I want to order a tube of toothpaste, a tomato, or a sandwich, and have it delivered to me within 10 minutes via a safe flying machine (or other delivery system; see also: pneumatic tubes, 3-D printing). This is so unromantic. Fuck what 80% of people want, I like my toaster because it's the one my roommate brought with her because it was handed down to her, the toaster her family would use every morning to make bagels she'd bring to school and share with me and our classmates. I don't think the benefit wrought from saving a few seconds is actually worth it. What am I gonna do with that extra time? I feel like I'd rather spend it being a person. There was a commercial I saw once, a late night infomercial, for a machine that you would hang your ties on and when it came time to pick your tie, this machine would spin around in a slow circle and parade your ties in front of you so you didn't have to use your eyeballs to scan ties arranged on a door or wherever. And I thought, we're really just trying to cram to much convenience into our lives. These minutes we're saving here and there, if it's not spent enjoyably, what's the point? This author, what does he want to do with his free time? With all the free time his inventions will allow, with longer lives and no traveling times or distances to shops or restaurants or post offices or London, what is he doing in this future? Sitting around, philosophizing? Drinking wine with his friends? Will that ever get old?I want to instantly find the best of something in a product category without wasting time on my own research. I want a place like Amazon.com, but, when you search for “toaster”, you are presented with only one model of toaster: the one that 80% of people would consider to be the best toaster in the world.
Your post brings to mind this short essay written by Thich Nhat Hanh. There was no soap. We had only ashes, rice husks, and coconut husks, and that was all. Cleaning such a high stack of bowls was a chore, especially during the winter when the water was freezing cold. Then you had to heat up a big pot of water before you could do any scrubbing. Nowadays one stands in a kitchen equipped with liquid soap, special scrubpads, and even running hot water which makes it all the more agreeable. It is easier to enjoy washing the dishes now. Anyone can wash them in a hurry, then sit down and enjoy a cup of tea afterwards. I can see a machine for washing clothes, although I wash my own things out by hand, but a dishwashing machine is going just a little too far! While washing the dishes one should only be washing the dishes, which means that while washing the dishes one should be completely aware of the fact that one is washing the dishes. At first glance, that might seem a little silly: why put so much stress on a simple thing? But that’s precisely the point. The fact that I am standing there and washing these bowls is a wondrous reality. I’m being completely myself, following my breath, conscious of my presence and conscious of my thoughts and actions. There’s no way I can be tossed around mindlessly like a bottle slapped here and there on the waves. There are two ways to wash the dishes. The first is to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes and the second is to wash the dishes in order to wash the dishes. If while washing the dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not “washing the dishes to wash the dishes.” What’s more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future – and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.Thirty years ago, when I was still a novice at Tu Hieu Pagoda, washing the dishes was hardly a pleasant task. During the Season of Retreat when all the monks returned to the monastery, two novices had to do all the cooking and wash the dishes for sometimes well over one hundred monks.
I don't know if I love this or if I sense sour grapes from all those who grew up washing dishes by hands and then discovering dish washers later in life.
You know, I used to make $175 an hour picking out projectors for large institutions. And when it came time to buy a projector to replace my Christie monster, I looked at "most popular" on Amazon and grabbed the #1 seller. No regrets. But man, I'm finicky about toasters. There hasn't been a decent toaster oven made since 2003 so I keep repairing mine. Every now and then we buy a new one and return it. Likewise, I tried this approach when it was time to get a push cart for my kid - 80% of Amazon buyers get some goddamn thing from Melissa and Doug, and fuck Melissa and Doug. I bought this thing, all 1 amazon review of it and all, and it's dope. There are times to follow the herd, and there are times to break away, and the tools you need to make that choice have long been available to us. The tie carousel is about something other than convenience. It's about fetishizing ties. Hey, whatever floats your boat. I'll say this: the next time you're on a flight, don't just dive into your Breaking Bad on your laptop. Leaf through the Skymall, leaf through the in-flight magazine. Contemplate "who is buying this? What do they want from life?" Most of them spend too little time at home, spend too much time traveling, and have a lot more disposable income than you do. As a result, they see nothing unusual about spending $80 for something that slowly parades their ties in front of them. And hey - if you ever get a chance to stop by a small airport frequented by charter and business jets, pick up a copy of this. Fuck Robb Report, fuck Dupont Registry, Elite Traveler is the most batshit insane magazine I've ever seen.
A copy of [this] leads to the mishidesign grow toy. Which is awesome, by the way. But I'm going to find an Elite Traveler. Something tells me I'm not prepared for what I'll see.