Sam: Another thoughtful tidbit to get us thinking on this subject. For myself, I call it the creep of complacency and convenience. As it gains momentum, the insidious nature of this change is glorified through marketing, peer pressure, and profit. I’ll just take profit and say- who profits? Certainly a corporation selling said time -saver, but at the expense of community, shared experience, and bonds woven through slowed time and common effort. I resist this force daily, and my choice is to cheerfully recruit others to reclaim the joy of these shared experiences rather than simply give in to what others say is inevitable. I agree with the commenter Barry’s first two sentences; adapting to some of the modern tools isn’t giving in. We need more voices saying: “Let’s go!”
The more voices, the better. Thank you, Timothy. The profit is the most interesting part. It is a cycle that includes some good incentives, as well as many perverse incentives. It is up to us.
Weapons cleaning! Wether in the field or in garrison it does seem to bring a unique sense of purpose to a unit, time, as you note Sam seems to slow or in some cases the effort is urgent. Just back from the field weapons inspection on a Friday before the old man sounds the liberty bell (and they better be clean cuz he will send us back in to clean ‘em again if they aren’t.) in either case that sense of the last patch coming clean leaves one with a sense of accomplishment and it just may save your life someday. Never know.
it seems so that all the gizmos designed to give us more time and ease only make life more frenetic. More complicated. When’s the last time someone talked about the timing for the firing sequence on the engine that runs their automobile? Last year this old timer having grown up around TV’s first little black and white deals then color and then the magic of big screen thousand pixels tv’s. Put his away. Haven’t watched it in over a year. Don’t miss it a damn bit. I read and search for my own news online. A brain is a terrible thing to waste! Great post again!
Your musing on television is epic—I could not agree more. The brain is a gift as well as our time. I also appreciate your comment on the "last patch coming clean". There is a concrete sense of achievement in these small tasks, something done and done well. Thank you, Charles.
Sam, it was a great post. Quick semi funny story about clean weapons. As very green 2nd Lieutenant Platoon Commander with Mike Company 3/2 2nd Marine Division we came back from the field on a Friday morning. The Battalion CO was going to ring the liberty bell early and the Marines got anxious. My company commander (great guy and super leader) wanted the weapons cleaned and inspected before heading to the armory. My platoon were pretty good but some decided it was a good idea to just kinda sorta clean their M-16’s and M203’s and coat them with oil as short cut. Now I had very carefully cleaned my .45 and M-16 and expected the same of my Marines. The inspection did not go well, and I got my ass in a well deserved sling for wiping oil from the rifle of a young PFC on his nose. It went viral as they say today. But, my boss backed me up, my First Sargent very cranky guy and brilliant did to, and when I went to see the old man he let me off the hook and instead of sending me out with an ass chewing and to special services to count basketballs for the rest of my career used the whole event as a teaching moment. Not to say he wasn’t pissed off but he could have really ruined my career. That said he had officers call at the O Club that afternoon. And, guess who got brought up as a leadership example of “things not to do!” He didn’t call me out by name, but everyone figured it out. But, I learned if you don’t like the effort in the inspection don’t get mad, or do something stupid (yep!) Send the Marines back into the barracks and say be ready again in 30 minutes. Leadership comes in snippets, it is a learned skill and built on good example and empathy. Gizmo’s don’t teach leadership or empathy! Keep up the great work here.
This is some classic military tough love. These sorts of events would be traumatic for many, but are also opportunities for self-growth. Thanks for sharing!
Without even going back to the 60s or ancient times I remember something from a decade ago. In my first job out of college I worked on the shop floor of a factory in a small town where I was a stranger and had just moved to and lunch was a sacred time. We all gathered around shooting the shit while eating. I met random people I didn't work with, made friends, made plans to go out drinking on the weekend. Or just talked about the monotony of our jobs. I met an ex girlfriend that I dated for a few months at lunch. I talked about sports with a manager from another team who I ended up later working for. I became fully connected and in the community of people that I worked with.
Fast forward a decade later and I work in a more urban corporate setting. People eat lunch at their desks or leave the office for lunch in order to "save time" and go home earlier. I can safely say that the day I leave this company I am not sure who I would actually keep in touch with. I still have a bond with those people from that factory and they live a thousand miles away from me. I know that when I visit their town again, I'll be over at their houses having dinner. I don't need the facade of working at the same company to reach out to them.
Smartphones were becoming more prevalent a decade ago but I don't think people at the factory would have felt the need to be on their phones because being part of the community was more engaging
This is on point. It doesn't take much, as you've noted, to develop a bond. And yet in the name of "saving time" we prioritize what will be forgotten over what will never be. I appreciate the comment.
"What was once mandatory—slow time with each other on a muscular task of consequence—we are now responsible for replicating."
I agree with this, including the necessity for including physical, not just mental interaction. It's something I play around with in imagining family life in the scifi fiction I am working on.
As someone who thinks and writes about slow food and slow eating, this post rings true. Families and clans once shared meals with ceremony and reverence to honor the nourishment. They recognized the effort and skill required to even have a meal and that it could be shared to the community's benefit. Many believe humans developed communities with skills originating from the sharing of food. It goes without much elaboration that we are losing or have lost the sense that food is a community resource to be shared, celebrated and enjoyed with our families and communities. Now we eat ultra processed food in the car, alone. Thank you for the thoughtful words.
Well said. Especially that last point about processed foods consumed alone. Existence has been crafted to enable this sort of behavior and conceal how much harm it causes. This is a good fight.
So true! Beautiful reflection! I once bought an induction oven, because it would save me time! It was interesting one day as I was cooking pasta for the first time, the water boiled so fast that I didn’t have the time for my glass of wine and the conversations we would always have while waiting the water to boil
Such a great invitation to re think what do we really want when we say we want to save time
I remember from my ‘99 trip to China—we were on a small boat going up the Yangtze prior to the filling of the 3 Gorges Dam project. There were small villages perched hundreds of feet up the cliffside. A small winding trail from the village down to the river—musta taken them hours back and forth each time. Groups of men and women carrying backpack barrels and balancing head barrels of water the entire way—chatting and visiting and straining under the weight and the climb.
I doubt they thought much about what time it was ☺️
Thank you, Dee. That is a wonderful point. I have had similar thoughts in the third world and in war zones. The people going through hard times (obviously not the hardest of times, but the daily grind) often have an almost transcendent expression on their faces. They might talk lightly. They sweat and are tired. But they are alive, aware, and with little to no existential suffering written anywhere on their faces or minds. There is something to this.
What you are getting at with respect to what goes on with us humans during group task engagement, I have also seen and felt in marriage, family, and working on long, physical outdoor projects with others. Maybe you haven't noticed, but there's also a large element of this very same thing going on, I believe, in reading and sometimes commenting on others people's substack writing.
I have not thought about Substack in this way... I need to think on this. It is different in many ways, but circling an idea, musing on it, giving interesting insights—all of it is powerfully ancestral. I appreciate the thinking material.
So profoundly true, Sam. 👏 Our "labor-saving" devices create a void that too many of us fill with mindless meaningless compulsions and addictions. As you write so well, we are not designed for that much freedom from survival work.
It is no use to fault technological progress; it is up to us what we do with it. You will not fight a war with “yesterdays” tools. You have mentioned the “together” activity or some parts of activities that remain manual. It is those that create the satisfaction. These nuggets are always present, it is up to the individual to pick them up. I also found in growing food, individually or volunteering to help on a kibbutz or on our communal farm. Volunteers find each other and do “things” together. Sometimes we use modern tools and still sweat.
Agree, technology is merely a tool. How we use it dictates everything. The communal farm is an excellent idea. It seems they are making a resurgence which is great to see. The more these things catch on, the less we will see of the luckless ladies in Japan committing crimes to go to prison for a sense of belonging. It is incredible.
From my professor Mary McCarthy's 1987 essay "Useless Freedom":
I myself have never been a great friend of science, at least not of applied science; I could do without airplanes and even automobiles, providing trains and horses were restored to us. I do without cuisinarts, gelatoios, word processors, credit cards, happy to be without them. For just here, in this practical domain, our freedom, our vaunted abundance, takes on the sinister (to me) appearance of compulsion and scarcity. And I resist. You would be surprised (unless you too have resisted) to find out how hard it is. The word processor, for example. People, young and old, keep trying to convert me to using a word processor; it is for my own good, they tell me. I will see if I only try. It is like being surrounded by a religious movement, calling on me to join them and be saved. The pressure becomes wearisome, always the same arguments, and finally they start coming from one’s own family—a treacherous breach of my defenses. Some morning—Christmas or a birthday—I will find the egregious word processor tied up in pink ribbons in its hood on my desk. Even if I am spared that (“My dear, how can I thank you?”), I will lose the battle, if I live long enough, by simple force of attrition.
This is a great piece. Sifting through the options and deciding which technology to ditch or keep seems to be becoming an art. I still try to do 90%+ of my writing with ink and paper even though typing it is a hassle—my brain operates better without staring at a screen. Thanks for sharing.
Sam: Another thoughtful tidbit to get us thinking on this subject. For myself, I call it the creep of complacency and convenience. As it gains momentum, the insidious nature of this change is glorified through marketing, peer pressure, and profit. I’ll just take profit and say- who profits? Certainly a corporation selling said time -saver, but at the expense of community, shared experience, and bonds woven through slowed time and common effort. I resist this force daily, and my choice is to cheerfully recruit others to reclaim the joy of these shared experiences rather than simply give in to what others say is inevitable. I agree with the commenter Barry’s first two sentences; adapting to some of the modern tools isn’t giving in. We need more voices saying: “Let’s go!”
The more voices, the better. Thank you, Timothy. The profit is the most interesting part. It is a cycle that includes some good incentives, as well as many perverse incentives. It is up to us.
Weapons cleaning! Wether in the field or in garrison it does seem to bring a unique sense of purpose to a unit, time, as you note Sam seems to slow or in some cases the effort is urgent. Just back from the field weapons inspection on a Friday before the old man sounds the liberty bell (and they better be clean cuz he will send us back in to clean ‘em again if they aren’t.) in either case that sense of the last patch coming clean leaves one with a sense of accomplishment and it just may save your life someday. Never know.
it seems so that all the gizmos designed to give us more time and ease only make life more frenetic. More complicated. When’s the last time someone talked about the timing for the firing sequence on the engine that runs their automobile? Last year this old timer having grown up around TV’s first little black and white deals then color and then the magic of big screen thousand pixels tv’s. Put his away. Haven’t watched it in over a year. Don’t miss it a damn bit. I read and search for my own news online. A brain is a terrible thing to waste! Great post again!
Your musing on television is epic—I could not agree more. The brain is a gift as well as our time. I also appreciate your comment on the "last patch coming clean". There is a concrete sense of achievement in these small tasks, something done and done well. Thank you, Charles.
Sam, it was a great post. Quick semi funny story about clean weapons. As very green 2nd Lieutenant Platoon Commander with Mike Company 3/2 2nd Marine Division we came back from the field on a Friday morning. The Battalion CO was going to ring the liberty bell early and the Marines got anxious. My company commander (great guy and super leader) wanted the weapons cleaned and inspected before heading to the armory. My platoon were pretty good but some decided it was a good idea to just kinda sorta clean their M-16’s and M203’s and coat them with oil as short cut. Now I had very carefully cleaned my .45 and M-16 and expected the same of my Marines. The inspection did not go well, and I got my ass in a well deserved sling for wiping oil from the rifle of a young PFC on his nose. It went viral as they say today. But, my boss backed me up, my First Sargent very cranky guy and brilliant did to, and when I went to see the old man he let me off the hook and instead of sending me out with an ass chewing and to special services to count basketballs for the rest of my career used the whole event as a teaching moment. Not to say he wasn’t pissed off but he could have really ruined my career. That said he had officers call at the O Club that afternoon. And, guess who got brought up as a leadership example of “things not to do!” He didn’t call me out by name, but everyone figured it out. But, I learned if you don’t like the effort in the inspection don’t get mad, or do something stupid (yep!) Send the Marines back into the barracks and say be ready again in 30 minutes. Leadership comes in snippets, it is a learned skill and built on good example and empathy. Gizmo’s don’t teach leadership or empathy! Keep up the great work here.
This is some classic military tough love. These sorts of events would be traumatic for many, but are also opportunities for self-growth. Thanks for sharing!
Without even going back to the 60s or ancient times I remember something from a decade ago. In my first job out of college I worked on the shop floor of a factory in a small town where I was a stranger and had just moved to and lunch was a sacred time. We all gathered around shooting the shit while eating. I met random people I didn't work with, made friends, made plans to go out drinking on the weekend. Or just talked about the monotony of our jobs. I met an ex girlfriend that I dated for a few months at lunch. I talked about sports with a manager from another team who I ended up later working for. I became fully connected and in the community of people that I worked with.
Fast forward a decade later and I work in a more urban corporate setting. People eat lunch at their desks or leave the office for lunch in order to "save time" and go home earlier. I can safely say that the day I leave this company I am not sure who I would actually keep in touch with. I still have a bond with those people from that factory and they live a thousand miles away from me. I know that when I visit their town again, I'll be over at their houses having dinner. I don't need the facade of working at the same company to reach out to them.
Smartphones were becoming more prevalent a decade ago but I don't think people at the factory would have felt the need to be on their phones because being part of the community was more engaging
This is on point. It doesn't take much, as you've noted, to develop a bond. And yet in the name of "saving time" we prioritize what will be forgotten over what will never be. I appreciate the comment.
Thanks again, Brother. Blessings.
I'm grateful you enjoyed it, my friend.
Something on my mind quite a bit. I can disconnect quite easily and spend days offline. Outside of my work anyway.
Been training this for a while, however I do share your thoughts and concerns.
Great read/listen.
Thank you, Enda. It is a skill and a gift to be able to disconnect that easily.
"What was once mandatory—slow time with each other on a muscular task of consequence—we are now responsible for replicating."
I agree with this, including the necessity for including physical, not just mental interaction. It's something I play around with in imagining family life in the scifi fiction I am working on.
https://maryh10000.substack.com/p/leaving-on-off-planet-tdy
As someone who thinks and writes about slow food and slow eating, this post rings true. Families and clans once shared meals with ceremony and reverence to honor the nourishment. They recognized the effort and skill required to even have a meal and that it could be shared to the community's benefit. Many believe humans developed communities with skills originating from the sharing of food. It goes without much elaboration that we are losing or have lost the sense that food is a community resource to be shared, celebrated and enjoyed with our families and communities. Now we eat ultra processed food in the car, alone. Thank you for the thoughtful words.
Well said. Especially that last point about processed foods consumed alone. Existence has been crafted to enable this sort of behavior and conceal how much harm it causes. This is a good fight.
So true! Beautiful reflection! I once bought an induction oven, because it would save me time! It was interesting one day as I was cooking pasta for the first time, the water boiled so fast that I didn’t have the time for my glass of wine and the conversations we would always have while waiting the water to boil
Such a great invitation to re think what do we really want when we say we want to save time
This is a pristine example and reflection. Thank you, and I'm grateful this piece resonate with you.
Interesting piece Sam.
I remember from my ‘99 trip to China—we were on a small boat going up the Yangtze prior to the filling of the 3 Gorges Dam project. There were small villages perched hundreds of feet up the cliffside. A small winding trail from the village down to the river—musta taken them hours back and forth each time. Groups of men and women carrying backpack barrels and balancing head barrels of water the entire way—chatting and visiting and straining under the weight and the climb.
I doubt they thought much about what time it was ☺️
Thank you, Dee. That is a wonderful point. I have had similar thoughts in the third world and in war zones. The people going through hard times (obviously not the hardest of times, but the daily grind) often have an almost transcendent expression on their faces. They might talk lightly. They sweat and are tired. But they are alive, aware, and with little to no existential suffering written anywhere on their faces or minds. There is something to this.
Yes. 💯
What you are getting at with respect to what goes on with us humans during group task engagement, I have also seen and felt in marriage, family, and working on long, physical outdoor projects with others. Maybe you haven't noticed, but there's also a large element of this very same thing going on, I believe, in reading and sometimes commenting on others people's substack writing.
I have not thought about Substack in this way... I need to think on this. It is different in many ways, but circling an idea, musing on it, giving interesting insights—all of it is powerfully ancestral. I appreciate the thinking material.
It's much the same thing, thinking on and puzzling about things is a pretty common joint human task.
So profoundly true, Sam. 👏 Our "labor-saving" devices create a void that too many of us fill with mindless meaningless compulsions and addictions. As you write so well, we are not designed for that much freedom from survival work.
I assumed this would strongly resonate with you, Baird. Our paths continue to converge. Thank you for your thoughts.
It is an interesting convergence Sam. We're coming to similar conclusions via very divergent paths. Great minds think alike! ✌️
Excellent thank you!@
You're more than welcome, Don!
It is no use to fault technological progress; it is up to us what we do with it. You will not fight a war with “yesterdays” tools. You have mentioned the “together” activity or some parts of activities that remain manual. It is those that create the satisfaction. These nuggets are always present, it is up to the individual to pick them up. I also found in growing food, individually or volunteering to help on a kibbutz or on our communal farm. Volunteers find each other and do “things” together. Sometimes we use modern tools and still sweat.
Agree, technology is merely a tool. How we use it dictates everything. The communal farm is an excellent idea. It seems they are making a resurgence which is great to see. The more these things catch on, the less we will see of the luckless ladies in Japan committing crimes to go to prison for a sense of belonging. It is incredible.
From my professor Mary McCarthy's 1987 essay "Useless Freedom":
I myself have never been a great friend of science, at least not of applied science; I could do without airplanes and even automobiles, providing trains and horses were restored to us. I do without cuisinarts, gelatoios, word processors, credit cards, happy to be without them. For just here, in this practical domain, our freedom, our vaunted abundance, takes on the sinister (to me) appearance of compulsion and scarcity. And I resist. You would be surprised (unless you too have resisted) to find out how hard it is. The word processor, for example. People, young and old, keep trying to convert me to using a word processor; it is for my own good, they tell me. I will see if I only try. It is like being surrounded by a religious movement, calling on me to join them and be saved. The pressure becomes wearisome, always the same arguments, and finally they start coming from one’s own family—a treacherous breach of my defenses. Some morning—Christmas or a birthday—I will find the egregious word processor tied up in pink ribbons in its hood on my desk. Even if I am spared that (“My dear, how can I thank you?”), I will lose the battle, if I live long enough, by simple force of attrition.
This is a great piece. Sifting through the options and deciding which technology to ditch or keep seems to be becoming an art. I still try to do 90%+ of my writing with ink and paper even though typing it is a hassle—my brain operates better without staring at a screen. Thanks for sharing.
Ball point pens and spiral notebooks are liberating. They allow you to write anywhere