Interesting journal #4

Published

Plants like music. Plants can make music.

Extra reading: NPR Music For Plants Is Real (Even If The Science Isn’t)

I, Pencil is a short story told by an old fashioned pencil. Picture a Blackwing describing how a pencil is a “complex combination of miracles”, and no one will ever be able to build one from scratch. The story shows how compounding skills, ideas, and know-how makes technology advance. It is not the work of a single person.

Extra reading: The Use of Knowledge in Society

The Overton window describes a range of political ideas the public is willing to consider acceptable. This window moves with time. Laws or opinions that were once frowned upon are now widely accepted and taken as the norm. Radical ideas become the status quo. In the context of politics the window moves across a spectrum that reflects “left” and “right” wing ideologies.

I can see how this concept also applies to the adoption of technologies and products. When did it become acceptable to sleep in a stranger’s house? (Airbnb). When did it become acceptable to be driven by a non-professional driver? (Uber).