Things Your Friends Don’t Want to Hear “I couldn’t keep up, and I felt negligent. It was more work than what it was worth, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was a bunch of useless junk. It was a big time suck.” – David Stephenson on quitting social media
“You can’t change the world” “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or do you want to come with me and change the world?” – Steve Jobs
Two Prices “This is, after all, the way of our new product-based civilization — in order to participate as a citizen of the social web, you must yourself manufacture content. Progress requires that forms must be filled. Thus it is a critical choice of any adult as to where they will perform their free labor.” – Paul Ford, New York Magazine Elsewhere: A brilliant comic from Jen Sorensen: (thanks for the pointer Darrin).
Disconnect Today, Disconnect Tomorrow “Disconnect for a day or two. Put your phone in airplane mode for most of the day; turn off your laptop’s WiFi for the other 23 hours. Plan a project and complete it without using anything more than your phone’s 3G as a reference manual. The world won’t go anywhere—you just may find that you’re a little bit happier.”
Email is the Common Social Network “Email is the one application that is on every connected device out of the box. You don’t need to visit the app store to access email. It is the lowest common denominator of networked applications. People know how to use email an they check it very regularly.”
Unchecked “…the new Sabbath Manifesto app, for the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and other smartphones, announces to your social networks and online community through Facebook and Twitter that you are unplugging and will not be available online. Users can also sign up for text alerts that will remind them on Friday to unplug. ” – Tanya Schevitz
How Reasonable “In retrospect, it seems pretty clear that my Objectivist phase had more to do with the subjective agonies of post-adolescence (insecurity, narcissism) than it did with pure reason.” – Sam Anderson, NY Times Magazine
Slumming it “Slum tourism is a type of tourism that involves visiting impoverished areas, which has become increasingly prominent in several developing countries like India, Brazil, Kenya, and Indonesia The concept began in poor sections of London and by 1884 had started in Manhattan.”
