linda

I am not proposing a return to the Stone Age. My intent is not reactionary, nor even conservative, but simply subversive. It seems that the utopian imagination is trapped, like capitalism and industrialism and the human population, in a one-way future consisting only of growth. All I'm trying to do is figure out how to put a pig on the tracks. —... See more

when a website, especially one that invites mass participation, goes offline or executes a huge dump of its data and resources, it’s as if a smallish Library of Alexandria has been burned to the ground. Except unlike the burning of such a library, when a website folds, the ensuing commentary from tech blogs asks only why the company folded, or why... See more

creativity is rooted in our bones. It is the way we talk to one another, the walks we go on, the small smiles in the grocery store. To be human is to be creative! To be creative is to be alive! It’s like how a beaver builds a dam or an ant builds a hill or a bee makes honey - it’s innate. We make things too, because it’s innate!

If you apply pressure to a ball of ants, the ants nearest to the top will begin to act as though they are dead, increasing the fluidity of the writhing mass of ants. The harder the ants are pressed, the more fluid they become to absorb the pressure. The more ants there are linked together, the more pressure they can collectively withstand.

I find for myself that my first thought is never my best thought. My first thought is always someone else’s; it’s always what I’ve already heard about the subject, always the conventional wisdom. It’s only by concentrating, sticking to the question, being patient, letting all the parts of my mind come into play, that I arrive at an original idea.... See more

No one is going to give you what you want unless you voice it. I now see it less as going out on a limb and more as extending a possibility. If someone is interested, that's excellent. And if they’re not, fine. There's really no harm in trying, because the worst thing that happens is someone doesn't share your vision and you move on.

chasing scale strips you of some humanity. It puts your head too high up in the clouds. It removes you from what happens in the real world with real people. Pursuing something that can’t scale does the exact opposite: it grounds you. It’s a comforting and healing next act.

Perhaps most instinctually, people just want to do things and get better at... See more

The world has always been a sorry and confused sort of place—yet poets and artists and scientists have ignored the factors that would, if attended to, paralyze them.