Farmer’s markets are back in vogue. Airbnb is connecting us to people and places outside of generic hotels. And paleo people all over the world are ditching industrialized carbs and sitting desks for alternative products grounded (supposedly) in the healthier lifestyles of earlier humans. It does seem like some things we left behind are coming back around. And there’s a reason for that.
Category: The Life Apprenticeship
A Utilitarian Case for Incompetent Traffic Cops
Thank your lucky stars for inefficient law enforcement. When toleration fails, you’ll always be able to count on some room for social innovation. But when inefficiency fails, we’ll be in a much tighter spot.
The World is a Theme Park
As we cross from one part of a park to another, we leave behind medieval knights and come upon space aliens. In theme parks, we are heroes, and we are surrounded by opportunities for adventure. Theme parks – from the mundane parks of today to the Westworlds of tomorrow – offer us access to romance of the kind most of us don’t see in our everyday lives.
Safety Regulations Could Kill the Scooter Revolution (But They Totally Won’t)
With so many Birds and Limes already scooting around Atlanta’s Midtown district, I decided that I wanted to give one a try. I downloaded the app and headed eagerly over to a Lime scooter parked on the side of the road. I was giddy with excitement, dreams of zipping down Atlanta sidewalks scooting through my head. Then I came upon the Terms and Conditions.
The Adventure of Phonelessness
Have you ever been doing your best to do door to door selling in a small, strange Florida beach town when your smartphone dies on you? I have.* There are few things more stressful – and I really needed to get to a meeting at some beachfront restaurant. And yet I remember that time fondly. From…
Radicalism Without Revolution
“Radical” is a scary word, but radicals are (fundamentally) just very consistent people. If they believe in a principle, they believe that it applies to the very root (“radix” – a Latin term) of things. If they believe in non-aggression as a social norm, for instance, they think the value of non-aggression holds true for everyone – including the police officers and bureaucrats and military members whom we normally excuse from this rule.
No One Is Coming to Forgive You
People like us don’t have a hard time with self-responsibility. But we do have a hard time with self-forgiveness. How can “forgiving yourself” count? Isn’t that just cheating?
The Wacky and Wonderful Renaissance of Urban Transportation
This afternoon as I ran through Atlanta’s Piedmont Park and on the Atlanta Beltline, I could see people getting around in countless ways. I saw Bird and Lime scooters, electric motorbikes, and rented bicycles cruising their way around. There were traditional push scooters and roller blades and skateboards. There was one electric unicycle and and some really odd-looking (and surely avant-garde) electric miniature dune buggy things.
The Power of Simple Parties
I recently attended one of the best birthday parties I can recall. What’s odd is how this party stood out to me at all. It had no bumping music, no fancy lights. No one was drunk or high or gorging on fine food. No one was grilling food, dancing, hanging around a pool, hanging around a bonfire.…
Life’s Conflicts Are the Plot Points of Your Life’s Story
For some time now I’ve been fascinated by the idea of the monomyth popularized by thinkers like Joseph Campbell, C.S. Lewis, and (more recently) Jordan Peterson. One way of understanding a piece of what they have said is that all humans indeed occupy a story framework. We’re all taking Campbell’s “hero’s journey” and passing through its phases, which may look different for each of us.