Author: harold

The book "Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think" brings a different perspective to this conversation. I strongly encourage folks to read it, but if I had to summarize the point that feels relevant here, it’d go something like this.

Relative to the whole of human history, the time we’re living in right now is by far the most neutral, even OK, (in some cases, even good) things have ever been.

You are correct that the divide between privileged/lucky and not is still wide. But arguably this is more about the uneven distribution of progress, and ignores the fact that poverty has significantly gone down, deaths from disease are significantly lower now than even 10-20 years ago, and so on.

This does not minimize or invalidate the fact that many do live in dangerous or "not OK" environments, but it’s worth looking at the broader historical context to help contextualize that.

Yes, more change must happen. There is much progress to be made. But much progress has been made, and that should be acknowledged.

It’s a Hacker News comment that gives the common argument, often used in conservative and libertarian circles, that everything is pretty cool today compared to thousands of years of human history. Therefore, no need to turn it up to fix the latest (which are in fact old) issues.

I understand very well what this means and how this allows a little more breathing in our lives when thinking about it.

I also don’t like it at all.

It is such a counter-productive, complacent thing to say. The argument that the world is better now than ever is a non-argument. Why not celebrate that earth hasn’t exploded yet, it’s about as deep as that.

First of all, there is an intellectual entitlement to think at that scale. “Human History”. Most people don’t, never will think about life this way and they still don’t deserve to struggle daily, trying to avoid all kinds of traps. That’s something that seems to hurt intellectuals because yes, if you believe that everything is better now and that there’s no need to be that angry, you are being soft (maybe disconnected as well) about fixing issues. Because you probably can afford that. You are removed from the heat.

if you were angry you would/should triple the fuck down on making distribution of progress/wealth a much, much more even affair.

Progress distribution has been very stagnant and skewed towards a small amount of people, that’s the elephant in the room. This is the major problem we have and it completely exploded considering how much wealth is floating around since the 1970s (compared to the rest of human history, wealth grew 100, 1,000, 10,000 folds in the last 40 years). Even in a pandemic the richest got way richer and the poor kept and stay dying.

And you want me to relax because our ancestors would not believe how much less wars there is now? There are still wars on every continent so I’m not even sure what the argument is doing here, besides wasting our time.

The world WILL BE truly better when there are not so many flagrant failures in our systems, like having homelessness with vacant places all around. How am I supposed to close my eyes over this in 2021? It’s ultra fucking embarrassing for the human race, I’m sorry. We have no business reaching out for Mars if we can’t even solve basic housing issues here. We don’t. How come giant tech companies couldn’t afford to provide internet access to communities that needed it here last year in LA? With the absolute filthy, ever-growing income coming from our data, you can’t deploy hotspots for families and kids in the middle of a pandemic?

I don’t want to hear you tell me things are better than ever, then. They’re not.

Email is the best.

The message is, whatever you think about it, email is the best. Decentralized, open protocol. That’s what you want for ALL digital things, especially if you want to slow capitalism the fuck down.

His arguments are good. I think we could have better email clients, maybe upgrade the protocol to get a few features. But the truth is, email as it is is enough. And always will.

I’ve had the best digital conversations using email compared to everything else, by far (always one on one, group messaging is a waste of time in email too). You can reply with a lol or 3,000 words with links and pictures. That’s unbeatable. That’s Diversity & Inclusivity right there, boy.

I don’t recommend email to solely receive things though. Maybe it’s just me. I always tried to keep email a conversation tool or to receive receipts and negative answers from jobs I applied to. I am not trying to get a fascinating article between my SoCalGas bill and a reminder to use a coupon. I won’t read it. Therefore I don’t do newsletters. RSS readers are for that (and much, so much better at it).

Now the real bad thing about email is when they don’t show up. It happens, still. I’ve had on-site interviews landing in my spam folders in gmail and outlook, if I hadn’t checked those.. But nothing is certain in life, we keep going.

Just use email. ❤️

I’ve been swallowing books lately. After going through his book on Motown, I finished Nelson George’s memoir City Kid. I really enjoy his fine prose.

It made me think a lot about my own memories matching his pages. The parallels, tangents and intersections. Different countries, different times. Many things being the same if not the exact same. I think there’s something about folks kind of born between generations. We don’t really fit a mold, we bridge.

Also It’s always harder to ponder over what a book did to oneself compared to a movie. Sometimes the details of something insignificant in a written story give you a better sense of what you value in life, for instance. Sometimes just a sentence makes you laugh hard as if you had just been waiting for that joke all along, even though it comes out of nowhere. It’s hard to pinpoint. It’s a feeling.

I’m also realizing that for the first time in history the kids that are roaming cities now? They might be the very first generation that will never need to learn to read.

I wonder if Berry Gordy finally did learn.

I opened an online bank account in 2014.

The online bank was bought by another bank somewhere in 2016.

The another bank is being bought in 2021 by a bigger bank and needed to fold the online bank, while keeping everything for customers the same. Sure!

The switch was last weekend and of course, it went wrong.

So now I’m on the phone, and it looks like it’s going to be ALL day, just to access my bank account. Which didn’t change at all.

There’s a lot of things like that taking over our lives without us asking for anything. With heavy capitalism there’s nothing trickling down but annoyances, stress and loss of good services.

Simple.com was really great (but apparently wasn’t collecting enough fees so, shot in the head).

FLW’s brilliance in display at Taliesin West in Arizona.

Thinking about architecture is my coping mechanism. If I’m writing about architecture, I’m probably going through some shit.

Architecture soothes me. There’s no bullshit in building. If there is, it will be unearthed and squashed away.

Building housing means thinking in five, ten year strides instead of the millisecond zeitgeist that I’m used to with video games, music and worse, social media and the tech scene. Virality doesn’t really exist with stones and concrete.

Building means bringing together a bunch of different material and make them harmonically fit somewhere. And then you put people in there, having fun and enjoying life. This is good. I can’t wait to build my own.

Okay, great book. The living room on the left was cold and stayed too cold for most of the family. So here’s the fixes I think would allow a big, 15 foot ceiling, glass wall-having living room to be warm even in the dead of winter like on this picture.

Triple pane glass seems obvious. It is still simple pane I believe, which is ludicrous in Iowa. The thing is it’s probably super expensive considering the surface to cover. And a lot of details to solve (door hinges?) That would do a whole lot in terms of insulation though.

Green roof! Green roofs are fantastic at insulating and are very resilient to snow so heat would stay inside a lot better (heat goes up, don’t forget) rather than hit the cold concrete ceiling and die. The major problem here, is the structure: to have an efficient 127 foot/40 meters green roof in that weather, you would need a thick one, which means a thicker concrete slab, which means considerable weight added thus, structural questions. I don’t think the current structure would allow it and a thin green roof would probably not be enough change and too much work for it. Still, if the possibility to adjust the structure for it—without changing anything aesthetically— existed, a green roof would be a wonderful addition, allowing residents to sit on top of their house, watching the sun set.

Radiant heat and hardwood floors in the living room. There’s already radiant heat but I’m thinking making it up to date and probably electric instead of water pipes (maintenance gains). I would also make it independent from the other floors so not to make the other rooms extra crispy! Hardwood floors because they are definitely easier to keep at a warm temperature than stones. Also aesthetically I believe they would make the entrance in the living room from the very cave-y stairs going down, even more dramatic. They’re also quite easy to “separate” from the structure so that thermal bridges on the floor would be limited.

Anyway, this unique house will probably deteriorate until someone up the family tree sells the property, fed up by the questions about the Frank Lloyd Wright creation. I hope not.

I’m reading this book (free here), which is the journal of a child witnessing her parents building a house. A Frank Lloyd Wright one.

The Grant House is striking and there’s not a lot of information about it online. Now I’m in the middle of the book which is full of details about how the house was made. How the couple worked. How many years it took. How much hard work it was, and how much they loved doing their own thing. Their relationship with FLW. The letters asking for more information because the blueprints are confusing etc. It’s lovely.

My brain is slurping that shit like a kid eating his ice cream cone on the Venice pier.

So we’re averaging the highest daily cases rate worldwide right now at around 850K new covid-19 patients per day.

We shut down most of the world at around 5K a day.

We just don’t give a damn anymore I guess? The CDC is basically dead to me now.

“Nothing lasts forever”

Oh really? Who said that, Pinocchio? Things can last forever if you let them.

The Eiffel tower. You think it was supposed to last? It was not. Gustave Eiffel initially wanted to destroy it after 20 years. THIS SHIT IS 132 YEARS OLD. Sounds like forever to me.

There’s this house in Japan, made of hemp. It was built in 1698, 323 years ago. Sounds like fucking forever to me.

The oak tree at my parents’ house is 300+ years old. That’s basically being immortal. It’s just a tree telling you that “nothing lasts forever, huh? Watch MAY”. And it is right. That tree is SO right.

Do you know for how long billionaires have money for? Forever. Their entire lifetime times 3, 4, 5. That’s forever money, honey (and that’s fucking stupid, share it you raggedy bitch).

Do you know for how long that ultra popular song is going to be so dope for? That is correct. Forevah.

People who say nothing lasts forever as an end to everything, don’t want to put some mfing work or are basking in entitlement, that’s all.

Making things last forever is dedication and work. And then things quite literally last forever. And it is the most beautiful thing in the world (the Eiffel tower wouldn’t be as iconic if it was just pictures and films today, would it?).