Salon Des Geeks

It’s odd and delightful to me when I discover an intersection between two of my interests that I had thought of as disparate. In this case, the interests were reading great novels and politics, as I discovered that my favorite living writer has written an op-ed for the Washington Post in favor of Obama. I was already an Obama supporter, but even if I weren’t, Michael Chabon’s astonishing writing skill would make me take another look. No one will ever accuse him of being wishy-washy:

“So I have nodded and looked into their eyes and hummed sympathetically as people gave their reasons and made their excuses and generally offered up, as if they were golden ingots of profound wisdom, the handful of two-penny nails with which they plan to board up the windows of their hopes for themselves, their families, their country and the world.”

Yeah, what he said! The article is here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/03/AR2008020302526.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

(Drop me an email if you would like to use my Washington Post login.)

My only question is…umm…Mr. Chabon, can I vote for you?

David Pogue is the [excellent] technology reviewer for the New York Times. This was recently on his blog. The first response was that this is a vague haiku.

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/airlines-and-punctuation/index.html?hp

Airlines and Punctuation

As long-time Pogue’s Postians are aware, I’m obsessed with the signs in airplanes.

Now I’ve got another one for you, from an American jet I just flew to California:

CAUTION OPEN DOOR
SLOWLY DOOR OPENS
INTO AISLE

It’s 2008. Do they really still not have any punctuation available in those fonts?

My high school friend, the incomparable Tess Thompson, posted the following thought-provoking question on her blog : What advice would you give to your younger self?

I found it a really meaningful exercise to sort through what I’ve learned and distill it into a piece of advice that might have helped me (as opposed to lessons I wouldn’t have understood or wanted to follow because I hadn’t yet had the experiences from which I learned them). It’s also tempting to want to shelter my younger self from the very experiences that taught me the most (”Don’t date that guy!” “Don’t take that job!”). What I came up with for Younger Elizabeth is this: Expect More. I think a lot of the choices in my life that have made me unhappy have come from the limiting belief that I was somehow not allowed to have everything I want. I’ve discovered that when I begin with the assumption that I can and go from there, I find that life has this terrific capacity to exceed my expectations.

I’d love to hear what each of you would tell your younger self.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/us/07bar.html?hp

The idea that the devices we use are in some sense extensions of ourselves intrigues me. Personally, I have always wondered whether I could be compelled to provide passwords.

I really think that the most interesting question is where devices in our ‘personal’ network fit in. Is it reasonable to treat a cell phone differently from a laptop, or a piece of paper? I think a neat feature for a cell phone of the future would be recording all calls automatically, and indexing the conversations for search… a feature universal in instant messaging clients. If devices are not protected, then your cell could testify against you. Just as today, those IM conversations apparently could.

A friend of mine is reading books to his 7-year old son. He’s already done ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘Harry Potter’. He complained that ‘The Golden Compass’ was too much because he had to stop too frequently to explain words(’Oblation Board’) for it to work well.

Got me thinking. What books were read to you? What do you think makes a good read-aloud book?

I recall two books, The Book of Three and To Kill a Mockingbird.

The humor in The Book of Three… the sort of rollicking adventure story. Another story in that vein is my read-when-sick book: The Hero and the Crown.

When I mention my mother read me To Kill a Mockingbird I always seem to get a reaction. I might have been nine by then… so not that young. It is hard for me to judge how accessible the story is, because I have read the book more than once since them.

I did have a lot of fun reading the Harry Potter books aloud. Lot of opportunities for acting out.

Do you have any favorites?

I came across this interesting article about some recent research that suggests that babies learn to make social judgements during their first year of life. In the study, babies watched a doll act out either helping or pushing down another doll climbing a hill. Most of the babies chose the doll that helped over the one that hindered, as well as over one that was neutral. It’s easy to see why choosing helpful companions would be an important skill from an evolutionary standpoint, but I think it’s fascinating that it seems we learn this from so young an age. It also made me think wryly of adults I know who still seem to consistently choose the person who pushes them down the hill. We all need some baby wisdom!

Hi all,
This is basically a vocabulary quiz that enables you to donate rice via the UN. It’s highly addictive for those of us who love words, so clicker, beware.
Kim

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Story?id=3225368&page=2

For many American readers of his books, Hosseini is their only window into a culture and world that is very distant. “It’s really such an insider’s view of a country that we don’t get to see inside of very often,” said Elizabeth Santoro, who attended a book signing and discussion at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. “You see the violence on the news, but you don’t see the richness of the culture and its history.”

Current Topic is ‘Tolstoy’s Characters’:

http://readingroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/a-question-of-character/index.html?hp

Are we getting the best value for our time?

This is a question more typically asked about money. You want to expend money in places and situations that will produce the best value for you. Sometimes this manifests as comparison shopping, if you want to acquire a specific item. Sometimes it’s a matter of weighing questions such as “Should I buy that new gadget or put the money into my retirement fund?” You want to decide where the money is best spent.

But increasingly, I’ve been thinking about where my time is spent. Consider this thought experiment:

Alice works as a cashier at the local 7-11. She earns minimum wage for her trouble, which is currently $5.85 per hour. Her gross income per 40-hour workweek is $234.00.

Betty has collected a college degree or two and now commands a higher wage in her position as a phlebotomist with the Red Cross. The median rate for this position in California is $15.02. Betty therefore has a gross weekly income of $600.80.

Assume that Alice and Betty have the same life situations. To keep it simple, they both are single and childless; they live in the same city; Betty does not have any debt from her college studies left. Effectively, their base living costs are the same.

Betty actually has an interesting choice here:

1. Work 40 hours per week and enjoy the use of an extra $366.80 in disposable income.
2. Reduce her hours to 16 per week and enjoy the use of three extra days of “disposable time”.

Everyone I personally know has chosen option 1. Why? Inertia? Habit? Cultural norm? Why is it that the investment in degrees and credentials is most often seen as paying off in terms of dollars, not time?

It is so easy to let your base living costs creep upward to match whatever your salary currently is. But then you’re running and running but not getting anywhere in terms of a better living experience; you’re still working 40 hours a week and you’re still making ends meet at about the same level that you were.

Leaving grad school and getting a “real” job was one time that this really hit me. One year, I was subsisting on a microscopic annual income (just above minimum wage); the next year, my income had more than quintupled. Did I have 5x the financial needs? No. Grad school had forced me to keep my living expenses gratingly low, so I did. With the additional income, I began to live much more comfortably, and even save for what ultimately became the down payment for my house. But at some point — at this point — I’m starting to wonder: would I be willing to trade income for time? “Disposable time” would permit me to do volunteer work or travel or hike or make crafts or do anything I wanted that didn’t require that I be earning money. I’m starting to lean in this direction more and more strongly. After all, do I live to work? Or do I live to live?

I’d love to hear the Salon’s thoughts on this.