Category Archives: inspiration
Metapolis | Work After Coronavirus
Bob Black is an American social philosopher known for his work on anarchism. The author of various books and numerous political essays, he specializes in the sociology and ethnography of law. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Georgetown Law School. He is most widely known for his 1985 essay «The Abolition of Work,» which has been widely disseminated in at least 13 languages. His most recent publication, «Instead of Work,» includes a compendium of his writings and an update on his 1985 essay.
This article is a continuation of that work, and i found it to be an interesting read of some of the potential things that could , and have happened since Corona. (Link to full article at bottom.)
The general tendency will be toward local autonomy amidst regional diversity. Local neighborhoods and settlements will not be fortified, gated communities with delusions of sovereignty. Regions, cultural regions, will often focus on bioregions, with permeable boundaries. [51] Diversity will flourish locally, regionally, and internationally. We will be better off by exploring the possibilities of what is closer. Big cities have brought us together physically, but separated us socially. Big workplaces have done the same thing. Mass society has given rise to «the lonely crowd»: [52] people being alone together. Paradoxically, social distancing might complement bringing people together emotionally, in a shared way of life that is more sociable than mass society.Is it contrived for me to promote this agenda as a response to the COVID-19 crisis? Of course, I do not think so. The virus is a challenge to other ideologies too, and maybe to all ideologies. Health issues, especially public health issues, are often not just health issues. Contagious disease is clearly not just a private concern for individuals and their physicians. It is a social issue. Even the physicians know that. And they know that diet, rest, safety, anxiety, insecurity, and even sociability strongly influence physical and mental health. How we live has a lot to do with how long we live, and with how well we live. Fatigue, stress, boredom, and even a touch of fear, which are often inflicted by work – they really are hazardous to your health! They adversely affect the immune system. And they just do not feel good. Maybe happiness is healthy. And maybe freedom is healthy.
37 Pieces of Career Advice I Wish I’d Known Earlier – RyanHoliday.net
Just leaving this here for future reference.
The trope that a day job takes away from your art or your hustle is stupid. There was a great exhibition at the Blanton Museum a couple years ago about artists who had day jobs. I wrote 3.5 books while I was the Director of Marketing at American Apparel. I started my own marketing company while I was a writer. I have
Source: 37 Pieces of Career Advice I Wish I’d Known Earlier – RyanHoliday.net
Bob Moore, Who Founded Bob’s Red Mill, Is Dead at 94 – The New York Times
Despite the company’s explosive growth, Mr. Moore fended off numerous offers by food giants to buy Bob’s Red Mill. He opted instead for an employee stock ownership plan, instituted in 2010, on his 81st birthday; by April 2020, the plan had put 100 percent of the company in the hands of its more than 700 employees.“The Bible says to do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” Mr. Moore, an observant Christian, said in discussing the plan in a recent interview with Portland Monthly magazine.
Source: Bob Moore, Who Founded Bob’s Red Mill, Is Dead at 94 – The New York Times
If that doesn’t work try this link: https://archive.li/Xpkgo
Hippy, capitalist, guru, grocer: the forgotten genius who changed British food | Food | The Guardian
The long read: Nicholas Saunders was a counterculture pioneer with an endless stream of quixotic schemes and a yearning to spread knowledge – but his true legacy is a total remaking of the way Britain eats
Source: Hippy, capitalist, guru, grocer: the forgotten genius who changed British food | Food | The Guardian
1. All food must be prepared or at least packed on the premises.2. The ingredients must be “wholefoods” ie pure, without any additives, such as flavouring, colouring or preservatives. Highly refined ingredients must be avoided.
3. Prices must be reasonable.4. Descriptions (both verbal and written) must be straightforward, down to earth and objective. Persuasive, enticing or glamorising descriptions must not be used.
5. The size and style of notices must be simple – not attention-seeking, enticing, image-building or making any use of advertising or merchandising techniques.6. “Point of sale aids” must not be used.
7. Information about recipes, ingredients, quality and suppliers must be freely available. 8. The neighbours must be given consideration and cooperation.
9. All staff must be free to see the accounts and attend meetings where they can freely express their views.10. Jobs should be rotated as far as possible, and in particular no one should be left with the unpopular jobs.
11. Outside contractors should be avoided if the work can be done by the regular staff.12. In the event of a business growing, it should not expand or set up branches, but instead assist and encourage some of its staff to split off and start another independent business.
Monday Musings — 20Nov23
Wow this crept up on me quick. I’ve had a cold this week, and got some meds for it on Friday, that seem to be killing it off. Trying to avoid pneumonia and a visit to the hospital.
It’s Thanksgiving week. Which, again, this year is going to be less stressful for me since all I need to do is make Anadama rolls. I use my Nana’s recipe, which I’ve had for years. Here it is:
Well used. I made a pdf to give to family members, but there’s no reason to not post it here. It’s fairly simple, but does take a while.
So what are you thankful for this week? This month? This year? It’s time to assess your life, and see what you love about it, and what you don’t. I’m thankful for the people trying to keep me out of the hospital. From my wife, to my cardiac team, to my PCP. Been in too many time this year. The heart and lungs have been the big problems, and fluid retention, caused by them, mostly. I’m thankful that I can be home and safe with help just a phone call away. I’m thankful for Nora. I’m thankful that Oliver is still a goober, even though he seems tired most of the time. I’m thankful for the staff at Cancer Care, who treat me like family, because I’ve been going there so damn long. I’m thankful to still be here.
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/ten_ways_to_become_more_grateful1/
1. Keep a Gratitude Journal. Establish a daily practice in which you remind yourself of the gifts, grace, benefits, and good things you enjoy. Setting aside time on a daily basis to recall moments of gratitude associated with ordinary events, your personal attributes, or valued people in your life gives you the potential to interweave a sustainable life theme of gratefulness.
2. Remember the Bad. To be grateful in your current state, it is helpful to remember the hard times that you once experienced. When you remember how difficult life used to be and how far you have come, you set up an explicit contrast in your mind, and this contrast is fertile ground for gratefulness.
3. Ask Yourself Three Questions. Utilize the meditation technique known as Naikan, which involves reflecting on three questions: “What have I received from __?”, “What have I given to __?”, and “What troubles and difficulty have I caused?”
That’s it for this week. Remember what you have. Maybe it isn’t much, but it’s yours. Hold on to it.
An Hour in the Morning
This answer during a Q&A with Austin Kleon really hit me. The rest of the talk, and Q&A is pretty good also.
Joel Simon — Evolving Floor Plans
Evolving Floor Plans is an experimental research project exploring speculative, optimized floor plan layouts. The rooms and expected flow of people are given to a genetic algorithm which attempts to optimize the layout to minimize walking time, the use of hallways, etc. The creative goal is to approach floor plan design solely from the perspective of optimization and without regard for convention, constructability, etc. The research goal is to see how a combination of explicit, implicit and emergent methods allow floor plans of high complexity to evolve. The floorplan is ‘grown’ from its genetic encoding using indirect methods such as graph contraction and emergent ones such as growing hallways using an ant-colony inspired algorithm….
The results were biological in appearance, intriguing in character and wildly irrational in practice.
Brain Crack
Don’t get addicted to the Brain Crack. Get it out.
Do Something
Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it.
–Jasper Johns
