Jay Matthews

Maria Popova reflects on the different worlds of Lightman's book, describing the different ways in which different worlds relate to time.

Throughout history, people have risked death for the ability to share their ideas. Now almost everyone has unfettered access to the internet and most people are sitting there and thinking “eh, I’m good.” People will look back at us and wonder what the hell was wrong with us.

On Darwin's influence of Psychoanalysis

The history of Western architecture can teach us a lot about the evolution of web design. As forms of art, both are defined by several factors:1. They serve as places where other people go.2. They’re engineered to do this pragmatic job.3. The evolution of technology limits this engineering.4. And yet, they’re definitely still art.

The Response Gratitude and reciprocity are the currency of a gift economy, and they have the remarkable property of multiplying with every exchange, their energy concentrating as they pass from hand to hand, a truly renewable resource.

Geertz (1973) argues that the Enlightenment view of human nature placed such an overbearing emphasis on universal characteristics that it relegated the differential effects of culture to secondary status.