apple McIntosh to the
|
||||
hybrid car was dramatically more meaningful than the development from the
|
||||
telescope to the telephone. Which is fucking nutty! If you think this chart is
|
||||
particularly bad, go pick another one. They’re all obviously produced with the
|
||||
intent of convincing you that human progress is going to continue to scale
|
||||
exponentially into the future forever. But a) it would frankly be bizarre if
|
||||
that were true, given how actual history actually works and b) we’ve already
|
||||
seen that progress stall out, if we’re only honest with ourselves about what’s
|
||||
been happening. It may be that people are correct to identify contemporary
|
||||
machine learning as the key technology to take us to Valhalla. But I think the
|
||||
notion of continuous exponential growth becomes a lot less credible if you
|
||||
recognize that we haven’t even maintained that growth in the previous
|
||||
half-century.
|
||||
|
||||
And the way we talk here matters a great deal. I always get people accusing me
|
||||
of minimizing recent development. But of course I understand how important
|
||||
recent developments have been, particularly in medicine. If you have a young
|
||||
child with cystic fibrosis, their projected lifespan has changed dramatically
|
||||
just in the past year or two. But at a population level, recent improvements to
|
||||
average life expectancy just can’t hold a candle to the era that saw the
|
||||
development of modern germ theory and the first antibiotics and modern
|
||||
anesthesia and the first “dead virus” vaccines and the widespread adoption of
|
||||
medical hygiene rules and oral contraception and exogenous insulin and heart
|
||||
stents, all of which emerged in a 100 year period. This is the issue with
|
||||
insisting on casting every new development in world-historic terms: the
|
||||
brick-and-mortar chip-chip-chip of better living conditions and slow progress
|
||||
gets devalued.
|
||||
|
||||
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
|
||||
|
||||
I listened to the [31]latest episode of Derek Thompson’s (highly recommended)
|
||||
Plain English podcast, with DeepMind researcher Pushmeet Kohli. Kohli and his
|
||||
colleagues are using machine learning in drug discovery, particularly through
|
||||
the [32]protein folding that’s such an essential element of developing new
|
||||
medicines. This work, they demonstrate, is well-suited to what modern large
|
||||
language models can do. It’s also one of the very, very few places where the
|
||||
hype for these systems might actually be warranted; the vast majority of
|
||||
breathlessly-discussed “AI” possibilities would not even be particularly
|
||||
transformative if they came to pass, which most of them won’t. (AI doomerism
|
||||
relies on the idea that consciousness, superintelligence, and ill intent will
|
||||
prove to be “emergent” properties of LLMs, which no one can articulate in
|
||||
remotely rigorous terms and which most actual LLM researchers dismiss as
|
||||
nonsense.) Drug discovery is definitely a big deal and these tools seem very
|
||||
promising. The question Derek didn’t ask is, I think, a central one: why call
|
||||
this “artificial intelligence” at all? Nothing that DeepMind is working on
|
||||
requires “emergence.” Their tools are not agentic/choice-making. They have no
|
||||
consciousness, nor are they required to in order to fulfill their purpose.
|
||||
They’re very powerful systems built on very powerful algorithms but that’s
|
||||
fundamentally what they are, systems built on algorithms. So where does
|
||||
intelligence come in at all, and why is it necessary?
|
||||
|
||||
This is part of the basic poverty of the current “AI” discourse - the core
|
||||
concept of agentic, self-directed, learning, and conscious computer technology
|
||||
has given way to just any instance of “a computer doing complicated stuff.”
|
||||
DeepMind is developing a potentially profoundly-useful technology built on
|
||||
algorithms that appear to work. Why is that not enough? Algorithms that work
|
||||
are good enough.
|
||||
|
||||
In the podcast, Derek says that GPT has mapped human language. I would push
|
||||
back against that, forcefully - a map is not probabilistic. You can have a
|
||||
better or a worse map, but a map is not fundamentally stochastic and GPT’s
|
||||
understanding of language will always have error bars, due to its basic
|
||||
architecture. This is why “AI” has conspicuously failed in one of the many
|
||||
tasks it is confidently asserted to be on the brink of solving, which is
|
||||
producing a complete and functioning syntax for the grammar of a human
|
||||
language. This was exactly Chomsky’s point when he and colleagues [33]critiqued
|
||||
ChatGPT; the modern era of linguistics began precisely when he and his
|
||||
generation came to understand that language is rule-bound in a way that is
|
||||
fundamentally neurological and probably genetic. (Which is to say, it does not
|
||||
rely on the ingestion of data, hence the [34]poverty of the stimulus.) And
|
||||
that’s precisely what LLMs don’t do, proceed from a list of static rules and
|
||||
build understanding step-wise. If they did, tech companies wouldn’t be where
|
||||
they are now, which is trying to somehow ingest more language data than has
|
||||
ever been produced by all human beings combined in the history of the world.
|
||||
|
||||
What unites the two preceding paragraphs is simply this: my confusion as to why
|
||||
reality itself is never good enough. Why does our culture insist on overselling
|
||||
and overhyping when there are genuinely impressive developments happening? Is
|
||||
it just literally about stock prices? I think it might literally be about stock
|
||||
prices.
|
||||
|
||||
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
|
||||
|
||||
Here’s some things I think, without any particular qualifications to think
|
||||
them.
|
||||
|
||||
• The speed of light is an actual hard speed limit; various sci-fi tricks
|
||||
like warp drive and traveling through wormholes have immense practical and
|
||||
theoretical barriers to being usable and I don’t think they’ll ever be
|
||||
overcome
|
||||
|
||||
• Time travel into the past actually is impossible, which is why no one has
|
||||
ever come back to tell us about it
|
||||
|
||||
• Even if we achieve speeds on the order of (say) 10% of the speed of light,
|
||||
which we almost certainly can’t for simple relativity reasons, traveling to
|
||||
potentially habitable stars will take hundreds of years; we have no reason
|
||||
to believe that cryofreeze/stasis/etc technologies are actually achievable;
|
||||
multigenerational interstellar travel is likely impossible for all the
|
||||
reasons Kim Stanley Robinson lays out [35]here; we will therefore never
|
||||
colonize the stars and in the exceedingly unlikely event that we survive to
|
||||
see it, we’ll die when our sun expands to become a red giant; we might mine
|
||||
or colonize planets or moons in our solar system, but that won’t
|
||||
fundamentally change human life
|
||||
|
||||
• There’s very likely other life in the universe, even intelligent life, but
|
||||
given that the cosmic speed limit will apply to them too, we’ll never meet
|
||||
with any of them physically, and given the distances involved synchronous
|
||||
communication is essentially impossible
|
||||
|
||||
• Quantum entanglement won’t allow for faster-than-light communication for
|
||||
the reasons enumerated in [36]this video
|
||||
|
||||
• We don’t live in a simulation
|
||||
|
||||
• Even if there are many worlds/multiple dimensions we’ll never experience
|
||||
them directly and thus they’ll have no practical impact on our lives
|
||||
|
||||
• We’ll never “upload” our consciousness into computers to live forever,
|
||||
which suggests that there is some such thing as our consciousness separate
|
||||
from the physiological structures that contain it, which is a dualist
|
||||
fantasy
|
||||
|
||||
• Artificial intelligences of various kinds will develop and emerge and have
|
||||
meaningful consequences for humans and improve quality of life, but they
|
||||
won’t somehow enable us to transcend the physical limitations of the
|
||||
material world, that is, no free energy, no breaking the laws of physics,
|
||||
no eternal life
|
||||
|
||||
• We’re all going to die, and it’s going to feel far too soon for almost all
|
||||
of us.
|
||||
|
||||
Look, stuff is gonna happen. Technology is going to grow. A lot of it will be
|
||||
good and some of it will be bad. I don’t doubt, for example, that in a hundred
|
||||
years the science of human genomic editing will fundamentally transform many
|
||||
elements of human life and, in particular, undermine basic human notions of
|
||||
“meritocracy” and just deserts. Obviously, that could go do a lot of bad as
|
||||
well as a lot of good. I could also easily see a world, even in a decade or
|
||||
two, where a significant chunk of the human population spends almost all of its
|
||||
time in virtual reality and essentially disconnects from actual human life;
|
||||
that sounds straightforwardly bad, to me, and would justify [37]anti-tech
|
||||
terrorism. One way or another life is gonna change. Human beings will change.
|
||||
Life expectancy is going to increase. We’re gonna have a lot of cool new toys.
|
||||
But, fundamentally, we live in a mundane universe and that will never change.
|
||||
|
||||
And, crucially, it’s our nature to adapt to make the extraordinary seem
|
||||
mundane. I’m a big believer in a steady state/thermostatic concept of
|
||||
happiness, which suggests that we mostly have our own individual levels of
|
||||
default life satisfaction and we tend to gravitate to that level over time.
|
||||
It’s not that events just don’t matter for how we feel; if you fall in love
|
||||
you’ll feel more happy and if you go to prison you’ll feel more unhappy. Of
|
||||
course you can make your life better and be an incrementally happier person. I
|
||||
have, over the course of my own life. But we reliably, slowly adapt to change
|
||||
and float back towards our baseline level of life satisfaction. And with
|
||||
technology, particularly, things that seem remarkable come to seem boring at a
|
||||
relentless pace. Smartphone sales have slowed because we’ve wrung all the
|
||||
innovation out of them that we can and people now see them as commodities.
|
||||
Who’s excited to upgrade from a Galaxy Sx to a Galaxy Sx+1, no matter how
|
||||
remarkable the underlying technology? The PlayStation 5 Pro is an absolutely
|
||||
remarkable piece of human ingenuity, and yet many people feel cynical and
|
||||
underwhelmed about it, and I don’t blame them. The Nintendo64, now, that felt
|
||||
revolutionary. Is that fair, the ever-ratcheting expectations game? Doesn’t
|
||||
matter. It’s human nature.
|
||||
|
||||
Ultimately, I do want to tell people to please try and chill out, yes. No, I
|
||||
don’t think AI Jesus is about to come and initiate the Rapture, and the desire
|
||||
for that to be true seems to be derived from very naked psychological needs. We
|
||||
live in a mundane world, a world of homework and waiting for the bus and
|
||||
sorting the recyclables and doing the laundry and holding your shirt over your
|
||||
nose when you enter a public bathroom and trying to find a credit card that
|
||||
offers a slightly better points program. It just keeps going, day after day
|
||||
after grinding day. You never get removed from it, never escape it. And yes,
|
||||
there’s transcendence and beauty and fun and satisfaction and growth and
|
||||
meaning, all of it! But you find that all in the mundane, generally; those few
|
||||
who spend their lives in a state of constant stimulation and novelty, well, God
|
||||
bless them. Most of the time they didn’t get there through their choices but
|
||||
through random chance. I’m saying all of this because I think a lot of people
|
||||
spend their time yearning for some great fissure in their lives where there’s a
|
||||
massive and permanent division between the before and the after, and all of
|
||||
this AI stuff is giving rational people an excuse to be irrational. (Of course,
|
||||
this is the number two fantasy behind the great American civic religion,
|
||||
“Someday, I’ll be a celebrity.”)
|
||||
|
||||
You have to imagine a life you can live with, where you are, when you are. If
|
||||
you don’t, you’ll never be satisfied. Neither AI nor anything else is coming to
|
||||
save you from the things you don’t like about being a person. The better life
|
||||
you absolutely can build isn’t going to be brought to you by ChatGPT but by
|
||||
your own steady uphill clawing and through careful management of your own
|
||||
expectations. You live here. This is it. That’s what I would tell to everyone
|
||||
out there: this is it. This is it. This is it. You’re never going to hang out
|
||||
with Mr. Data on the Holodeck. I know that, for a lot of people, mundane
|
||||
reality is everything they want to escape. But it could be so much worse.
|
||||
|
||||
[38]1
|
||||
|
||||
A person living in the United States the 1910s would be someone who
|
||||
|
||||
• Very likely did not have indoor plumbing, meaning they used an outhouse,
|
||||
got water from a well, could not routinely bathe or wash their hands, and
|
||||
was subject to all manner of illness for these reasons, to say nothing of
|
||||
the unpleasant nature of lacking these amenities
|
||||
|
||||
• Almost certainly did not have an electrified home, the consequences of
|
||||
which are obviously numerous and significant compared to modern existence
|
||||
|
||||
• Had no artificial refrigeration at all and relied on blocks of delivered
|
||||
ice where possible, which when combined with a lack of modern food
|
||||
production regulation and hygienic storage led to vastly higher rates of
|
||||
foodborne illness
|
||||
|
||||
• Got around by horse and cart for anything nearby, taking hours to go more
|
||||
than a few miles; got around by train for anything domestic and far away,
|
||||
remarkably fast in many ways but still slow compared to plane travel and on
|
||||
set schedules and from and to a certain set number of places; got around by
|
||||
steamship if having to travel over water, which was very expensive for
|
||||
ordinary people and glacially slow compared to modern methods
|
||||
|
||||
• Could expect to see their children die at a rate of about 15% in the first
|
||||
year of life and could expect to die themselves (as the mother) or their
|
||||
partner to die (as the father) at a rate of about 1%
|
||||
|
||||
• Had a life expectancy of about 45 to 50 years if a man and about 50 to 55
|
||||
years if a woman, and faced the looming threat of the 1918 influenza
|
||||
pandemic (which killed something like 700,000 Americans) to say nothing of
|
||||
the constant threats of polio (27,000 cases in the 1916 outbreak alone),
|
||||
tuberculosis (200,000 new American cases a year and 100,000-150,000 deaths
|
||||
a year in the 1910s), and all manner of infectious diseases that are now
|
||||
eminently treatable
|
||||
|
||||
• Did not yet have commercial radio, though ham radio technology existed (for
|
||||
those with access to electricity); nor was there television, obviously;
|
||||
only 10% of households had a telephone; telegraph technology existed and
|
||||
was remarkably sophisticated but not very accessible
|
||||
|
||||
I could go on. Let’s say we teleport our 1910 fellow to 1960.
|
||||
|
||||
• Outside of a few stubborn places in the deep South and some truly
|
||||
out-of-the-way rural locales, almost all American homes have indoor
|
||||
plumbing, which allows for using a flush toilet, washing your hands,
|
||||
regularly taking showers or baths, and having handy access to clean water
|
||||
for drinking and cooking
|
||||
|
||||
• The vast majority of American homes are electrified, allowing for indoor
|
||||
artificial lighting without the fumes or dangers of oil-based light, along
|
||||
with a myriad of household gadgets and devices
|
||||
|
||||
• Most American homes have refrigerators, expanding the kinds of foods that
|
||||
are practical accessible (with help from modern supply lines and
|
||||
transportation) and seriously reducing the risks of food poisoning and
|
||||
similar ills
|
||||
|
||||
• 80+% of American households have a car, dramatically expanding the
|
||||
geographical range that can be traveled, reducing transportation time in
|
||||
all manner of contexts, and making long commutes for work practically
|
||||
possible, albeit with major consequences for safety and the environment
|
||||
|
||||
• The infant mortality rate in the first year of life has plunged to 2.6%,
|
||||
while the maternal mortality rate has fallen to less than .05%.
|
||||
|
||||
• Men’s life expectancy has grown to more than 65 years and women’s to about
|
||||
73 years; the incidence of new cases of polio had fallen to about 3,000 by
|
||||
1960 and in the next several years the disease would be essentially
|
||||
eradicated from the United States; there were some 84,000 new cases of
|
||||
tuberculosis, almost all of them in rural and impoverished areas, and the
|
||||
survival rate was meaningfully higher; ordinary Americans now had a decent
|
||||
shot at having access to chemotherapy, antibiotics, heart bypass surgery….
|
||||
|
||||
• 90% of American households have a radio, better than 85% have a television,
|
||||
bringing information and entertainment into the homes of millions; 90% have
|
||||
a telephone, enabling instant peer-to-peer communication with a vast
|
||||
network and dramatically improving the capability of emergency services,
|
||||
practical access to information, the ability to socialize and connect with
|
||||
those who are geogrpahically distance, etc etc….
|
||||
|
||||
Again, I could go on. The 1910 person would find the world utterly transformed.
|
||||
The interstate highway system, in and of and by itself, is a change that’s
|
||||
absolutely massive in the most practical and physical and meaningful terms.
|
||||
Every aspect of life has changed in deep, obvious, material ways. Now let’s
|
||||
take someone from 1960 to 2010.
|
||||
|
||||
• It is still the case that almost all American households have indoor
|
||||
plumbing; the number without has fallen, but because of ceiling effects the
|
||||
amount of change is vastly smaller than from 1910 to 1960; indoor plumbing
|
||||
has already been accomplished
|
||||
|
||||
• It is still the case that almost all American households have electricity;
|
||||
the number without has fallen, but because of ceiling effects the amount of
|
||||
change is vastly smaller than from 1910 to 1960; electrification has
|
||||
already been accomplished
|
||||
|
||||
• Most American homes still have refrigerators; they’re nicer and bigger and
|
||||
more energy efficient but they do the same thing; regulatory standards are
|
||||
maybe, maybe, maybe a little better?; the range of foods available has
|
||||
increased, maybe the quality, but the change is vastly smaller than from
|
||||
1910 to 1960
|
||||
|
||||
• The percentage of American households with cars has risen to 90%. That
|
||||
increase is meaningful but doesn’t represent any revolutionary change to
|
||||
average living conditions. The cars are way, way safer and nicer than those
|
||||
in 1960, but they’re still almost exclusively burning fossil fuels and
|
||||
otherwise function in the same way that they did in the 1960s. The
|
||||
interstate system has expanded but someone driving on it in 2010 might not
|
||||
even notice any difference since 1960
|
||||
|
||||
• The infant mortality rate has fallen from 26 per 1000 in 1960 to 6 per 1000
|
||||
in 2010. That’s a lot! But it’s very small compared to the improvement from
|
||||
1910 to 1960. Similarly, the maternal mortality rate has improved but from
|
||||
next to nothing to even closer to nothing
|
||||
|
||||
• Men’s life expectancy has grown to about 76.2 years for men and 81 for
|
||||
women; again, meaningful and important but simply not at the same scale as
|
||||
from 1910 to 1960
|
||||
|
||||
• Almost everybody has a telephone, but that was true in 1960; almost
|
||||
everybody has a television, but that was true in 2010. They are much more
|
||||
sophisticated and now portable and can access far more content, but in both
|
||||
cases the changes are a matter of refinement and development, not dramatic
|
||||
innovation. In general, information technology has proceeded at a
|
||||
remarkable pace, but in terms of the actual lived experience of human
|
||||
beings, it’s very difficult to argue that the introduction of the internet
|
||||
etc can keep pace with the immense practical and material changes
|
||||
introduced in the previous era.
|
||||
|
||||
208
|
||||
Share this post
|
||||
[https]
|
||||
|
||||
To Learn to Live in a Mundane Universe
|
||||
|
||||
freddiedeboer.substack.com
|
||||
Copy link
|
||||
Facebook
|
||||
Email
|
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Note
|
||||
Other
|
||||
[45]
|
||||
159
|
||||
[46]
|
||||
Share
|
||||
PreviousNext
|
||||
|
||||
159 Comments
|
||||
|
||||
[https]
|
||||
[ ]
|
||||
[51]
|
||||
Feral Finster
|
||||
[52]Feral Finster
|
||||
[53]Sep 16·edited Sep 16
|
||||
|
||||
1. Scott and ACX readers seem to have a beef with you.
|
||||
|
||||
2. I suspect that we are living in revolutionary times, not merely
|
||||
[50] because of impending technological advances, but because the likelihood
|
||||
[https] that the tools we already have will be abused approaches 1:1.
|
||||
|
||||
What we have now would make a Himmler, a Goebbels, a Vyshinskii weep
|
||||
hopt satly pony tears of joy and envy. Already, people of influence and
|
||||
authority are licking their chops.
|
||||
|
||||
Expand full comment
|
||||
Reply
|
||||
Share
|
||||
|
||||
[55]21 replies by Freddie deBoer and others
|
||||
|
||||
[57]
|
||||
BronxZooCobra
|
||||
[58]Sep 16
|
||||
|
||||
There is also the other side of the argument where people are
|
||||
[56] incredibly uncomfortable with all the magic and wonder that will occur
|
||||
[https] after they are gone. It’s more comforting to think the future will
|
||||
resemble the now than to think of all that will be that one won’t be
|
||||
around to experience.
|
||||
|
||||
Expand full comment
|
||||
Reply
|
||||
Share
|
||||
|
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[60]14 replies
|
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[74][ ]
|
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Subscribe
|
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© 2024 Fredrik deBoer
|
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[76]Privacy ∙ [77]Terms ∙ [78]Collection notice
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[79] Start Writing[80]Get the app
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[81]Substack is the home for great culture
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|
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References:
|
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[1] https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/
|
||||
[2] https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/
|
||||
[13] https://substack.com/profile/12666725-freddie-deboer
|
||||
[14] https://substack.com/@freddiedeboer
|
||||
[21] https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/to-learn-to-live-in-a-mundane-universe/comments
|
||||
[22] javascript:void(0)
|
||||
[23] https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff6232ab1-1a24-4290-b3b9-1de9025d9c13_4500x2233.png
|
||||
[24] https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/contra-deboer-on-temporal-copernicanism
|
||||
[25] https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/contra-deboer-on-temporal-copernicanism#footnote-6-148609720
|
||||
[26] https://orbilu.uni.lu/bitstream/10993/55043/1/s40797-023-00221-x%20%281%29.pdf
|
||||
[27] https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691175805/the-rise-and-fall-of-american-growth
|
||||
[28] https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/to-learn-to-live-in-a-mundane-universe#footnote-1-148918222
|
||||
[29] https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffba9fb25-337a-43be-8b21-570a4cfe95fc_850x509.png
|
||||
[30] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353714693_A_Technology_Countdown_Approach_To_Historical_Timelines
|
||||
[31] https://open.spotify.com/episode/49QLyJeU56X1DYRhFk0x2S?si=5ebcb656a9f245b7
|
||||
[32] https://comis.med.uvm.edu/VIC/coursefiles/MD540/MD540-Protein_Organization_10400_574581210/Protein-org/Protein_Organization8.html
|
||||
[33] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/opinion/noam-chomsky-chatgpt-ai.html
|
||||
[34] https://web.archive.org/web/20130921205122id_/http://www.philosophy.dept.shef.ac.uk/papers/POS.pdf
|
||||
[35] https://boingboing.net/2015/11/16/our-generation-ships-will-sink.html
|
||||
[36] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLqk7uaENAY&t=166s&pp=ygUgY29vbCB3b3JsZHMgcXVhbnR1bSBlbnRhbmdsZW1lbnQ%3D
|
||||
[37] https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/ants-in-the-server-racks-21st-century
|
||||
[38] https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/to-learn-to-live-in-a-mundane-universe#footnote-anchor-1-148918222
|
||||
[45] https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/to-learn-to-live-in-a-mundane-universe/comments
|
||||
[46] javascript:void(0)
|
||||
[50] https://substack.com/profile/2255172-feral-finster
|
||||
[51] https://substack.com/profile/2255172-feral-finster
|
||||
[52] https://feralfinster313120.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_content=comment_metadata
|
||||
[53] https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/to-learn-to-live-in-a-mundane-universe/comment/69182752
|
||||
[55] https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/to-learn-to-live-in-a-mundane-universe/comment/69182752
|
||||
[56] https://substack.com/profile/19997282-bronxzoocobra
|
||||
[57] https://substack.com/profile/19997282-bronxzoocobra
|
||||
[58] https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/to-learn-to-live-in-a-mundane-universe/comment/69182974
|
||||
[60] https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/to-learn-to-live-in-a-mundane-universe/comment/69182974
|
||||
[61] https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/to-learn-to-live-in-a-mundane-universe/comments
|
||||
[76] https://substack.com/privacy
|
||||
[77] https://substack.com/tos
|
||||
[78] https://substack.com/ccpa#personal-data-collected
|
||||
[79] https://substack.com/signup?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_content=footer
|
||||
[80] https://substack.com/app/app-store-redirect?utm_campaign=app-marketing&utm_content=web-footer-button
|
||||
[81] https://substack.com/
|
||||
[88] https://enable-javascript.com/
|
||||
67
static/archive/macwright-com-6wqpgh.txt
Normal file
67
static/archive/macwright-com-6wqpgh.txt
Normal file
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
|
||||
[1]Tom MacWright
|
||||
|
||||
tom@macwright.com
|
||||
|
||||
[2]Tom MacWright
|
||||
|
||||
• [3]Writing
|
||||
• [4]Reading
|
||||
• [5]Photos
|
||||
• [6]Projects
|
||||
• [7]Drawings
|
||||
• [8]Micro⇠
|
||||
• [9]About
|
||||
|
||||
Crypto's missing plateau of productivity
|
||||
|
||||
2024-09-15
|
||||
|
||||
I think that even the most overhyped technology usually delivers some benefit
|
||||
to the world. And often succeeds quietly, long after the hype has died. Recent
|
||||
examples include 3D printing, which has found massive success in prototyping,
|
||||
medical applications - a friend had a filling 3D-printed right in his doctor’s
|
||||
office - and niche consumer items. Etsy is awash with 3D printed lamps, some
|
||||
[10]even that I own. Or drones, which are now used all the time in news
|
||||
coverage, on job sites, and by people filming themselves hiking.
|
||||
|
||||
I suspect that even if Augmented Reality doesn’t take off, it’ll leave in its
|
||||
wake big advances in miniaturized projectors, improved optics, and scene
|
||||
understanding algorithms in computer vision and ML. The internet of things
|
||||
didn’t really work and most people’s Alexa speakers are only used for setting
|
||||
alarms, but the hype-wave did justify the deployment of much-needed
|
||||
technologies like IPv6, Zigbee, and BLE.
|
||||
|
||||
So, the thought is: none of this applies to crypto. It didn’t work, and it also
|
||||
didn’t fund the development of any lasting technological advance. There’s no
|
||||
legacy. The crypto industry’s research didn’t create new foundations for
|
||||
building decentralized databases. Next-generation cryptography kept rolling on,
|
||||
and, as far as I know, none of it owes much to the cryptocurrency industry.
|
||||
Nothing new has been discovered about economics: as Matt Levine says, [11]“One
|
||||
thing that I say frequently around here is that crypto keeps learning the
|
||||
lessons of traditional finance at high speed.” It’s hard to name anything of
|
||||
value that came out of this hype wave. We incinerated all that investment, and
|
||||
randomly redistributed some wealth, and… what else?
|
||||
|
||||
The best I can come up with is the popularization of [12]zero-knowledge proofs,
|
||||
which play some role in Zerocash and Ethereum but are a fundamental advance in
|
||||
security and have other applications.
|
||||
|
||||
Maybe there’s something I’m missing? But it reminds me of [13]the end of Burn
|
||||
After Reading: “What did we learn? We learned not to do it again.”
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
References:
|
||||
|
||||
[1] https://macwright.com/
|
||||
[2] https://macwright.com/
|
||||
[3] https://macwright.com/writing/
|
||||
[4] https://macwright.com/reading/
|
||||
[5] https://macwright.com/photos/
|
||||
[6] https://macwright.com/projects/
|
||||
[7] https://macwright.com/drawings/
|
||||
[8] https://macwright.com/micro/
|
||||
[9] https://macwright.com/about/
|
||||
[10] https://www.etsy.com/listing/1001875399/aspen-table-lamp-mushroom-lamp-modern?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=3d+printed+lamp&ref=sr_gallery-1-7&bes=1&sts=1&ret=1&content_source=34ccc20e2da3df5906473c82c6fb7ae0e3bcf572%253A1001875399&organic_search_click=1
|
||||
[11] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-08-15/stablecoins-can-have-bank-runs
|
||||
[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-interactive_zero-knowledge_proof
|
||||
[13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlA9hmrC8DU
|
||||
44
static/archive/sive-rs-lwvanv.txt
Normal file
44
static/archive/sive-rs-lwvanv.txt
Normal file
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
|
||||
[1]Derek Sivers
|
||||
[2]Articles:
|
||||
|
||||
Wealth = Have ÷ Need
|
||||
|
||||
2024-09-27
|
||||
|
||||
Not a new idea, but just another visualization and reminder.
|
||||
|
||||
Wealth, feeling like you have plenty, is an equation.
|
||||
|
||||
Wealth = Have ÷ Need
|
||||
|
||||
If you have nothing, then focus on having some.
|
||||
|
||||
Once you have some, the easiest way to increase your wealth is to decrease your
|
||||
needs.
|
||||
|
||||
Have 10 but think you need 100? You are poor.
|
||||
|
||||
Have 10 but only need 5? You are wealthy.
|
||||
|
||||
Have 10 but are happy with 1? You are very wealthy.
|
||||
|
||||
Making money depends on other people, so it’s harder. It’s not entirely under
|
||||
your control. It’s an outer game.
|
||||
|
||||
Reducing what you need is easier. It’s entirely under your control. It’s an
|
||||
inner game.
|
||||
|
||||
I used to look for ways to make money, but I haven’t done that in years. Now I
|
||||
keep looking for ways to need less and want less.
|
||||
|
||||
© 2024 [3]Derek Sivers.
|
||||
|
||||
Copy & share: [4]sive.rs/whn
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
References:
|
||||
|
||||
[1] https://sive.rs/
|
||||
[2] https://sive.rs/blog
|
||||
[3] https://sive.rs/
|
||||
[4] https://sive.rs/whn
|
||||
844
static/archive/www-newyorker-com-l1a2a0.txt
Normal file
844
static/archive/www-newyorker-com-l1a2a0.txt
Normal file
@@ -0,0 +1,844 @@
|
||||
[1]Skip to main content
|
||||
[2]The New Yorker
|
||||
|
||||
• [3]Newsletter
|
||||
|
||||
[4]Search
|
||||
|
||||
• [5]The Latest
|
||||
• [6]News
|
||||
• [7]Books & Culture
|
||||
• [8]Fiction & Poetry
|
||||
• [9]Humor & Cartoons
|
||||
• [10]Magazine
|
||||
• [11]Puzzles & Games
|
||||
• [12]Video
|
||||
• [13]Podcasts
|
||||
• [14]Goings On
|
||||
• [15]Festival
|
||||
|
||||
Open Navigation Menu
|
||||
|
||||
Find anything you save across the site in your account [17]
|
||||
|
||||
Close Alert
|
||||
[19]The New Yorker
|
||||
[20]Annals of Design
|
||||
|
||||
The Art of Taking It Slow
|
||||
|
||||
Contemporary cycling is all about spandex and personal bests. The bicycle
|
||||
designer Grant Petersen has amassed an ardent following by urging people to get
|
||||
comfortable bikes, and go easy.
|
||||
By [21]Anna Wiener
|
||||
September 16, 2024
|
||||
|
||||
• [22]
|
||||
• [23]
|
||||
• [24]
|
||||
• [25]
|
||||
• [26]
|
||||
|
||||
A man rides a bike down a dirt path.
|
||||
Petersen has written that bikes can “just about save the world, or at least
|
||||
make you happy.”Photographs by Jake Stangel for The New Yorker
|
||||
Save this story
|
||||
Save this story
|
||||
|
||||
There are places in California that can make a person feel in tune with
|
||||
geological time, newly alert, on the brink of something cosmic. Walnut Creek,
|
||||
an affluent suburb east of [29]San Francisco, is not one of them. Nestled in
|
||||
the foothills of stately Mt. Diablo, the city’s quaint downtown is buffeted by
|
||||
chain retailers and big-box stores. On a recent summer morning, I took the
|
||||
train there to meet Grant Petersen, the bicycle designer, writer, and founder
|
||||
of Rivendell Bicycle Works. Petersen has become famous for making beautiful
|
||||
bikes, using materials and components that his industry has mostly abandoned,
|
||||
and for promoting a vision of cycling that is low-key, functional, anti-car,
|
||||
and anti-corporate. He has polarizing opinions and an outsized influence.
|
||||
Sensing that it would be uncouth to arrive on foot, and wanting to honestly
|
||||
communicate my level of commitment to cycling, I brought my bike: a red
|
||||
nineteen-eighties Nashbar that I purchased in my mid-twenties, rode happily for
|
||||
a decade, and abandoned when I became pregnant and freshly terrified of death.
|
||||
The bike had spent the past two years hanging vertically in the garage, where,
|
||||
from time to time, I accidentally backed into it with the car. The wheels were
|
||||
out of true, and—a separate issue—couldn’t be removed: I had installed locking
|
||||
anti-theft skewers, then lost the key.
|
||||
|
||||
Petersen met me at the BART station. There were ways in which my bike was not
|
||||
up to Rivendell standards: it had sylphlike tires and an over-all look of
|
||||
abandonment. He was polite about the situation. “It’s steel, it has lugs,” he
|
||||
said. Petersen is seventy and muscular, with buttony blue eyes, a gentle smile,
|
||||
and graying hair that gravitates toward the middle of his head, like a cresting
|
||||
wave. That morning, he was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt, a red bandanna,
|
||||
and loose pants made by Rivendell’s clothing line, MUSA, which Petersen
|
||||
developed himself. (“They seem to fit like normal pants, thank god,” a
|
||||
description on the Web site reads.) He was riding a Rivendell Roaduno, “a
|
||||
single-ish speed road bike” painted banana-slug yellow, and he set off on the
|
||||
sidewalk, beckoning for me to follow.
|
||||
|
||||
In the past forty years, cycling has increasingly been branded as a form of
|
||||
exercise, one that emphasizes speed, optimization, and competition. On any
|
||||
given morning, in Central, Prospect, and Golden Gate Parks, gangs of
|
||||
white-collar workers—wearing curve-hugging performance apparel and tethered to
|
||||
the cloud by G.P.S.—whiz in circles, cheating the wind. Indoor fitness
|
||||
companies, such as SoulCycle and Peloton, have reinforced the image of cycling
|
||||
as a high-octane cardio workout. Most new, high-end bikes are compact,
|
||||
lightweight, and hyper-responsive, with carbon-fibre frames, drop handlebars,
|
||||
and disk brakes, some of which are hydraulic. One of the bikes recommended by
|
||||
Bicycling magazine last year has a matte-black colorway with “a stealthy
|
||||
aesthetic”: the cables and wires are tucked inside the frame. The bike is
|
||||
advertised as “race bred, built for speed.”
|
||||
|
||||
Petersen believes that the bike industry’s focus on racing—along with
|
||||
“competition and a pervasive addiction to technology”—has had a poisonous
|
||||
influence on cycling culture. He dislikes the widespread marketing to
|
||||
recreational riders of spandex kits, squirty energy gels, and workout apps such
|
||||
as Strava. He thinks that low, curved handlebars contort riders into an
|
||||
unnatural position; that bicycles made of carbon fibre and aluminum have safety
|
||||
issues; and that stretchy synthetics have nothing on seersucker and wool. “The
|
||||
whole purpose of pro riding now is to create a demand at the retail level for
|
||||
the really expensive bicycles,” he said. He sees the glorification of
|
||||
speed—personal bests, constant quantification, metrics, leaderboards—as
|
||||
discouraging to entry-level riders who might otherwise enjoy life with a bike.
|
||||
“I would like to see the Tour de France only allow riders to ride one bike the
|
||||
entire tour,” he said. “Do their own maintenance, change their own flats, the
|
||||
way that normal people have to. Racing would have a positive trickle-down
|
||||
effect, instead of the way it is now. Bikes would be better, they’d be safer,
|
||||
and they would last longer. And the races themselves wouldn’t be less
|
||||
interesting at all.”
|
||||
|
||||
Rivendell’s bicycles are marketed as “UNracing” bikes. The frames are made of
|
||||
lugged, brazed steel. They have long wheelbases, luxurious chainstays, and
|
||||
sloping top tubes. “The rear triangle of his bikes, you could fly a plane
|
||||
through there,” Ashton Lambie, a record-breaking American track cyclist, said
|
||||
admiringly. “Nobody is doing that.” The bikes have playful names—Roadini,
|
||||
Atlantis, Hunqapillar, Susie W. Longbolts—and run roughly from two thousand to
|
||||
five thousand dollars, depending on the build. One of Rivendell’s signatures is
|
||||
the country bike: a rig equally suitable for paved roads and, as the company
|
||||
puts it, “the kinds of fire trails a Conestoga wagon could negotiate, but not
|
||||
the kind that would require a jackass.” Rivendell frames are generally
|
||||
outfitted with upright handlebars, leather saddles, manual shifters, platform
|
||||
pedals, and lush, chubby tires. They are designed to accommodate racks,
|
||||
baskets, fenders, and bags—whatever is useful for cross-country touring, local
|
||||
bike camping, and running errands. “Bikes are turning ugly,” Petersen recently
|
||||
wrote. “I personally have more respect, tons of respect, for somebody who rides
|
||||
around town, to work, for shopping, and for fun, than somebody who does
|
||||
front-flips on handrails with a fifty-foot dropoff on one side.” He is an
|
||||
advocate of pleasurable, unhurried riding—alone, or with family and friends—and
|
||||
is obsessive about comfort. Through the years, Rivendell bicycles have amassed
|
||||
a devoted following. People take portraits of their bikes in stunning natural
|
||||
environments and post them to social media; they “Riv up” non-Rivendell frames;
|
||||
they pore over Petersen’s writing, and adopt his preferences. Adam Leibow, the
|
||||
publisher of Calling in Sick, an “extreme alternative cycling magazine,” told
|
||||
me, “Some people call Rivendell a cult.”
|
||||
|
||||
In Walnut Creek, I tailed Petersen as he pedalled at a leisurely pace back to
|
||||
Rivendell’s headquarters. For the past twenty-six years, the company has
|
||||
occupied a six-bay industrial space in a sleepy area by the highway. One of the
|
||||
bays is a showroom, though it felt less like a sales floor and more like a
|
||||
clubhouse. A mobile of lugs, made by a local teen-ager, twirled from the
|
||||
ceiling. Rows of bicycles leaned nonchalantly against their kickstands.
|
||||
Rivendells are distinctive: they have Kodachrome paint jobs, elegant decals,
|
||||
and delicate metal-inlay head badges—a sort of hood ornament for bikes. The
|
||||
lugs, steel sockets that connect the tubing of a bicycle frame, have patterns
|
||||
and shapes cut into them—a heart, a diamond, the curl of a leaf. Even the fork
|
||||
crowns are pretty. In a 1996 catalogue, Petersen wrote that he likes “the idea
|
||||
of a fine frame being identifiable by brand, even without its paint, decals,
|
||||
and head badge, if it happens to wind up in a junkyard 100 years from now . . .
|
||||
in 2095, a hobo art connoisseur could saunter by, see the frame, pick it up, be
|
||||
drawn to the joints, and say ‘(Burp) Ha!—an old Rivendell.’ ”
|
||||
|
||||
[30]Woman standing in front of giant can of prebiotic soda with door.
|
||||
Cartoon by Lindsey Budde
|
||||
Copy link to cartoon
|
||||
|
||||
Link copied
|
||||
|
||||
Shop
|
||||
|
||||
We were greeted in the showroom by Will Keating, Rivendell’s general manager, a
|
||||
tall lapsed skateboarder in his mid-thirties. He was wearing Vans, Dickies, and
|
||||
a baseball cap embroidered with the Calling in Sick logo. Rivendell has twelve
|
||||
employees, a disproportionate number of whom are into vintage cameras; for a
|
||||
while, the shop had a darkroom. (“Skateboarders tend to follow a trajectory,”
|
||||
Keating told me. “They skate, then they get into photography, then they get
|
||||
into bicycles, and then they get into birding.”) On the wall, there were
|
||||
monochrome photos of Petersen’s employees and their friends: well-dressed,
|
||||
tattooed, and helmetless, they rolled through groves of oak and eucalyptus, and
|
||||
pedalled along sun-dappled ridges. The photographs looked like an ad for
|
||||
California.
|
||||
|
||||
These days, some mainstream bikes incorporate electronics requiring batteries
|
||||
and firmware: shifters that change gears at the press of a button, or power
|
||||
meters that collect data on a rider’s output. “So many basic things are being
|
||||
teched out of existence,” Petersen said. He saw this as a function of business
|
||||
incentives: electronics break or need replacement; an upgrade is always around
|
||||
the corner. Petersen’s objections are practical but also philosophical. As
|
||||
bikes become higher-tech, riders lose skills and agency. “A lot of sports have
|
||||
been watered down,” [33]Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, told me.
|
||||
“People are bicycling, but they have a motor. And people are climbing, but
|
||||
they’re climbing indoors. They’re riding big waves, but they’re being pulled in
|
||||
by Jet Skis. Yet there are a few people that are bucking the trend.”
|
||||
|
||||
In the Rivendell showroom, a table held a silver bike frame, fitted with
|
||||
shifters and a drivetrain: the system of cranks, chains, pedals, and gears that
|
||||
propels a bicycle. “It gets really sappy if I try to talk about the beauty of a
|
||||
mechanical movement,” Petersen said. “I don’t want to be poetic about it at
|
||||
all. But I think people like to see how things work.” He turned the crank and
|
||||
moved the friction shifter—a small, silent paddle that shifts gears smoothly,
|
||||
“like a ramp rather than stairs,” as the Rivendell Web site describes it—which
|
||||
was the industry standard until the mid-eighties, when index shifting was
|
||||
introduced. We watched the derailleur lift the chain from gear to gear. “It’s
|
||||
so simple and so easy,” he said. “It takes a little bit of practice, and it’s
|
||||
that little bit of practice that dooms it, absolutely dooms it, in the market.”
|
||||
Electronic parts, he said, were cheaper and easier to make, and lowered the bar
|
||||
to entry. “But the thing that’s lost in there—it’s the control that you have.”
|
||||
|
||||
I followed him to his office, a narrow room stuffed neatly with tools, books,
|
||||
fly-fishing supplies, and, on a high shelf, a plastic box full of rare
|
||||
derailleurs. There were two ergonomic kneeling stools; the landline telephone
|
||||
was wrapped in a block of ergonomic foam. By the door to the office was a
|
||||
small, framed color photo of two friendly-looking septuagenarians, standing
|
||||
next to a pair of Rivendell bicycles. “Are those your parents?” I asked. “No,”
|
||||
Petersen said. “That’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.”
|
||||
|
||||
Petersen grew up in Lafayette, California, a suburb one town over from Walnut
|
||||
Creek. His father was a mechanical engineer, and his mother was a painter and a
|
||||
homemaker. Petersen was a well-liked, athletic, outdoorsy kid, and when he
|
||||
describes his childhood—baseball, paper routes, slingshots, pheasant-hunting—it
|
||||
can bring to mind a mid-century Boy Scout Handbook. Still, he felt apart from
|
||||
his peers. “I wet the bed until I was twenty-three,” he said. “It changes your
|
||||
whole point of view toward life.” He never had sleepovers and was shy around
|
||||
girls. The problem, a physiological one, limited his future prospects. When he
|
||||
graduated from high school, in 1972, dorm life seemed impossible. So he stayed
|
||||
home, enrolled at a local junior college, and, in 1975, began working at the
|
||||
newly opened R.E.I. outpost in Berkeley, a hub of the Bay Area’s energetic
|
||||
outdoor-recreation scene. (Petersen said that for a time the company instituted
|
||||
a rule, “No handwritten signs,” after he began taping up long, chatty shelf
|
||||
talkers for products he liked.) He took up mountaineering and rock climbing,
|
||||
and commuted to work on his bicycle, a thirty-mile round trip. In the summer of
|
||||
1976, he and a girlfriend biked across the country, from Walnut Creek to
|
||||
northern Connecticut, and hitchhiked back.
|
||||
|
||||
Throughout his twenties, Petersen raced in local competitions. Chris Watson, a
|
||||
friend and teammate, said, “He probably doesn’t want to tout this fact, but he
|
||||
shaved his legs like the rest of us.” Most of his peers relied on bicycle parts
|
||||
made by Campagnolo, an upscale Italian company, but Petersen couldn’t afford
|
||||
them. “I think I had thirteen different brands and seven different countries
|
||||
represented on my racing bike,” he said. “It was a hodgepodge, but it worked
|
||||
perfectly.” He was talented but ambivalent about competing. “I know the racing
|
||||
scene extremely well, I know the culture really well, I’m comfortable with it,
|
||||
and I hate it,” he told me.
|
||||
|
||||
In 1984, Petersen took an entry-level job at Bridgestone Cycle U.S.A., an
|
||||
offshoot of the Japanese tire conglomerate. Bridgestone was Japan’s largest
|
||||
bicycle manufacturer, but the American office, which had a half-dozen
|
||||
employees, was not staffed by bicycle experts. Petersen and Watson, who worked
|
||||
in the sales department, helped design a bike called the MB-1, which combined
|
||||
the sportiness and speed of a road bike with the strength of a mountain bike.
|
||||
“I had more influence over Bridgestone bicycles than I should have,” Petersen
|
||||
told me. “But nobody knew anything about bicycles except for me.” The bike sold
|
||||
out immediately, and subsequent models from Bridgestone Cycle U.S.A. bear
|
||||
certain hallmarks of a Petersen build. Kyle Kelley, the owner of Allez LA, a
|
||||
bike shop in Los Angeles, described Petersen’s Bridgestone designs as “some of
|
||||
the best race bikes in the history of mountain biking, period.” Petersen became
|
||||
the division’s head of marketing. He formed a subscription club for Bridgestone
|
||||
riders and enthusiasts, the Bridgestone Owners Bunch, and began publishing a
|
||||
newsletter called the BOB Gazette. The newsletter had articles, product
|
||||
listings, Q. & A.s, word games, tips (“next time somebody hoodwinks you into
|
||||
giving a therapeutic massage, do it with a rolling pin”), and a devoted
|
||||
readership. BOBs, as they were known, were thrifty, embraced a D.I.Y. ethos,
|
||||
and valued function over prestige. “I am philosophically for putting cheap,
|
||||
really high-functioning stuff on a bike,” Petersen told me. “A
|
||||
twenty-eight-dollar derailleur on a thirty-five-hundred-dollar bike has a kind
|
||||
of beauty in itself.”
|
||||
|
||||
In 1994, Bridgestone announced that it was shuttering its U.S. bicycle
|
||||
operation. Petersen told me that he had an informal standing job offer from
|
||||
Specialized, a major bicycle manufacturer, but that he couldn’t get excited
|
||||
about the changes in the mainstream market. Production was moving to China.
|
||||
Mountain bikes had begun to draw influence from motocross, incorporating shocks
|
||||
and suspension forks. The introduction of carbon fibre and titanium brought new
|
||||
manufacturers, including aerospace companies, into the industry. “The
|
||||
proportions, designs, paint jobs, graphics were hard for me to embrace,”
|
||||
Petersen said. The timing was not ideal: he and his wife, Mary Anderson, had a
|
||||
five-year-old daughter and were expecting a second child. Still, in the final
|
||||
issue of the BOB Gazette, he announced that he would be forming his own
|
||||
company. “For better or worse, for richer or poorer, Rivendell will reflect my
|
||||
extreme personal taste,” he wrote.
|
||||
|
||||
Within a few months, Petersen raised eighty-nine thousand dollars from friends
|
||||
and family, and set up shop in his garage. Anderson became the company’s
|
||||
vice-president. Rivendell’s first product was beeswax, for lubricating bolt
|
||||
threads; Petersen processed it in his kitchen. He began publishing another
|
||||
newsletter, the Rivendell Reader, and distributed it to the old BOB mailing
|
||||
list. “In the simplest terms, I think of bicycles as rideable art that can just
|
||||
about save the world, or at least make you happy,” he told readers. “Yet so
|
||||
many modern bicycles are promoted as tools for self-aggrandizement, status, and
|
||||
hammering the competition to a pulp, and the bikes themselves look like
|
||||
hoodlums, thugs, and ne’er-do-wells.” The Reader was rich with information
|
||||
about bike parts and accessories, and often incorporated Petersen’s non-bicycle
|
||||
interests, as with a short physics primer on “Why a Boomerang Boomerangs,”
|
||||
written by a boomerang designer. The newsletter also included a column titled
|
||||
“Progress Report,” a detailed journal of the company’s development.
|
||||
Financially, Rivendell was almost always in the red. “We’re forging ahead with
|
||||
little projects that cost loot but will pay off down the road—all stuff a
|
||||
financial advisor would advise against, I’m sure,” Petersen wrote, in 1999, at
|
||||
a low point. “But the lugs are so fun, and it’s so ironic that here we are
|
||||
doing them in an age when almost nobody gives a hoot. It’s tragic and funny at
|
||||
the same time.”
|
||||
|
||||
A few days after I met Petersen, I went downstairs to retrieve the mail and
|
||||
found a cardboard box containing what can only be described as a dossier: old
|
||||
Bridgestone catalogues, issues of the BOB Gazette, a nearly complete archive of
|
||||
the Rivendell Reader. The box also included an issue of Outside magazine from
|
||||
1996, in which there was a story about Petersen—a “messiah to cycling
|
||||
Luddites”—under the headline “Lead Us Not Into Titanium.” He’d been styled for
|
||||
the photograph, in baggy jeans and a dark shirt buttoned clerically to the
|
||||
neck. A Post-it had been slapped over the text: “Hate it,” he’d pencilled.
|
||||
“They made me wear the clothes.” In an issue of the Reader from the same year,
|
||||
Petersen responded to the article in his “Progress Report”: “Man, I look like a
|
||||
turkey posing in the damn sunset holding up a frame I didn’t even make myself,
|
||||
and the text has me some kind of damn leader of the *$#@$!#a$#$ ‘flock,’ and
|
||||
that’s so insulting and misdirected and man, it makes me mad. . . . I don’t
|
||||
hate titanium! It’s good material! It’s pretty! No rusto! Bravo! Whatever!
|
||||
Damn!”
|
||||
|
||||
Rivendell’s employees object to descriptions of the company’s following as
|
||||
cultlike. “The other stuff is the cult,” Keating told me. “Putting the suit on,
|
||||
and going as fast as possible, and using the bars like this”—we were sitting at
|
||||
a table, and he hunched over his coffee cup, as if to protect it. “That’s the
|
||||
culty stuff, right? We’re just making nice bikes for regular people.” Still,
|
||||
people kind of get a bug. They buy in. The RBW Owners Bunch, an online forum
|
||||
for fans, has more than five thousand members, and users post on a daily basis.
|
||||
People organize “Riv Rides” in their home towns, and name-check their bikes in
|
||||
their professional bios and Instagram handles. On one afternoon that I visited,
|
||||
employees were nibbling on a large cheesecake from Junior’s, sent by a
|
||||
customer. Leah Peterson, a nurse in southwest Michigan, and the owner of three
|
||||
Platypuses—a curvy, elongated upright country bike—sends themed enamel pins to
|
||||
other Platypus-riding “Riv Sisters.” Some years ago, when she visited the shop,
|
||||
the crew suspended a large cardboard welcome sign from the ceiling; she and
|
||||
Petersen cruised around town on a HubbuHubbuH, Rivendell’s tandem. Several
|
||||
months later, her father died unexpectedly of a pulmonary embolism. She was
|
||||
astonished to open the mail and find handwritten notes from the Rivendell
|
||||
staff. “What company sends you a sympathy card when your dad dies?” she asked
|
||||
me.
|
||||
|
||||
[34]Sperm cells travel together.
|
||||
“But I’m not even a natural leader.”
|
||||
Cartoon by Victoria Roberts
|
||||
Copy link to cartoon
|
||||
|
||||
Link copied
|
||||
|
||||
Shop
|
||||
|
||||
An undeniable part of Rivendell’s appeal is Petersen. The guy has an aura. He
|
||||
tends to ride in long-sleeved shirts, pants, and Teva sandals, on bicycles
|
||||
dotted with multicolor nail polish. He wraps some of his handlebars in colorful
|
||||
felt or tape and hemp twine, then shellacs them. (“I like to put a broccoli
|
||||
rubberband amidships,” he has written; it adds grip.) From time to time, he’ll
|
||||
strap poems to his basket or bars, then memorize them on trail rides. A
|
||||
pragmatist, he is a fan of what he calls the S24O, or the sub-twenty-four-hour
|
||||
overnight, a sort of working cyclist’s staycation—“bicycle camping for the time
|
||||
challenged”—in which participants ride into nature near their homes, camp out
|
||||
for one night, and return in the morning. In 2012, he published “Just Ride: A
|
||||
Radically Practical Guide to Riding Your Bike,” which offers advice on cycling
|
||||
technique, diet, fitness, and etiquette (“Be saintlike on the bike path”).
|
||||
Controversially, he is ambivalent about helmets: he believes that most are
|
||||
inadequately padded, sacrificing safety for style; that our cultural obsession
|
||||
with them unfairly places the onus on cyclists, not drivers; and that they
|
||||
instill unearned confidence. (“Don’t risk-compensate,” he told me, as I clipped
|
||||
mine on.) His own helmet, which he wears only occasionally, is augmented with
|
||||
packing foam.
|
||||
|
||||
Petersen keeps a blog, Grant’s Blahg: a freewheeling repository of business
|
||||
updates, how-to tips, personal reflections, bicycle information, appreciative
|
||||
photos of goats, and so on. He takes his interests seriously, and when
|
||||
something captures his attention—fly-fishing, insulin, behavioral psychology—he
|
||||
goes deep. He also has strong feelings about soap (pine tar is best), the
|
||||
figures on American currency (“Put Pooh on a coin”), and spelling bees (“To
|
||||
titillate the audience, the contestants don’t all spell the same words”). He is
|
||||
less dogmatic about e-bikes than one might expect (“Better than a car”). He
|
||||
enjoys wordplay; one Rivendell publication, a twenty-page flyer, excluded the
|
||||
letter “E.” “It’s not about the bike, it’s about the relationship,” Richard
|
||||
Sachs, a master frame builder, told me. “You’re buying Grant. You’re buying
|
||||
Grant’s intellectual property, and his forty or fifty years of staying true to
|
||||
his belief system.”
|
||||
|
||||
Recently, out at a bar with friends, I struck up a conversation with a man in
|
||||
his late thirties, a climate-impact investor named Peter, who was sitting alone
|
||||
at a sidewalk table, drinking a beer. Across from him was a Rivendell: an A.
|
||||
Homer Hilsen frame, with thick tires, side-pull brakes, saddlebags, and
|
||||
built-in lights, which ran on wheel-generated electricity. Peter said that he
|
||||
had wanted it to be an “apocalypse bike”: good for commuting, running errands,
|
||||
and bike camping, but also something he could “hop on after an earthquake and
|
||||
get anywhere, dependent on no one.” He had been taken aback by how often
|
||||
strangers initiated conversations with him about Rivendell; I was the third
|
||||
person to approach him that evening. “Would I have bought this bike if I knew
|
||||
people would talk to me about it multiple times a week?” he asked. Still, a few
|
||||
minutes later, he said he was thinking about buying a second.
|
||||
|
||||
In July, Petersen enlisted his friend Dan Leto to drive us out to Fernandez
|
||||
Ranch, in Martinez, for a trail ride. Petersen is a licensed driver but hates
|
||||
to do it—“It scares me, the thought of hurting somebody”—and estimates that he
|
||||
has spent ninety minutes behind the wheel of a car in the past four years. When
|
||||
Leto arrived at the shop, driving a white nineties Ford Explorer (Eddie Bauer
|
||||
edition), the temperature was ticking toward triple digits. Petersen
|
||||
disappeared into the workroom, and returned with a blue bandanna soaked in cold
|
||||
water, which he tied around my neck, like a tiny cape. That morning, he had
|
||||
taken a sunscreen stick to his face, and his cheeks and forehead were covered
|
||||
in thick white streaks; an equally sopped bandanna hung around his own neck. He
|
||||
looked a little crazy. “Sit behind the airbag,” Petersen instructed, pointing
|
||||
to the front seat; he and Keating, who came along, folded themselves into the
|
||||
back.
|
||||
|
||||
The ranch, a seven-thousand-acre nature reserve, is just off the highway, a few
|
||||
miles from a Chevron refinery. For much of the year, it is grassy and lush,
|
||||
with rolling meadows and riots of wildflowers. But this was midsummer, and the
|
||||
earth was golden, crunchy, and pocked with ground-squirrel holes. In the
|
||||
parking lot, Petersen eyeballed the bicycle he had brought for me, a moss-green
|
||||
Clem Smith Jr., with thick tires and upright bars. The seat was higher than I
|
||||
was used to: I had ridden almost exclusively on pavement, with traffic, and was
|
||||
used to dropping a foot to the ground at short notice. The previous week,
|
||||
trying a Platypus at Rivendell HQ, I had slung a leg over the frame, pushed
|
||||
myself up onto the saddle, and fallen over. Petersen looked at me. “This saddle
|
||||
height is ergonomically fine but psychologically terrifying,” he said, and
|
||||
lowered the seat.
|
||||
|
||||
The ride that Petersen had chosen was short: a series of switchbacks, climbing
|
||||
to an overlook, and then a long, voluptuous descent. In the days leading up to
|
||||
it, he had nervously e-mailed me advice and instructions—on friction-shifting,
|
||||
pedalling uphill, and coasting down steep descents—appended with apologies for
|
||||
being “helicopter-y.” His two daughters are about my age, and I had the feeling
|
||||
that if I hurt myself, consoling him would be the worst part. We started up the
|
||||
narrow trail, moving from an open field to a shaded grove. The highway and
|
||||
refinery fell out of sight. I was slow, and not at peace. On the ascent, I had
|
||||
to walk the Clem a bit, guiding it up the trail like a donkey, and, despite
|
||||
everyone being relentlessly reassuring and kind, I engaged in a little
|
||||
therapeutic self-talk to quell my shame at dragging the pace down.
|
||||
|
||||
About halfway through the ride, I came to a fork in the road. I didn’t know
|
||||
which path the others had taken, and I stood for a while, appreciating the
|
||||
shade of the oak trees, the quiet, the bandanna crisping around my neck. I
|
||||
tried to channel an essay of Petersen’s, written in 2002, on what he calls
|
||||
“underbiking”: taking a bike somewhere it isn’t obviously built to go. “Riding
|
||||
an UB changes how you look at any terrain,” he wrote. “You ride where it lets
|
||||
you ride, walk when it wants you to, and rely more on your growing skills than
|
||||
on the latest technology.” This struck me as a harmonic way of moving through
|
||||
the world—not my way, but whatever. I pushed off, found the group, and followed
|
||||
them down a steep, exhilarating slide. Dry earth sputtered against my calves. I
|
||||
loosened my hold on the brakes. Even in the heat, with friction shifters I
|
||||
didn’t understand how to use, I felt a flicker of my favorite feeling:
|
||||
competence. The wide tires were emboldening; the saddle height was
|
||||
psychologically fine. It was by far the longest, heaviest bicycle I had ever
|
||||
been on, and it moved with a surprising grace.
|
||||
|
||||
We dismounted in the parking lot. The sun returned to being unforgiving. I had
|
||||
no idea what time it was or how long we’d been out. I wanted to do the whole
|
||||
thing again. I looked at my phone: texts from the babysitter, calendar alerts,
|
||||
a moldering heap of e-mails. “Don’t you just feel like a kid again?” Leto
|
||||
asked, as he and Petersen began disassembling the bikes and loading them into
|
||||
the car. I knew what he meant. But I felt, instead, a very adult sense of
|
||||
longing—as if I had just glimpsed, at a deeply inconvenient time, a new and
|
||||
appealing way to live.
|
||||
|
||||
Petersen often cites, as inspiration for Rivendell, a 1972 catalogue for
|
||||
Chouinard Equipment, the precursor to Patagonia. In the catalogue, Yvon
|
||||
Chouinard took his industry to task for the environmental damage of rock
|
||||
climbing and copped to his own culpability, as a purveyor of steel pitons. “I
|
||||
can relate to what he’s trying to do, because I’ve tried to do the same thing,”
|
||||
Chouinard told me, of Petersen. Like Chouinard, who has expressed concern about
|
||||
Patagonia’s size continuing to increase, Petersen is wary of growth. There are
|
||||
only a small number of factories that do things the Rivendell way. Its lugs,
|
||||
which are made using lost-wax casting, are incredibly strong but take a long
|
||||
time to make. The vast majority of the frames are painted by a single person.
|
||||
“I don’t want to dilute anything,” Petersen said. “I don’t want to be like
|
||||
Filson, trying to sell ranch wear to urbanites.”
|
||||
|
||||
Last year, Rivendell brought in four million dollars in revenue. The company
|
||||
sells about fifteen hundred bicycles a year, alongside parts, pants, and other
|
||||
things that Petersen appreciates, including merino-wool socks and sweaters,
|
||||
copies of “[37]The Wind in the Willows,” brass bike bells (“Noisy but
|
||||
friendly”), bandannas (“They come to you stiff”), and Olbas aromatherapy
|
||||
inhalers (“My often congested son-in-law tried it, and within two seconds
|
||||
asked, ‘Is it addicting?’ ”). Rivendell works with a small number of dealers,
|
||||
but sells most of its bicycles directly to customers. The company does not have
|
||||
a large storage facility, and inventory is limited. “I am no businessman, but
|
||||
it does seem like perhaps they are leaving some amount of money on the table if
|
||||
their frames sell out in 4 minutes?!” a friend recently texted me, after
|
||||
failing to secure a Joe Appaloosa during a presale. “I don’t think growth is
|
||||
necessarily good,” Petersen told me. “When you’re making a whole lot of
|
||||
something, with the goal being profits, there are usually compromises.”
|
||||
|
||||
Since 1999, Rivendell has produced Silver, its own line of components, which
|
||||
include friction shifters, cranks, and hubs. Some are “virtual but ethically
|
||||
produced knockoffs” of products that have been discontinued by larger companies
|
||||
such as Shimano and SunTour. “We’re trying to become independent of the big
|
||||
bicycle-parts makers,” Petersen said. “Ten years ago, we could still get stuff
|
||||
that we liked. Twenty years ago, it was easy. Now it’s really hard.” The
|
||||
obsolescence of mechanical parts has been a fixation of his for more than
|
||||
thirty years: at Bridgestone, he kept an “Endangered Species Calendar,” a
|
||||
monthly listing of bicycle parts that appeared to be going out of style. Eben
|
||||
Weiss, the author of the blog Bike Snob NYC, told me, of friction shifters, “If
|
||||
it wasn’t for someone like Grant, you could only get them on eBay. He keeps
|
||||
them alive.” For five years, Rivendell has been working on manufacturing its
|
||||
own derailleur. “He doesn’t make business decisions,” Weiss said. “He makes
|
||||
decisions for the love of cycling.”
|
||||
|
||||
Image may contain Clothing Hat Adult Person Photography Baseball Cap Cap Baby
|
||||
Bicycle Transportation and Vehicle
|
||||
Petersen believes that the bike industry’s focus on racing—along with
|
||||
“competition and a pervasive addiction to technology”—has had a poisonous
|
||||
influence on cycling culture.
|
||||
|
||||
Through the years, some of Petersen’s ideas have filtered into the cycling
|
||||
mainstream. People go on S24Os, and refer to them as such. They take road bikes
|
||||
into the mountains and document their adventures on Instagram, using the
|
||||
hashtag #underbiking. In some corners of the industry, baskets, racks, and
|
||||
thicker tires are popular; Petersen is widely credited with bringing an
|
||||
unfashionable wheel size—the plump, gravel-friendly 650b—back into circulation.
|
||||
Newer brands such as Surly, Crust, and Velo Orange now make similar frames. But
|
||||
some cyclists find Petersen overbearing. They are comfortable in spandex and
|
||||
motivated by a little competition. They don’t mind if their bikes won’t last
|
||||
forever. They have their own joy. Armin Landgraf, the C.E.O. of Specialized,
|
||||
said that his customers like buying professional-tier bikes seen at the Tour de
|
||||
France for a sense of connection with the sport. “It’s a passion,” he said.
|
||||
|
||||
The main critique that Petersen faces is that his preferences are needlessly
|
||||
nostalgic. In 1990, a columnist for Bicycling dubbed Petersen a “retro-grouch,”
|
||||
and joked that he must be a descendant of nineteenth-century penny-farthing
|
||||
riders. (An ardent cyclist of my acquaintance, who underwent his own Rivendell
|
||||
“journey,” told me that he had once worn Petersen’s recommended brand of wool
|
||||
underwear on a multi-week tour: “It didn’t work out well,” he said. “For my
|
||||
butt.”) But the same qualities that provoke this critique are part of
|
||||
Rivendell’s appeal—as is true of other niche, low-tech products that attract
|
||||
dedicated enthusiasts, such as film cameras and vintage watches. “Bikes look
|
||||
very digital these days,” Kelley, of Allez LA, said. “Rivendells look very
|
||||
analog.” He joked that the typical Rivendell customer is someone who “maybe
|
||||
still has a flip phone” and listens to vinyl: “They get a feeling when they see
|
||||
something that doesn’t look new.” Georgena Terry, a famed bicycle designer who
|
||||
specializes in bikes for women, told me that electronic shifting was valuable
|
||||
for some of her older customers, such as those with arthritis. Still, she
|
||||
described Petersen as an “icon” in the industry. “Even people who would never
|
||||
ride one of Grant’s bikes, because they just think they’re too simple, or
|
||||
whatever, still have a great deal of respect for him,” she said.
|
||||
|
||||
In 2018, Petersen posted angrily on the Blahg about the Trump Administration’s
|
||||
[38]family-separation policies, and was surprised when some of his readers
|
||||
pushed back. Later that year, Rivendell began offering discounts to interested
|
||||
Black customers who came into the shop: an effort at anti-racist action, if an
|
||||
imperfect one. In 2020, Petersen formalized the program, calling it Black
|
||||
Reparations Pricing, and started the Black Reparations Fund, a donation pool.
|
||||
Days later, right-wing lawyers accused Rivendell of illegally discriminating
|
||||
against customers based on race. Petersen’s lawyers advised him to shut the
|
||||
program down. The company renamed its charitable fund “Bikes R Fun,” to
|
||||
maintain the same initials; last year, it gave sixty-two thousand dollars to
|
||||
charities. Petersen also fund-raises for individuals, including “Grocery Guy,”
|
||||
a Black checkout worker he met at a local supermarket, and Isabel Galán, a
|
||||
single mother of three living in the South Bronx, whom Petersen read about in a
|
||||
Times article about undocumented women. He is interested in making cycling more
|
||||
inclusive and accessible, although he is aware that the revolution won’t be
|
||||
riding four-thousand-dollar Rivendells. He is currently working on a
|
||||
multivolume book project, “An Illustrated History of the American Bicycle:
|
||||
Riding through Racism, Sexism, Pollution, Politics, and Pop Culture.” It begins
|
||||
with the Big Bang.
|
||||
|
||||
Rivendell’s future isn’t obvious, or even inevitable. “For the first ten years,
|
||||
we were one bad month away from not being able to pay the bills,” Petersen
|
||||
said. Twice, in 2008 and 2018, the company could barely make rent and payroll.
|
||||
Both times, Petersen appealed to customers, who purchased gift cards and other
|
||||
items to reinvigorate cash flow; the second time around, customers bought more
|
||||
than two hundred thousand dollars in store credit. Rivendell could double its
|
||||
prices, Petersen said, but he didn’t want people to get precious. “They
|
||||
wouldn’t use them as everyday bikes,” he said. It was only in 2020 that
|
||||
Rivendell’s finances started to stabilize, after the pandemic-era bicycle boom
|
||||
and a newfound popularity in the Japanese market. (Keating, the general
|
||||
manager, credits Blue Lug, a chain of bike shops in Japan, with much of the
|
||||
company’s current health.) These days, Petersen’s primary concern is getting
|
||||
Rivendell to a place where his employees, if they want to, can stay for the
|
||||
rest of their careers. “I know, and they know, and it’s absolutely clear: if we
|
||||
quit doing what we’re doing, nobody is going to pick it up,” he said. “Nobody’s
|
||||
going to do it.”
|
||||
|
||||
In August, I joined Leibow, from Calling in Sick, for a weekend ride. At about
|
||||
nine in the morning, six of his friends, including Keating, gathered at the
|
||||
base of the Golden Gate Bridge, wearing sweatshirts, plaid button-downs, and
|
||||
Vans slip-ons. A thick fog hung over the bay, cloaking the arches. Seagulls
|
||||
drifted in the wind; cars on the bridge passed into nothing. We were headed
|
||||
into Marin, a popular destination for San Francisco cyclists: on weekends, the
|
||||
roads are inundated with riders in sleek-looking pelotons, who roll up to
|
||||
small-town main drags and, rocking lightly in clipless bike shoes, click-clack
|
||||
into bakeries for halftime refreshments. A few yards away from us, two people
|
||||
with spandex outfits, matching white helmets, and lithe physiques clasped each
|
||||
other against the cold. I thought about something Petersen had written on the
|
||||
Blahg: “A beautiful bicycle in a beautiful biome makes sense.” There was
|
||||
something romantic about the Rivendells. They made the other bikes on the road
|
||||
look mean.
|
||||
|
||||
Petersen had loaned me an A. Homer Hilsen the color of celestine, with upright
|
||||
bars and a metal basket. Leibow and two others were on green Rivendell Clem Ls,
|
||||
a step-through model with an ultra-low top tube, to which Calling in Sick once
|
||||
dedicated an entire issue. One of the Clem owners said that, on a recent ride,
|
||||
a stranger on the trail had heckled him, hollering, “Nice that your sister let
|
||||
you borrow her bike!” Though Rivendell’s customer base has historically skewed
|
||||
middle-aged—the target audience for comfort—during the past decade the company
|
||||
has become popular among younger riders, many of them skateboarders, who have
|
||||
found that the bicycles are fun, and hardy enough, to take off-road. “The brand
|
||||
ethos is about being O.K. with going slow,” Leibow told me. “But the reality
|
||||
is, people who want to go fast go fast, even if it’s on a Rivendell.”
|
||||
|
||||
At a not especially swift pace, we crossed into the hills and started up a
|
||||
paved, curving road, toward the trail. The ground was littered with sardines,
|
||||
presumably dropped by birds. Wild fennel grew along the shoulder; Leibow
|
||||
harvested some fronds to chew on. He and Keating, who have both spent years
|
||||
riding around the Marin Headlands at night, to take advantage of the empty
|
||||
roads, seemed familiar with the area at a near-molecular level. At the
|
||||
trailhead, Keating suggested that we take a little air out of my tires.
|
||||
“Personal preference,” he said. Then we turned onto a rutted, rocky hiking
|
||||
path. We rode to a retired battery, which hung over the Pacific Ocean. A gun
|
||||
pit, filled with water, had been overtaken by newts. Three different brands of
|
||||
gummy bears materialized. The riders leaned over the pool, eyeballing the
|
||||
salamanders, shooting the breeze.
|
||||
|
||||
The strength and fearlessness of the others filled me with an almost
|
||||
indescribable envy. What was it like to leave for a long ride at dusk—or cycle
|
||||
off into the woods with a sleeping bag, a patch kit, and some groceries—and be
|
||||
reasonably assured you’d have a great night? The world seemed divided between
|
||||
two types of people: those with a command of the physical world, and everyone
|
||||
else. The former had confidence, skill, and know-how; the rest of us had
|
||||
YouTube tutorials on removing anti-theft skewers.
|
||||
|
||||
Back in the city, I parted ways with Leibow and company. For the first time in
|
||||
a long time, I had no particular place to be. It was pleasant to be
|
||||
purposeless. As I passed other riders in Golden Gate Park, I was aware that the
|
||||
Homer was signalling like crazy to an in-group, and I felt like a poseur: if
|
||||
someone had a question about, say, the drivetrain, I wouldn’t have an answer.
|
||||
But I wanted to—not for cachet, but because it felt right. I thought about all
|
||||
the ways relentless optimization could contort a good time. I felt a not
|
||||
unfamiliar anxiety about Stuff, its overabundance and baseline cheapness. I
|
||||
tried not to get clipped by an e-bike.
|
||||
|
||||
A few weeks later, I went out to Walnut Creek to return the loaner. Since our
|
||||
last meeting, Petersen and I had exchanged dozens of e-mails: about Virginia
|
||||
peanuts, rubber bands, and a ride he’d taken with his nearly two-year-old
|
||||
granddaughter on a Rosco Bebe—a Rivendell designed to hold a baby
|
||||
carrier—during which he’d fed her berries and figs foraged from the saddle.
|
||||
“Bicycles!” he wrote, at one point. “Eventually get a really good one that
|
||||
works for your life and is beautiful and you love. It’s just basic.” When I got
|
||||
to the showroom, my red Nashbar was leaning against a wall. Amid the
|
||||
Rivendells, it looked a little wan, and much smaller than I remembered. I was
|
||||
happy to see it. Still, before I left, Petersen sent me around the block on a
|
||||
grape-purple Platypus. I cruised past the auto-body shops and a restaurant
|
||||
puffing anise-scented air. The Platypus was agile, and sturdy as a parade
|
||||
float. “You could have that bike for the rest of your life,” Petersen said.
|
||||
“Imagine that frame, fifty years old, how beautiful that would be.” ♦
|
||||
|
||||
Published in the print edition of the [39]September 23, 2024, issue, with the
|
||||
headline “Joy Ride.”
|
||||
|
||||
New Yorker Favorites
|
||||
|
||||
• After a London teen-ager plummeted into the Thames, his parents discovered
|
||||
that he’d been [40]posing as an oligarch’s son.
|
||||
|
||||
• Don’t put off reading this [41]article on procrastination.
|
||||
|
||||
• Why you [42]can’t get a restaurant reservation.
|
||||
|
||||
• Is it O.K. to eat [43]any type of meat?
|
||||
|
||||
• What it was like being [44]married to the Marquis de Sade.
|
||||
|
||||
• [45]An excerpt from Sally Rooney’s new novel.
|
||||
|
||||
[46]Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New
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||||
Yorker.
|
||||
|
||||
[47][undefined]
|
||||
[48]Anna Wiener is a contributing writer at The New Yorker covering the Bay
|
||||
Area, technology, and the cultural influence of Silicon Valley. She is the
|
||||
author of the memoir “[49]Uncanny Valley.”
|
||||
More:[50]Bikes
|
||||
Read More
|
||||
[51]
|
||||
Among the Gaza Protest Voters
|
||||
The Political Scene
|
||||
[52]
|
||||
Among the Gaza Protest Voters
|
||||
[53]
|
||||
Among the Gaza Protest Voters
|
||||
Some progressives in Michigan say that they won’t support Kamala Harris unless
|
||||
she changes her policy on Israel. Will their tactics persuade her, or risk
|
||||
throwing the election to Trump?
|
||||
By Andrew Marantz
|
||||
[54]
|
||||
Land of the Flea
|
||||
U.S. Journal
|
||||
[55]
|
||||
Land of the Flea
|
||||
[56]
|
||||
Land of the Flea
|
||||
A road trip though America’s annual celebration of other people’s stuff.
|
||||
By Paige Williams
|
||||
[57]
|
||||
Is It Time to Torch the Constitution?
|
||||
Books
|
||||
[58]
|
||||
Is It Time to Torch the Constitution?
|
||||
[59]
|
||||
Is It Time to Torch the Constitution?
|
||||
Some scholars say that it’s to blame for our political dysfunction—and that we
|
||||
need to start over.
|
||||
By Louis Menand
|
||||
[60]
|
||||
Richard Powers on What We Do to the Earth and What It Does to Us
|
||||
Profiles
|
||||
[61]
|
||||
Richard Powers on What We Do to the Earth and What It Does to Us
|
||||
[62]
|
||||
Richard Powers on What We Do to the Earth and What It Does to Us
|
||||
“Playground,” Powers’s new novel, aims to do for the oceans what “The
|
||||
Overstory” did for trees.
|
||||
By Hua Hsu
|
||||
[63]The New Yorker
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References:
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[1] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/23/the-art-of-taking-it-slow#main-content
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[20] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/annals-of-design
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[21] https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/anna-wiener
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[22] https://www.facebook.com/dialog/feed?&display=popup&caption=The%20Art%20of%20Taking%20It%20Slow&app_id=1147169538698836&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newyorker.com%2Fmagazine%2F2024%2F09%2F23%2Fthe-art-of-taking-it-slow%3Futm_source%3Dfacebook%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Donsite-share%26utm_brand%3Dthe-new-yorker%26utm_social-type%3Dearned
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[23] https://twitter.com/intent/tweet/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newyorker.com%2Fmagazine%2F2024%2F09%2F23%2Fthe-art-of-taking-it-slow%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Donsite-share%26utm_brand%3Dthe-new-yorker%26utm_social-type%3Dearned&text=The%20Art%20of%20Taking%20It%20Slow&via=NewYorker
|
||||
[24] mailto:?subject=The%20Art%20of%20Taking%20It%20Slow&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newyorker.com%2Fmagazine%2F2024%2F09%2F23%2Fthe-art-of-taking-it-slow%3Futm_source%3Donsite-share%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3Donsite-share%26utm_brand%3Dthe-new-yorker
|
||||
[25] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/23/the-art-of-taking-it-slow#
|
||||
[26] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/23/the-art-of-taking-it-slow#
|
||||
[29] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/23/what-happened-to-san-francisco-really
|
||||
[30] https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a60478-rd
|
||||
[33] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/19/patagonias-philosopher-king
|
||||
[34] https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a23568
|
||||
[37] https://www.amazon.com/Wind-Willows-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143039091/
|
||||
[38] https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-uncounted-families-torn-apart-at-the-border-by-the-trump-administration
|
||||
[39] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/23
|
||||
[40] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/12/a-teens-fatal-plunge-into-the-london-underworld
|
||||
[41] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/11/later-procrastination
|
||||
[42] https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/why-you-cant-get-a-restaurant-reservation
|
||||
[43] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/11/09/flesh-of-your-flesh-meat-vegetarianism
|
||||
[44] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/10/12/at-home-with-the-marquis-de-sade
|
||||
[45] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/07/08/opening-theory-fiction-sally-rooney
|
||||
[46] https://www.newyorker.com/newsletter/daily
|
||||
[47] https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/anna-wiener
|
||||
[48] https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/anna-wiener
|
||||
[49] https://www.amazon.com/Uncanny-Valley-Memoir-Anna-Wiener/dp/0374278016
|
||||
[50] https://www.newyorker.com/tag/bikes
|
||||
[51] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/30/uncommitted-voters-gaza-election-michigan-harris-trump#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-bottom-recirc-v4_5fc7e0b8-fd3f-4c21-849e-38a811f4d0b5_similar2-3
|
||||
[52] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/30/uncommitted-voters-gaza-election-michigan-harris-trump#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-bottom-recirc-v4_5fc7e0b8-fd3f-4c21-849e-38a811f4d0b5_similar2-3
|
||||
[53] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/30/uncommitted-voters-gaza-election-michigan-harris-trump#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-bottom-recirc-v4_5fc7e0b8-fd3f-4c21-849e-38a811f4d0b5_similar2-3
|
||||
[54] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/16/land-of-the-flea#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-bottom-recirc-v4_5fc7e0b8-fd3f-4c21-849e-38a811f4d0b5_similar2-3
|
||||
[55] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/16/land-of-the-flea#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-bottom-recirc-v4_5fc7e0b8-fd3f-4c21-849e-38a811f4d0b5_similar2-3
|
||||
[56] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/16/land-of-the-flea#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-bottom-recirc-v4_5fc7e0b8-fd3f-4c21-849e-38a811f4d0b5_similar2-3
|
||||
[57] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/30/constitution-book-reviews-chemerinsky-pierson-schickler#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-bottom-recirc-v4_5fc7e0b8-fd3f-4c21-849e-38a811f4d0b5_similar2-3
|
||||
[58] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/30/constitution-book-reviews-chemerinsky-pierson-schickler#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-bottom-recirc-v4_5fc7e0b8-fd3f-4c21-849e-38a811f4d0b5_similar2-3
|
||||
[59] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/30/constitution-book-reviews-chemerinsky-pierson-schickler#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-bottom-recirc-v4_5fc7e0b8-fd3f-4c21-849e-38a811f4d0b5_similar2-3
|
||||
[60] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/16/richard-powers-profile#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-bottom-recirc-v4_5fc7e0b8-fd3f-4c21-849e-38a811f4d0b5_similar2-3
|
||||
[61] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/16/richard-powers-profile#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-bottom-recirc-v4_5fc7e0b8-fd3f-4c21-849e-38a811f4d0b5_similar2-3
|
||||
[62] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/16/richard-powers-profile#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-bottom-recirc-v4_5fc7e0b8-fd3f-4c21-849e-38a811f4d0b5_similar2-3
|
||||
[63] https://www.newyorker.com/
|
||||
[65] https://www.newyorker.com/news
|
||||
[66] https://www.newyorker.com/culture
|
||||
[67] https://www.newyorker.com/fiction-and-poetry
|
||||
[68] https://www.newyorker.com/humor
|
||||
[69] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine
|
||||
[70] https://www.newyorker.com/crossword-puzzles-and-games
|
||||
[71] https://www.newyorker.com/video
|
||||
[72] https://www.newyorker.com/podcast
|
||||
[73] https://www.newyorker.com/archive
|
||||
[74] https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on
|
||||
[76] http://w1.buysub.com/servlet/CSGateway?cds_mag_code=NYR
|
||||
[77] https://store.newyorker.com/
|
||||
[78] https://condenaststore.com/art/new+yorker+covers
|
||||
[79] https://condenaststore.com/conde-nast-brand/thenewyorker
|
||||
[80] https://www.newyorker.com/digital-editions
|
||||
[81] https://www.newyorker.com/newsletter
|
||||
[82] https://www.newyorker.com/jigsaw
|
||||
[83] https://www.newyorker.com/about/feeds
|
||||
[84] https://www.newyorker.com/about/us
|
||||
[85] https://www.newyorker.com/about/careers
|
||||
[86] https://www.newyorker.com/about/contact
|
||||
[87] https://www.newyorker.com/about/faq
|
||||
[88] https://www.condenast.com/advertising
|
||||
[89] https://www.newyorker.com/about/press
|
||||
[90] https://www.newyorker.com/about/accessibility-help
|
||||
[91] https://www.condenast.com/user-agreement/
|
||||
[92] http://www.condenast.com/privacy-policy#privacypolicy
|
||||
[93] http://www.condenast.com/privacy-policy#privacypolicy-california
|
||||
[94] http://www.aboutads.info/
|
||||
[95] https://www.facebook.com/newyorker/
|
||||
[96] https://twitter.com/NewYorker/
|
||||
[97] https://www.snapchat.com/add/newyorkermag
|
||||
[98] https://www.youtube.com/user/NewYorkerDotCom/
|
||||
[99] https://instagram.com/newyorkermag/
|
||||
461
static/archive/www-wired-com-iimdi0.txt
Normal file
461
static/archive/www-wired-com-iimdi0.txt
Normal file
@@ -0,0 +1,461 @@
|
||||
[1]Skip to main content
|
||||
Open Navigation Menu
|
||||
|
||||
To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then [3]View saved stories.
|
||||
|
||||
Close Alert
|
||||
[5]WIRED
|
||||
Attention, Spoiled Software Engineers: Take a Lesson from Google’s Programming
|
||||
Language
|
||||
|
||||
• [6]Security
|
||||
• [7]Politics
|
||||
• [8]Gear
|
||||
• [9]The Big Story
|
||||
• [10]Business
|
||||
• [11]Science
|
||||
• [12]Culture
|
||||
• [13]Ideas
|
||||
• [14]Merch
|
||||
|
||||
More
|
||||
[16]Search
|
||||
|
||||
• [17]Security
|
||||
• [18]Politics
|
||||
• [19]Gear
|
||||
• [20]The Big Story
|
||||
• [21]Business
|
||||
• [22]Science
|
||||
• [23]Culture
|
||||
• [24]Ideas
|
||||
• [25]Merch
|
||||
|
||||
• [26]Podcasts
|
||||
• [27]Video
|
||||
• [28]Newsletters
|
||||
• [29]Magazine
|
||||
• [30]Travel
|
||||
• [31]Steven Levy's Plaintext Column
|
||||
• [32]WIRED Classics from the Archive
|
||||
• [33]Events
|
||||
• [34]WIRED Insider
|
||||
• [35]WIRED Consulting
|
||||
• [36]Jobs
|
||||
• [37]Coupons
|
||||
|
||||
[38]Sheon Han
|
||||
[39]Business
|
||||
Sep 23, 2024 6:30 AM
|
||||
|
||||
Attention, Spoiled Software Engineers: Take a Lesson from Google’s Programming
|
||||
Language
|
||||
|
||||
The language Go hails from an era when programmers had smaller egos and fewer
|
||||
commercial ambitions. My generation of strivers has a lot to learn.
|
||||
A marbel squirrel sculpture in a garden
|
||||
ILLUSTRATION: SAMUEL TOMSON
|
||||
Save
|
||||
Save
|
||||
|
||||
Many of today’s programmers—excuse me, software engineers—consider themselves
|
||||
“creatives.” Artists of a sort. They are given to ostentatious personal
|
||||
websites with cleverly hidden Easter eggs and parallax scrolling; they confer
|
||||
upon themselves multihyphenate job titles
|
||||
(“ex-Amazon-engineer-investor-author”) and crowd their laptops with
|
||||
identity-signaling vinyl stickers. Some regard themselves as literary
|
||||
sophisticates. Consider the references smashed into certain product names:
|
||||
Apache Kafka, ScyllaDB, Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
|
||||
|
||||
[42]Machine Readable
|
||||
An 8 bit lips character looking suspicious with its hand on its chin.
|
||||
A regular column about programming. Because if/when the machines take over, we
|
||||
should at least speak their language.
|
||||
|
||||
Much of that, I admit, applies to me. The difference is I’m a tad short on
|
||||
talents to hyphenate, and my toy projects—with names like “Nabokov” (I know, I
|
||||
know)—are better off staying on my laptop. I entered this world pretty much the
|
||||
moment [43]software engineering overtook banking as the most reviled
|
||||
profession. There’s a lot of hatred, and self-hatred, to contend with.
|
||||
|
||||
Perhaps this is why I see the ethos behind the programming language Go as both
|
||||
a rebuke and a potential corrective to my generation of strivers. Its creators
|
||||
hail from an era when programmers had smaller egos and fewer commercial
|
||||
ambitions, and it is, for my money, the premier general-purpose language of the
|
||||
new millennium—not the best at any one thing, but nearly the best at nearly
|
||||
everything. A model for our flashy times.
|
||||
|
||||
If I were to categorize programming languages like art movements, there would
|
||||
be mid-century utilitarianism (Fortran, COBOL), high-theory formalism (Haskell,
|
||||
Agda), Americorporate pragmatism (C#, Java), grassroots communitarianism
|
||||
(Python, Ruby), and esoteric hedonism (Befunge, Brainfuck). And I’d say Go,
|
||||
often described as “C for the 21st century,” represents neoclassicism: not so
|
||||
much a revolution as a throwback.
|
||||
|
||||
Back in 2007, three programmers at Google came together around the shared sense
|
||||
that standard languages like C++ and Java had become hard to use and poorly
|
||||
adapted to the current, more cloud-oriented computing environment. One was Ken
|
||||
Thompson, formerly of Bell Labs and a recipient of the Turing Award for his
|
||||
work on Unix, the mitochondrial Eve of operating systems. (These days, OS
|
||||
people don’t mess with programming languages—doing both is akin to an Olympic
|
||||
high jumper also qualifying for the marathon.) Joining him was Rob Pike,
|
||||
another Bell Labs alum who, along with Thompson, created the Unicode encoding
|
||||
standard UTF-8. You can thank them for your emoji.
|
||||
|
||||
Watching these doyens of programming create Go was like seeing Scorsese, De
|
||||
Niro, and Pesci reunite for The Irishman. Even its flippantly SEO-unfriendly
|
||||
name could be forgiven. I mean, the sheer chutzpah of it. A move only the
|
||||
reigning search engine king would dare.
|
||||
|
||||
The language quickly gained traction. The prestige of Google must’ve helped,
|
||||
but I assume there was an unmet hunger for novelty. By 2009, the year of Go’s
|
||||
debut, the youngest of mainstream languages were mostly still from 1995—a true
|
||||
annus mirabilis, when Ruby, PHP, Java, and JavaScript all came out.
|
||||
|
||||
It wasn’t that advancements in programming language design had stalled.
|
||||
Language designers are a magnificently brainy bunch, many with a reformist zeal
|
||||
for dislodging the status quo. But what they end up building can sometimes
|
||||
resemble a starchitect’s high-design marvel that turns out to have drainage
|
||||
problems. Most new languages never overcome basic performance issues.
|
||||
|
||||
But from the get-go, Go was (sorry) ready to go. I once wrote a small search
|
||||
engine in Python for sifting through my notes and documents, but it was
|
||||
unusably sluggish. Rewritten in Go, my pitiful serpent grew wings and took off,
|
||||
running 30 times faster. As some astute readers might have guessed, this
|
||||
program was my “Nabokov.”
|
||||
|
||||
Most Popular
|
||||
|
||||
• [44]
|
||||
The Top New Features Coming to Apple’s iOS 18 and iPadOS 18
|
||||
Gear
|
||||
[45]
|
||||
The Top New Features Coming to Apple’s iOS 18 and iPadOS 18
|
||||
By Julian Chokkattu
|
||||
• [46]
|
||||
How a 15-Year-Old Gamer Became the Patron Saint of the Internet
|
||||
Culture
|
||||
[47]
|
||||
How a 15-Year-Old Gamer Became the Patron Saint of the Internet
|
||||
By Kyle MacNeill
|
||||
• [48]
|
||||
Give Your Back a Break With Our Favorite Office Chairs
|
||||
Gear
|
||||
[49]
|
||||
Give Your Back a Break With Our Favorite Office Chairs
|
||||
By Julian Chokkattu
|
||||
• [50]
|
||||
The Best Espresso Machines for the Home Barista
|
||||
Gear
|
||||
[51]
|
||||
The Best Espresso Machines for the Home Barista
|
||||
By Jaina Grey
|
||||
•
|
||||
|
||||
This is not to say that Go is a perfect language. It’s more workhorse than show
|
||||
horse. And it came out 15 years ago, enough time for a stream of breakup
|
||||
stories and critiques to cycle through the industry’s paper of record, Hacker
|
||||
News.
|
||||
|
||||
To wit: Many find Go code ugly. There’s a procrustean uniformity to it, and it
|
||||
lacks the tidy shorthands of, say, Ruby or Python, so even common patterns can
|
||||
become messy and cluttered. (Ask a Go programmer about “error handling.”) Also,
|
||||
you can’t run the code, even with correct syntax, unless certain styles are
|
||||
strictly followed. Imagine a word processor that does not allow you to save
|
||||
unless your essay is free of grammatical errors.
|
||||
|
||||
I’m happy to admit that Go lacks the ergonomics of newer languages. But I
|
||||
struggle to dispel the suspicion that these are the complaints of a spoiled
|
||||
era. If the chief engineer of the first-generation Ford Mustang were tasked
|
||||
with designing a new line of cars, and did so remarkably—models of practicality
|
||||
and workmanship—would you complain about them having no touchscreens?
|
||||
|
||||
It’s odd to think how young the field of computer science is. Alan Turing’s
|
||||
paper that launched the field is less than a century old, and we live in a
|
||||
small window of time where pioneers are alive and professionally active, even
|
||||
into their eighties. Go is a language created by people who had nothing left to
|
||||
prove.
|
||||
|
||||
I hope it isn’t too contrived to speak of a “late style” in programming. The
|
||||
idea is usually attributed to the German philosopher Theodor Adorno, who
|
||||
observed a growing contradiction and alienation in Beethoven’s later work. The
|
||||
literary critic Edward Said expanded on the notion in his posthumous book On
|
||||
Late Style, discussing how some artists, when facing impending mortality,
|
||||
reject traditional artistic closure and instead embrace fragmentation and
|
||||
unresolved tension.
|
||||
|
||||
What I find more intriguing—and rarer than we might have thought—are the cases
|
||||
where masters in their later years do accept a certain closure and, as Said put
|
||||
it, maintain a “spirit of reconciliation and serenity.” Social media has
|
||||
provided us with the disappointing yet sobering spectacle wherein supposedly
|
||||
accomplished individuals—since we’re talking technology here, certain computer
|
||||
scientists in AI who shall remain nameless come to mind—regularly engage in
|
||||
unseemly reckonings with their residual baggage.
|
||||
|
||||
But when I think about Go, I feel a sense of serenity. Instead of involving
|
||||
themselves in spats with young kvetchers, the Go team directs you to their FAQ
|
||||
page—the gold standard of FAQ pages—written in a gentle, statesmanlike tone.
|
||||
And with that, they rest their case. I suppose that’s where some people do end
|
||||
up: completely, even plainly, at ease with their work. To know it’s possible,
|
||||
someday, perhaps, is a balm. Maybe my generation will learn to tame our egos
|
||||
and find our footing. We still have a few decades to make it so.
|
||||
|
||||
You Might Also Like …
|
||||
|
||||
• In your inbox: Our [52]biggest stories, handpicked for you each day
|
||||
|
||||
• Inside [53]Google’s 7-year mission to give AI a robot body
|
||||
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||||
• The Big Interview: [54]Mark Cuban wants to fight pharma’s middlemen
|
||||
|
||||
• [55]The world’s biggest bitcoin mine is rattling this Texas oil town
|
||||
|
||||
• Event: Join us for [56]WIRED Health on March 18 in London
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|
||||
[57]Sheon Han is a writer and programmer based in Palo Alto, California. His
|
||||
work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Quanta Magazine, and
|
||||
elsewhere.
|
||||
|
||||
Topics[58]Machine Readable[59]coding[60]programming[61]Computers[62]computer
|
||||
science[63]software[64]Google
|
||||
Read More
|
||||
[65]
|
||||
OpenAI Announces a New AI Model, Code-Named Strawberry, That Solves Difficult
|
||||
Problems Step by Step
|
||||
[66]
|
||||
OpenAI Announces a New AI Model, Code-Named Strawberry, That Solves Difficult
|
||||
Problems Step by Step
|
||||
The ChatGPT maker reveals details of what’s officially known as OpenAI o1,
|
||||
which shows that AI needs more than scale to advance.
|
||||
Will Knight
|
||||
[67]
|
||||
The Godmother of AI Wants Everyone to Be a World Builder
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||||
[68]
|
||||
The Godmother of AI Wants Everyone to Be a World Builder
|
||||
Stanford computer scientist Fei-Fei Li is unveiling a startup that aims to
|
||||
teach AI systems deep knowledge of physical reality. Investors are throwing
|
||||
money at it.
|
||||
Steven Levy
|
||||
[69]
|
||||
Inside Google’s 7-Year Mission to Give AI a Robot Body
|
||||
[70]
|
||||
Inside Google’s 7-Year Mission to Give AI a Robot Body
|
||||
As the head of Alphabet’s AI-powered robotics moonshot, I came to believe many
|
||||
things. For one, robots can’t come soon enough. For another, they shouldn’t
|
||||
look like us.
|
||||
Hans Peter Brondmo
|
||||
[71]
|
||||
This New Tech Puts AI In Touch With Its Emotions&-and Yours
|
||||
[72]
|
||||
This New Tech Puts AI In Touch With Its Emotions—and Yours
|
||||
Hume AI, a startup founded by a psychologist who specializes in measuring
|
||||
emotion, gives some top large language models a realistic human voice.
|
||||
Will Knight
|
||||
[73]
|
||||
Crispr-Enhanced Viruses Are Being Deployed Against UTIs
|
||||
[74]
|
||||
Crispr-Enhanced Viruses Are Being Deployed Against UTIs
|
||||
With antibiotics losing their effectiveness, one company is turning to gene
|
||||
editing and bacteriophages—viruses that infect bacteria—to combat infections.
|
||||
Emily Mullin
|
||||
[75]
|
||||
This iPhone ‘Supercycle’ May Not Be So Super
|
||||
[76]
|
||||
This iPhone ‘Supercycle’ May Not Be So Super
|
||||
Some Apple analysts believe AI will spur a boom in iPhone sales. But not
|
||||
everyone’s buying the hype.
|
||||
Lauren Goode
|
||||
[77]
|
||||
Apple Vision Pro’s Eye Tracking Exposed What People Type
|
||||
[78]
|
||||
Apple Vision Pro’s Eye Tracking Exposed What People Type
|
||||
The Vision Pro uses 3D avatars on calls and for streaming. These researchers
|
||||
used eye tracking to work out the passwords and PINs people typed with their
|
||||
avatars.
|
||||
Matt Burgess
|
||||
[79]
|
||||
An ER Doctor’s Cure for America’s Gun Epidemic
|
||||
[80]
|
||||
An ER Doctor’s Cure for America’s Gun Epidemic
|
||||
Cedric Dark is a gun-owning emergency physician, a father, and the cousin of a
|
||||
man who was shot to death. This is what he—and the science—say needs to change.
|
||||
Cedric Dark
|
||||
[81]WIRED
|
||||
WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. It is the essential source of information
|
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and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation. The WIRED
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conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our
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lives—from culture to business, science to design. The breakthroughs and
|
||||
innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking, new connections, and
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new industries.
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• [120]
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||||
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||||
|
||||
References:
|
||||
|
||||
[1] https://www.wired.com/story/attention-spoiled-software-engineers-take-a-lesson-from-googles-programming-language/#main-content
|
||||
[3] https://www.wired.com/account/saved
|
||||
[5] https://www.wired.com/
|
||||
[6] https://www.wired.com/category/security/
|
||||
[7] https://www.wired.com/category/politics/
|
||||
[8] https://www.wired.com/category/gear/
|
||||
[9] https://www.wired.com/category/big-story/
|
||||
[10] https://www.wired.com/category/business/
|
||||
[11] https://www.wired.com/category/science/
|
||||
[12] https://www.wired.com/category/culture/
|
||||
[13] https://www.wired.com/category/ideas/
|
||||
[14] https://shop.wired.com/
|
||||
[16] https://www.wired.com/search/
|
||||
[17] https://www.wired.com/category/security/
|
||||
[18] https://www.wired.com/category/politics/
|
||||
[19] https://www.wired.com/category/gear/
|
||||
[20] https://www.wired.com/category/big-story/
|
||||
[21] https://www.wired.com/category/business/
|
||||
[22] https://www.wired.com/category/science/
|
||||
[23] https://www.wired.com/category/culture/
|
||||
[24] https://www.wired.com/category/ideas/
|
||||
[25] https://shop.wired.com/
|
||||
[26] https://www.wired.com/podcasts/
|
||||
[27] https://www.wired.com/video/
|
||||
[28] https://www.wired.com/newsletter?sourceCode=navbar
|
||||
[29] https://www.wired.com/magazine
|
||||
[30] http://wired.com/travel
|
||||
[31] https://www.wired.com/tag/plaintext/
|
||||
[32] https://www.wired.com/tag/wired-classic/
|
||||
[33] https://www.wired.com/tag/wired-events/
|
||||
[34] https://www.wired.com/category/wiredinsider/
|
||||
[35] https://www.wired.com/tag/wired-consulting/
|
||||
[36] https://jobs.wired.com/?source=navbar
|
||||
[37] https://www.wired.com/coupons
|
||||
[38] https://www.wired.com/author/sheon-han/
|
||||
[39] https://www.wired.com/category/business
|
||||
[42] https://www.wired.com/tag/machine-readable/
|
||||
[43] https://www.wired.com/tag/programming/
|
||||
[44] https://www.wired.com/story/apple-iphone-ios-18-ipados-18-new-features/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_8c1d84b3-dd85-4f7f-bece-ebc200c4adfb_popular4-1-reranked-by-vidi
|
||||
[45] https://www.wired.com/story/apple-iphone-ios-18-ipados-18-new-features/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_8c1d84b3-dd85-4f7f-bece-ebc200c4adfb_popular4-1-reranked-by-vidi
|
||||
[46] https://www.wired.com/story/carlo-acutis-millennial-patron-saint-internet/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_8c1d84b3-dd85-4f7f-bece-ebc200c4adfb_popular4-1-reranked-by-vidi
|
||||
[47] https://www.wired.com/story/carlo-acutis-millennial-patron-saint-internet/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_8c1d84b3-dd85-4f7f-bece-ebc200c4adfb_popular4-1-reranked-by-vidi
|
||||
[48] https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-office-chairs/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_8c1d84b3-dd85-4f7f-bece-ebc200c4adfb_popular4-1-reranked-by-vidi
|
||||
[49] https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-office-chairs/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_8c1d84b3-dd85-4f7f-bece-ebc200c4adfb_popular4-1-reranked-by-vidi
|
||||
[50] https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-espresso-machines/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_8c1d84b3-dd85-4f7f-bece-ebc200c4adfb_popular4-1-reranked-by-vidi
|
||||
[51] https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-espresso-machines/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_8c1d84b3-dd85-4f7f-bece-ebc200c4adfb_popular4-1-reranked-by-vidi
|
||||
[52] https://www.wired.com/newsletter/daily?sourceCode=BottomStories
|
||||
[53] https://www.wired.com/story/inside-google-mission-to-give-ai-robot-body/
|
||||
[54] https://www.wired.com/story/big-interview-after-shark-tank-mark-cuban-just-wants-to-break-shit-especially-the-prescription-drug-industry/
|
||||
[55] https://www.wired.com/story/the-worlds-biggest-bitcoin-mine-is-rattling-this-texas-oil-town/
|
||||
[56] https://health.wired.com/?sourceCode=BottomStories
|
||||
[57] https://www.wired.com/author/sheon-han/
|
||||
[58] https://www.wired.com/tag/machine-readable/
|
||||
[59] https://www.wired.com/tag/coding/
|
||||
[60] https://www.wired.com/tag/programming/
|
||||
[61] https://www.wired.com/tag/computers/
|
||||
[62] https://www.wired.com/tag/computer-science/
|
||||
[63] https://www.wired.com/tag/software/
|
||||
[64] https://www.wired.com/tag/google/
|
||||
[65] https://www.wired.com/story/openai-o1-strawberry-problem-reasoning/#intcid=recommendations_wired-bottom-recirc-v4_c28d288f-1ad3-47fd-be7b-f9ca05c22f9f_roberta-similarity1
|
||||
[66] https://www.wired.com/story/openai-o1-strawberry-problem-reasoning/#intcid=recommendations_wired-bottom-recirc-v4_c28d288f-1ad3-47fd-be7b-f9ca05c22f9f_roberta-similarity1
|
||||
[67] https://www.wired.com/story/plaintext-the-godmother-of-ai-wants-everyone-to-be-a-world-builder/#intcid=recommendations_wired-bottom-recirc-v4_c28d288f-1ad3-47fd-be7b-f9ca05c22f9f_roberta-similarity1
|
||||
[68] https://www.wired.com/story/plaintext-the-godmother-of-ai-wants-everyone-to-be-a-world-builder/#intcid=recommendations_wired-bottom-recirc-v4_c28d288f-1ad3-47fd-be7b-f9ca05c22f9f_roberta-similarity1
|
||||
[69] https://www.wired.com/story/inside-google-mission-to-give-ai-robot-body/#intcid=recommendations_wired-bottom-recirc-v4_c28d288f-1ad3-47fd-be7b-f9ca05c22f9f_roberta-similarity1
|
||||
[70] https://www.wired.com/story/inside-google-mission-to-give-ai-robot-body/#intcid=recommendations_wired-bottom-recirc-v4_c28d288f-1ad3-47fd-be7b-f9ca05c22f9f_roberta-similarity1
|
||||
[71] https://www.wired.com/story/hume-ai-emotional-intelligence/#intcid=recommendations_wired-bottom-recirc-v4_c28d288f-1ad3-47fd-be7b-f9ca05c22f9f_roberta-similarity1
|
||||
[72] https://www.wired.com/story/hume-ai-emotional-intelligence/#intcid=recommendations_wired-bottom-recirc-v4_c28d288f-1ad3-47fd-be7b-f9ca05c22f9f_roberta-similarity1
|
||||
[73] https://www.wired.com/story/crispr-enhanced-viruses-are-being-deployed-against-utis/#intcid=recommendations_wired-bottom-recirc-v4_c28d288f-1ad3-47fd-be7b-f9ca05c22f9f_roberta-similarity1
|
||||
[74] https://www.wired.com/story/crispr-enhanced-viruses-are-being-deployed-against-utis/#intcid=recommendations_wired-bottom-recirc-v4_c28d288f-1ad3-47fd-be7b-f9ca05c22f9f_roberta-similarity1
|
||||
[75] https://www.wired.com/story/iphone-16-supercycle/#intcid=recommendations_wired-bottom-recirc-v4_c28d288f-1ad3-47fd-be7b-f9ca05c22f9f_roberta-similarity1
|
||||
[76] https://www.wired.com/story/iphone-16-supercycle/#intcid=recommendations_wired-bottom-recirc-v4_c28d288f-1ad3-47fd-be7b-f9ca05c22f9f_roberta-similarity1
|
||||
[77] https://www.wired.com/story/apple-vision-pro-persona-eye-tracking-spy-typing/#intcid=recommendations_wired-bottom-recirc-v4_c28d288f-1ad3-47fd-be7b-f9ca05c22f9f_roberta-similarity1
|
||||
[78] https://www.wired.com/story/apple-vision-pro-persona-eye-tracking-spy-typing/#intcid=recommendations_wired-bottom-recirc-v4_c28d288f-1ad3-47fd-be7b-f9ca05c22f9f_roberta-similarity1
|
||||
[79] https://www.wired.com/story/an-er-doctors-cure-for-americas-gun-epidemic/#intcid=recommendations_wired-bottom-recirc-v4_c28d288f-1ad3-47fd-be7b-f9ca05c22f9f_roberta-similarity1
|
||||
[80] https://www.wired.com/story/an-er-doctors-cure-for-americas-gun-epidemic/#intcid=recommendations_wired-bottom-recirc-v4_c28d288f-1ad3-47fd-be7b-f9ca05c22f9f_roberta-similarity1
|
||||
[81] https://www.wired.com/
|
||||
[83] https://www.wired.com/subscribe/
|
||||
[84] https://www.wired.com/newsletter?sourceCode=HeaderAndFooter
|
||||
[85] https://www.wired.com/about/faq/
|
||||
[86] https://www.wired.com/about/wired-staff/
|
||||
[87] https://www.wired.com/about/wired-on-background-policy/
|
||||
[88] https://archive.wired.com/t/storefront/storefront
|
||||
[89] https://www.wired.com/about/rss-feeds/
|
||||
[90] https://www.wired.com/about/accessibility-help/
|
||||
[92] https://www.wired.com/category/gear/reviews/
|
||||
[93] https://www.wired.com/category/gear/buying-guides/
|
||||
[94] https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-mattresses/
|
||||
[95] https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-electric-bikes/
|
||||
[96] https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-soundbars/
|
||||
[97] https://www.wired.com/tag/culture-guides/
|
||||
[98] https://www.wired.com/tag/wearables/
|
||||
[99] https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-tvs/
|
||||
[100] https://www.wired.com/tag/coupons/
|
||||
[101] https://www.wired.com/coupons/info/code-guarantee.html
|
||||
[102] https://www.condenast.com/brands/wired
|
||||
[103] https://www.wired.com/about/feedback/
|
||||
[104] https://subscriptions.wired.com/pubs/N3/WIR/Register.jsp?cds_page_id=175371&cds_mag_code=WIR&id=1423757547774&lsid=50431012277019467&vid=1
|
||||
[105] https://www.wired.com/about/wired-jobs/
|
||||
[106] https://www.wired.com/about/press/
|
||||
[107] https://www.condenaststore.com/
|
||||
[108] https://www.condenast.com/user-agreement/
|
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[109] http://www.condenast.com/privacy-policy#privacypolicy
|
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[110] http://www.condenast.com/privacy-policy#privacypolicy-california
|
||||
[111] http://www.aboutads.info/
|
||||
[113] https://www.wired.it/
|
||||
[114] https://wired.jp/
|
||||
[115] https://www.wired.cz/
|
||||
[116] https://www.facebook.com/wired/
|
||||
[117] https://twitter.com/wired/
|
||||
[118] https://pinterest.com/wired/
|
||||
[119] https://www.youtube.com/user/wired/
|
||||
[120] https://instagram.com/wired/
|
||||
[121] https://www.tiktok.com/@wired?lang=en
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||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user