Abstraction
There’s a battle being fought and you are in the middle of it, whether you like it or not.
Abstraction.
I realized recently that I’ve taken up arms due to a multitude of factors. I would like to say that they are mostly noble, but in truth, it mostly stems from frugality or a lack of options.
I’m no expert on history, but it seems to me that somewhere around the early 20th century, the prevailing notion was an eagerness to embrace a black box approach to duties in life. Why understand how to wash your clothes by hand when you can stick them in this new machine and it will kick out clean clothes at the end? We had a society built on agriculture where as a farmer; you needed to have a complete understanding of how everything worked in order to survive. If your tractor/shed/shower broke, you were SOL unless you could fix it. If you didn’t know how to make Chicken Cordon Bleu, you weren’t ever eating Chicken Cordon Bleu.
That all changed in the latter half of the century. We began hiring out everything, buying everything as an end product, losing our understanding of what goes into making it. Why make a chair from 2X4’s when ikea has one for cheaper and better design that you screw together? Why make a pizza when you can buy a Red Barron for $3? Or better yet, just have it delivered for $10.
The pendulum has swung too far, my friends. And I think it’s swinging back. Cable TV and the internet are the biggest swords we’ve ever had to fight abstraction and we are using them. We are destroying the black boxes that are our cars, houses, food, finances, etc. Breaking them open and seeing what makes them tick. The big secret behind the curtain? This stuff ain’t that complicated.
Try to do a google search to find a contractor that gets 5 out of 5 stars. Or mechanic. Or restaurant.
With the internet, the information is now out there. Want to hang a door? Lowe’s will charge you $300, youtube will charge you nothing.
So the battle now is time. The advantage we have over our forefathers in terms of access to information is negated by the advantage of time that they had. We’ve managed to fill our schedules so tight that even though we know how to change our oil, we have to pay Jiffy Lube $30 to get it done in 30 minutes. It’s not really choice, even. There isn’t an option to do all of the jobs that would be required if we truly took back our lives. So we must decide what is most important to us and choose our battles accordingly. I’ll gladly spend the $30 on an oil change if it will free up an afternoon to information gather on the market or paint a room.
Teach a man to fish…
Abstraction.
I realized recently that I’ve taken up arms due to a multitude of factors. I would like to say that they are mostly noble, but in truth, it mostly stems from frugality or a lack of options.
I’m no expert on history, but it seems to me that somewhere around the early 20th century, the prevailing notion was an eagerness to embrace a black box approach to duties in life. Why understand how to wash your clothes by hand when you can stick them in this new machine and it will kick out clean clothes at the end? We had a society built on agriculture where as a farmer; you needed to have a complete understanding of how everything worked in order to survive. If your tractor/shed/shower broke, you were SOL unless you could fix it. If you didn’t know how to make Chicken Cordon Bleu, you weren’t ever eating Chicken Cordon Bleu.
That all changed in the latter half of the century. We began hiring out everything, buying everything as an end product, losing our understanding of what goes into making it. Why make a chair from 2X4’s when ikea has one for cheaper and better design that you screw together? Why make a pizza when you can buy a Red Barron for $3? Or better yet, just have it delivered for $10.
The pendulum has swung too far, my friends. And I think it’s swinging back. Cable TV and the internet are the biggest swords we’ve ever had to fight abstraction and we are using them. We are destroying the black boxes that are our cars, houses, food, finances, etc. Breaking them open and seeing what makes them tick. The big secret behind the curtain? This stuff ain’t that complicated.
Try to do a google search to find a contractor that gets 5 out of 5 stars. Or mechanic. Or restaurant.
With the internet, the information is now out there. Want to hang a door? Lowe’s will charge you $300, youtube will charge you nothing.
So the battle now is time. The advantage we have over our forefathers in terms of access to information is negated by the advantage of time that they had. We’ve managed to fill our schedules so tight that even though we know how to change our oil, we have to pay Jiffy Lube $30 to get it done in 30 minutes. It’s not really choice, even. There isn’t an option to do all of the jobs that would be required if we truly took back our lives. So we must decide what is most important to us and choose our battles accordingly. I’ll gladly spend the $30 on an oil change if it will free up an afternoon to information gather on the market or paint a room.
Teach a man to fish…
posted by Roark_8 at 10:15 AM
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