Josh, that coffee looks amazing. I'm having pourovers here on "vacation" right now!
Your piece is really timely. I want to somehow see a piece that marries this concept with the stuff I just wrote about, horror vacui: https://goatfury.substack.com/p/horror-vacui
Congratulations on the new addition to the family!
Great read. I am writing about presentations at the moment for Breaking the Rules and your section on presentations was great to read. In my years as an academic, I clearly noticed my number_of_slides_per_lecture decrease significantly with years
Look forward to reading what you’ve got to say about presentations in your upcoming piece! Definitely find myself looking for places to trim more often now than I used to as well.
Wow, this post spoke to my soul. I've written about so many of the same types of issues.
We think we shape technology, but technology also shapes us. But more than that, the tech providers are using the power of behavioral psychology to manipulate people, to their great financial gain, but at the huge psycho-social expense of users.
And yes, technology has the potential to free people up to do higher order work. Yet, it's being used to supplant people in many cases and to dumb-down their tasks in som many other cases. Technology should be used to complement and empower people, not to disempower or replace them.
Then there's the idea held by so many that technology is better than people because it's so much more efficient. Yes, computers can certainly crunch numbers faster and perform routine tasks better. But the desire to turn people into computers is utterly stripping us of everything that makes us human -- our compassion, our empathy, our shared experiences, our history, in short, our humanity.
The last point I'll make is that for decades, I've heard that limitations on resources mean we cannot continue to grow (increase GDP or wealth) as a society. This is utterly false, as it assumes the only form of societal success is materialistic. However, we can absolutely continue to grow and flourish by shifting away from materialism and towards humanism, as you describe.
Josh, my comment here was actually meant for your post What Is the Life We're Looking For? but somehow it ended up on this post. 🤷♀️ It sounds like you figured that out...
Thanks for this perceptive post, Josh. I met with your parents recently and they put me onto your Substack. Good stuff! I’m a reporter for WORLD Magazine. All the best, Steve West
Thanks Steve, glad you enjoyed it! My folks mentioned that they visited with you a few weeks ago. Heard you got a taste of some of my favorite New Haven style pizza at Pepe’s!
Thanks for reading and hope there is something of value for you week by week. As you may have noticed, I’m interested in thinking about how we shape and are shaped by technology. Please comment as questions or comments percolate!
I loved both of those as well. My latest favorite read in this vein is from Dr. Ursula Franklin in her 1989 CBC Lectures "The Real World of Technology." Since they were originally delivered as oral lectures they're also really digestible too. Can get it on Amazon or check it out for free on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/realworldoftechn0000fran_u9w8/.
Think you'll like it if you like Postman. Also got some Jacques Ellul and Ivan Illich on my list which I've been waiting to get into for a while now.
Love this idea - never come across the book "pruning" but I'll put it on my list.
I think you'll like the ideas surrounding "via negativa" as used by Nassim Taleb to define antifragility: when you remove the fragile (aka "noise" in your context), what you are left with by definition is more antifragile (aka "signal" in your context).
Thanks Zan. Taleb has been on my list for a while now. Heard him on some podcasts but not yet read any of his books. Sounds like “via negativa” will resonate!
I think you will love his books. Don't know what type of style you like reading - but I'd suggest you look past the sometimes arrogant/"i don't care what anyone thinks" tone - because beyond it he really drops some incredible pearls.
Excellent take. Another reason why pruning is preferable is that, under the assumption that adding or subtracting a unit of something (e.g., words) takes more or less the same effort, then it costs twice as much to double the SNR by adding signal than by removing noise.
Josh, that coffee looks amazing. I'm having pourovers here on "vacation" right now!
Your piece is really timely. I want to somehow see a piece that marries this concept with the stuff I just wrote about, horror vacui: https://goatfury.substack.com/p/horror-vacui
Thanks Andrew! I’ll take a look at your piece.
Then let’s find a way to write something together 😀
Congratulations on the new addition to the family!
Great read. I am writing about presentations at the moment for Breaking the Rules and your section on presentations was great to read. In my years as an academic, I clearly noticed my number_of_slides_per_lecture decrease significantly with years
Thanks Stephen!
Look forward to reading what you’ve got to say about presentations in your upcoming piece! Definitely find myself looking for places to trim more often now than I used to as well.
Wow, this post spoke to my soul. I've written about so many of the same types of issues.
We think we shape technology, but technology also shapes us. But more than that, the tech providers are using the power of behavioral psychology to manipulate people, to their great financial gain, but at the huge psycho-social expense of users.
And yes, technology has the potential to free people up to do higher order work. Yet, it's being used to supplant people in many cases and to dumb-down their tasks in som many other cases. Technology should be used to complement and empower people, not to disempower or replace them.
Then there's the idea held by so many that technology is better than people because it's so much more efficient. Yes, computers can certainly crunch numbers faster and perform routine tasks better. But the desire to turn people into computers is utterly stripping us of everything that makes us human -- our compassion, our empathy, our shared experiences, our history, in short, our humanity.
The last point I'll make is that for decades, I've heard that limitations on resources mean we cannot continue to grow (increase GDP or wealth) as a society. This is utterly false, as it assumes the only form of societal success is materialistic. However, we can absolutely continue to grow and flourish by shifting away from materialism and towards humanism, as you describe.
Thank you for your beautiful post.
Thanks Ruth, I'm so glad you enjoyed this! If you're curious, I expand more on my vision for technology as a tool for redemption in another post I wrote. https://joshbrake.substack.com/p/what-is-the-life-were-looking-for
I would be curious to hear how you react to that post as well!
Josh, my comment here was actually meant for your post What Is the Life We're Looking For? but somehow it ended up on this post. 🤷♀️ It sounds like you figured that out...
Thanks for this perceptive post, Josh. I met with your parents recently and they put me onto your Substack. Good stuff! I’m a reporter for WORLD Magazine. All the best, Steve West
Thanks Steve, glad you enjoyed it! My folks mentioned that they visited with you a few weeks ago. Heard you got a taste of some of my favorite New Haven style pizza at Pepe’s!
Thanks for reading and hope there is something of value for you week by week. As you may have noticed, I’m interested in thinking about how we shape and are shaped by technology. Please comment as questions or comments percolate!
Josh, that’s a topic of interest, ever since I read Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death or Technopoly. I’ll look forward to reading more.
I loved both of those as well. My latest favorite read in this vein is from Dr. Ursula Franklin in her 1989 CBC Lectures "The Real World of Technology." Since they were originally delivered as oral lectures they're also really digestible too. Can get it on Amazon or check it out for free on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/realworldoftechn0000fran_u9w8/.
Think you'll like it if you like Postman. Also got some Jacques Ellul and Ivan Illich on my list which I've been waiting to get into for a while now.
Last thing: you would also likely enjoy L. M. Sacasas's Substack. https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com
Ellul I read long ago! I’ll check out the links—time allowing. :)
Time allowing is indeed the challenge :)
Love this idea - never come across the book "pruning" but I'll put it on my list.
I think you'll like the ideas surrounding "via negativa" as used by Nassim Taleb to define antifragility: when you remove the fragile (aka "noise" in your context), what you are left with by definition is more antifragile (aka "signal" in your context).
Thanks Zan. Taleb has been on my list for a while now. Heard him on some podcasts but not yet read any of his books. Sounds like “via negativa” will resonate!
I think you will love his books. Don't know what type of style you like reading - but I'd suggest you look past the sometimes arrogant/"i don't care what anyone thinks" tone - because beyond it he really drops some incredible pearls.
But yes, SNR is an elegant way to put it - particularly if you're a signal processing engineer
Josh, translating the SNR into plain terms is very thoughtful theme in your piece. As a control engineer, this made me appreciate the post even more!
Excellent take. Another reason why pruning is preferable is that, under the assumption that adding or subtracting a unit of something (e.g., words) takes more or less the same effort, then it costs twice as much to double the SNR by adding signal than by removing noise.
Congrats on the new addition to the family!