How To Break Anything

[From The Timetables of Technology, Brian Bunch & Alexander Hellemans]

One could also look at this through the lens of network theory, looking at how nodes isolated from the rest of the network have the opportunity to develop independently. This isn't always a good thing, sometimes it is.

In fact the authors go on to say that this model breaks down as more complex methods of communication develop in the world; it seems that this kind of isolation is a rare artifact of the era anthropologists are calling the metal age.  

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[from The Oxford Encyclopedia of The Modern World]

Two interesting things to consider:

1) This can refer to "technology" not only as electronics, but as any tool that humans have employed to capture some desired value more efficiently.
 
 2) The use of "in some capacity" to describe utopia seems to indicate that the concept is fundamentally unacheivable (and rightly so) - even through platforms like the Internet work to shift social organization entirely.

It's worth noting that key technologies have always shifted social organization entirely, and we're no closer to utopia for it. One cant help but wonder if there's an optimal alternative to utopia (an amusing thought, given our standard definitions of 'optimal' and 'utopia'). In fact, I say "rightly so" because of the reactive nature of human culture - it is impossible to escape the shifting of what 'optimal' means when the social structure it is trying to define shifts as well (think of this somewhat similar to Heisenburg's Uncertainty Principle).

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[Althusser on social practices from John Scott's Sociological Theory]

'Knowledge' as the output of the Theoretical function vs 'Products' as the output of the Economic function reminds me of the "thinking vs doing" idea that's so pervasive at this point in our cultural history.

I was recently reminded of the idea that "those that can, do; those that cannot, teach." A curious paradigm; it quite nicely illustrates that we live in an era celebrating the doer, indeed.

[further reading: One Model For Thinking About Roles And Relationships]

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This little guy's name is Jason Cordero, and he goes by the title of Pianist/Music Star/World's Happiest Boy.

Watching young kids play music well always reminds me of how deeply interconnected we are as humans - this manifests itself particularly well in how children learn through mimicry.

As you watch children like this play, you see all the minute and sometimes imperceptable details/behaviors expressed by their mentors, tutors, instructors and role models, captured perfectly in the way these kid's perform.

Was actually in an interesting conversation about the motivation here just yesterday, watching a seven year old masterfully play a couple of violin pieces. I started talking about the critical role of exposure - the idea being that for kids like these, if all you're exposed to is the violin, it makes perfect sense that you grow up loving the violin and being incredibly good at it at an incredibly early age. Very much a Gladwell-esque 10,000 hours kind of point.

My intelligent friend brought up the question of distinguishing between kids who are exposed to a particular craft at a young age and go on to practice because they are intrinsically motivated, and those that find themselves repelled by the craft, resenting the parents for making them go through it, etc.

I haven't done a great deal of thinking on it, but my reaction was along the lines of "you only love or hate those things that you're exposed to (and those things make up an incredibly small set of all the things that actually exist in the world), and you do so by comparing the relative worth of each to you (and only compare with items within this set)."

Essentially the point is that is you love violin this much as a kid, it is precisely because you have been exposed to no [few] other activities to compare it with that you might like more.

This is a completely different point from my friend's argument, that activities contain - intrinsically within them - properties that individuals do or do not like, and these are accepted or rejected accordingly upon exposure.

A lot more thinking can be done and expressed on it of course, I just find it fascinating and important to think through how we come to like/ dislike/value/find unworthy activities and challenges. Other important questions to ask are: "where is it that you think this talent comes from in the first place (if you think that such a thing exists)?" and "what then, is the best (optimal) set of decisions these parents should make for their kids?"

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[from National Cutures of The World: A Statistical Reference]

"Natural historians have recognized a hierarchy of exogeneity whereby certain natural phenomenon are necessary conditions (and simultaneously historical precedents) to others. Climate, for example, is a necessary condition for marine and animal/human life, which is in turn a necessary condition for culture or cultural behavior."

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"Every age uses dress and body decoration to signal what is most important at that historical moment. Throughout most of our history that message has been "I am rich" or "I am powerful." If today more and more people use their dress to assert: "I am authentic," it is simply evidence of our hunger for the genuine article in an age which seems to so many to be one of simulation and hype."
-StreetStyle, 1993 [tedpolhemus.com for more on the historical search for 'authenticity']

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I like this definition of poetry as "organized use of language that cannot be replaced by paraphrase."

Seth has been talking a lot lately on art, in Linchpin and otherwise, as the act of creating something that connects with and changes someone.

I like that model, and I'm beginning to incorporating the idea of irreplaceability.

As in: you don't have to worry about anyone stealing your best ideas; if they are truly that good, they are the result of an irreplicable amount of work - cognitive or otherwise.

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