Pinboard (robertogreco) https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/public/ recent bookmarks from robertogreco The radical reasons why you dream of making things by hand | Aeon Essays 2026-07-06T10:56:02+00:00 https://aeon.co/essays/the-radical-reasons-why-you-dream-of-making-things-by-hand robertogreco labor work slow human baking beekeeping leatherwork craft handwork jasonhabgood-coote johnthelwall epthompson robinveder weaving blacksmithing glassblowing sewing pottery matthewcrawford ai artificialintelligence luddism neoluddism luddites neoluddites svetlanaboym nationalism racialsupremacy fascism. johnruskin williammorris thoth plato socrates ancientegypt thamus rousseau karlmarx adamsmith donaldmackenzie grahamspinardi thoreau diy making heidegger jamesfox paulkingsnorth fordism nostalgia skills childhood woodworking knitting fishing repair maintenance theodoradorno calligraphy typewriters analog automation deskilling hobbies thomascarlyle augustuspugin popeleoxiv magnificahumanitas encyclicals catholicchurch architecture artsandcraftsmovement design https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:78d4d03271ae/ A Glorian Is a Moment of Grace – Terry Tempest Williams 2026-07-04T12:42:48+00:00 https://emergencemagazine.org/conversation/a-glorian-is-a-moment-of-grace/ robertogreco terrytempestwilliams wonder loss joy attention consciousness 2026 krishnamurti carljung marie-louisevonfranz josephcampbell sriaurobindo spirituality esalen nature environment alanwatts carloscastaneda élanvital dreams religion glorians awe kevino'leary climatechange earth nscottmomaday donaldtrump robertredford charleswilkinson ecology richardpowers thoreau ralphwaldoemerson robinwallkimmerer creativity christinakoch death dying grief mourning unknowing notknowing hiddenness elinixon shinran kenryokanamatsu https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:29394342f87a/ Writing Like There's No Tomorrow - Front Porch Republic 2026-07-04T08:29:38+00:00 https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2026/07/writing-like-theres-no-tomorrow/ robertogreco kenhada writing howwewrite literature poetry 2026 aldoleopold thoreau wendellberry garysnyder rachelcarson barrylopez anniedillard terrytempestwilliams wildness nature ecosystems robinsonjeffers planet environment poems williamstaffod consumerism maryoliver mscottmomaday experience livedexperience humanness wilderness https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:ecedf29a2f91/ How needing others became a source of shame for Americans | Psyche Ideas 2026-06-11T22:19:47+00:00 https://psyche.co/ideas/how-needing-others-became-a-source-of-shame-for-americans robertogrecous interdependence self-reliance individualism psychology susanmatt 2026 society shame chatbots ai artificialintelligence ruggedindividualism lukefernandez technology loneliness rebeccadickinson radio telephones history dalecarnegie normanvincentpeale ralphwaldoemerson thoreau zanfavero daragami replika companionship sociability https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:e1f974c6d0da/ Hurry slowly 2026-06-09T07:11:20+00:00 https://austinkleon.com/2017/11/08/hurry-slowly/ robertogreco2017 austinkleon slow creativity festinalente coritakent davidmccullogh thoreau jocelynglei lyndabarry robinsloan sistercorita slowness waltermurch aldusmanutius erasmus johnsteinbeck junotdíaz https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:9b5877687c61/ Faro Cafe 2026-05-05T15:48:33+00:00 https://thefarocafe.com/ robertogreco cambridge cafes coffeeshops slow leisure artleisure leisurearts productivity resistance connection attention presence consumerism repair community art deliberateness conversation local neighborhoods laptop-freecafes thoreau https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:68bbabae0edd/ The Landscapes Inside Us | Robert Macfarlane | The New York Review of Books 2026-04-11T05:39:08+00:00 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2021/07/01/wayfinding-landscapes-inside-us/ robertogrecoNone of us is exempt from the ramifications of the device paradigm. We all seem to find it extraordinarily difficult to step outside the onslaught, to create the distance and perspective between us and our devices that might allow us to question what cultural or cognitive price is being paid in return for convenience. In July 1841 the poet John Clare escaped from High Beach Asylum in Epping Forest, on the outskirts of London, and set out to walk to his home in Northborough, about eighty miles away. At the time, Clare was in his late forties and mentally unwell. He had been in High Beach for four years. Although his wife, Patty, was alive, he believed himself to be searching for an imaginary second wife, a version of his childhood sweetheart, Mary Joyce, who had died three years earlier. He suffered auditory hallucinations on the road. He ate grass for sustenance, finding it to “taste something like bread.” Footsore and confused, he continued on until he reached Northborough. The walk took him four days. In “Journey Out of Essex”—a minor epic of English travel writing—Clare described how he slept by the edge of the road each night, taking care to lie with his head pointing north, so that he would know which way to walk when he woke. That image has stayed with me since I first read Clare’s account twenty years or so ago: a man lost in mind, nevertheless seized by a homing instinct, and with his body a quivering compass needle that settled on north each night. Five months after reaching Northborough, Clare was certified insane on the grounds of being “addicted to poetical prosings.” He was committed to Northampton General Lunatic Asylum, where he stayed until his death in 1864. His last words were “I want to go home.” Mental illness can result in a loss of bearings so drastic that one’s footing in the given world slips and the moorings of the mind loosen. Yet within such bewilderment lucidities persist. Clare could remember his route home, though he did not recognize his wife when he met her on the outskirts of Northborough. My grandfather, lost in the mists of dementia in the final years of his life, found it hard to recall what he had had for breakfast but could reliably give the names, heights, and ranges of mountains he had climbed in his youth, and walk in memory back up Himalayan valleys he had not entered for half a century. In the opening pages of From Here to There Bond describes how his grandmother, who also suffered from dementia, in the final weeks of her life “repeatedly used the phrase ‘Am I here?’” His book is both scientific and personal. Much of it is spent patiently explaining the neuroscience of wayfinding and spatial awareness for laypeople, with the calm tone of a seasoned science writer. But gradually, between and within the explanatory sections, Bond quietly and movingly discloses what I take to be his real preoccupation, which is Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. His book is an attempt to answer his grandmother’s question, which is also everyone’s question. Alzheimer’s is a voracious type of dementia that consumes the place cells of the hippocampus. Once this begins, Bond writes, “patients have trouble creating cognitive maps of new places and recalling maps of familiar ones.” The disease’s ability to disrupt the brain’s navigation and orientation system is so acute that researchers are exploring whether spatial tests might be used to diagnose it earlier than any other forms of assessment. “The tragedy for Alzheimer’s patients,” as Bond puts it, “is that the compass they have always had is now fading, and their map is shrinking. Disorientation becomes their default state, leaving them lost in places they have always known.” This contributes to the distress—variously expressed as frustration, anxiety, anger, and violence—that sufferers feel: “They are incapable of finding their way anywhere and can be lost even in their own homes.” Covid-19 has administered a global “nature shock,” leaving billions of us disoriented even in familiar surroundings. During full lockdown, we wandered our homes like the narrator in Xavier de Maistre’s mock-epic Voyage Around My Room (1794), who for forty-two days finds himself confined to his chamber, where he would “traverse the room up and down and across, without rule or plan.” Meanwhile, many countries—including China—have used the pandemic to ramp up their means of tracking and tracing citizens, making it even harder to get lost should one ever wish to. Invoking feichang shiqi, “extraordinary times,” the Chinese Communist Party is now using facial recognition technologies, “health coding,” and smartphone tracking to increase surveillance of its citizens: state security camera networks can segment facial-recognition data into dozens of sensitive subcategories, including eyebrow size, skin color, and ethnicity. In Nature Shock, Coleman writes:
Thoreau urged his audience…to reconsider the settled spaces they inhabited…. “Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.”
Thoreau loved paradox, sometimes too much. It helps him find his mark here, though: one might expect our current lostness to test our self-reliance and glorify the individual, but in fact it proves our entanglement and reveals our codependence. When lost, we most of all need help. Underlying all three of these books is a deep belief in the importance of collaboration and cooperation between humans and their environments, as well as between humans and other humans. Having read them, I’ve come to think that we might best imagine wayfinding not as a skill or art but as an ethic. The abilities that are cultivated in wayfinding—imagining things from different viewpoints, moving the mind backward and forward in time, seeing situations from other perspectives, weighing alternatives subtly against one another before making the best decisions, seeking information from others and giving it freely in return—might be the same abilities that contribute to a resilient, equitable community or polity. If this is wayfinding, then we need it now more than ever."]]> robettmacfarlane 2021 mro'connor wayfinding humanism senses sensing navigation joncoleman michaelbond multispecies morethanhuman science brain indigeneity indigenous art place storytelling agnèsvarda animals arctic greenland land-basededucation place-basededucation autonoeisis jonathandostrovsky gps janejacobs australia pacificislands micronesia nature colonialism knowledge colonization decolonization civilization gettinglost india china southamerica captialism timingold siannengai hippocampus eleanormaguire theknowledge london taxis life living johnclare thoreau covid-19 coronavirus pandemic collaboration cooperation environment information humans human lostness xavierdemaistre veroniquebohbot cartography wilderness johno'keefe place-basedlearning land-basedlearning https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:c4419b518594/ M.R. O'Connor - Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World - YouTube 2026-04-09T23:39:07+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brrGT5kIhqY robertogreco mro'connor wayfinding senses sensory multisensory navigation humans indigeneity indigenous 2022 brain neuroscience maps mapping time space memory place inuit nunuvut details memorization memories observation noticing oralhistory storytelling oraltradition imperialism colonialism colonization mobility knowledge culture cartography timingold sami erikliddell kellicarmean hippocampus childhood childhoodamnesia children spatiality sociology anthropology lost gettinglost exploration wandering orientation walking sauntering thoreau plasticity topophilia human presence canon cognition nature morethanhuman multispecies embodiment movement convenience orienteering spatialmemory henrymullison johno'keefe arctic solomonawa oukcholae australia billharney margaretkatherine thomasgridlock cognitivemapping self-determination songlines animals multidisciplinary transdisciplinary waysofsensing sensing land location bodies language https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:3ce2806954d9/ Thoreau’s laundry - Austin Kleon 2026-04-09T21:06:56+00:00 https://austinkleon.com/2019/08/30/thoreaus-laundry/ robertogreco“No other male American writer has been so discredited for enjoying a meal with loved ones or for not doing his own laundry.“ —Laura Dassow Walls, Henry David Thoreau: A Life “Thoreau” was trending on Twitter yesterday, not because anyone was actually reading him or grappling with his ideas, but because his “mom did his laundry” and “brought him sandwiches” at Walden. There have been many takedowns of Thoreau and many defenses of him. (I recommend this essay and Laura Walls’ wonderful bio.) But “over the question of the laundry,” Rebecca Solnit wrote an attempt to “exonerate” him in 2013. (The essay, much like this blog post, was provoked by getting mad at something someone said on social media. It was published in Orion under the title “Mysteries of Thoreau, Unsolved.” Poke around a little online and you’ll find it. It’s funny and good.) The essay begins:
There is one writer in all literature whose laundry arrangements have been excoriated again and again, and it is not Virginia Woolf, who almost certainly never did her own washing, or James Baldwin, or the rest of the global pantheon. The laundry of the poets remains a closed topic, from the tubercular John Keats (blood-spotted handkerchiefs) to Pablo Neruda (lots of rumpled sheets). Only Henry David Thoreau has been tried in the popular imagination and found wanting for his cleaning arrangements, though the true nature of those arrangements are not so clear.
She goes on to list “a long parade of people who pretended to care who did Thoreau’s laundry as a way of not having to care about Thoreau,” even though it is unclear, even amongst Thoreau scholars, who actually did do Thoreau’s laundry.
Do we care who did the chores in any other creative household on earth? Did Dante ever take out the slops? Do we love housework that much? Or do we hate it that much? This fixation on the laundry is related to the larger question of whether artists should be good people as well as good artists, and probably the short answer is that everyone should be a good person, but a lot of artists were only good artists (and quite a lot more were only bad artists). Whether or not they were good people, the good artists gave us something.
“None of us is pure,” she writes, “and purity is a dreary pursuit best left to Puritans.” Solnit points out that unlike other lit’ry men looking for a woman to look after them, Thoreau never married and “did little to make work for women.” In fact, though we obsess over his two years at Walden, Thoreau was an integral part of his household throughout his life, both supporting his family and gaining support from them. (Which is, you know, the whole damned point of a family.) It’s also the case that the abolitionist women in Thoreau’s life did a whole lot of influencing on him. “The Thoreau women took in the filthy laundry of the whole nation, stained with slavery, and pressured Thoreau and Emerson to hang it out in public, as they obediently did.” “This,” Solnit writes, “is the washing that really mattered.”"]]> 2019 thoreau austinkleon families laundry rebeccasolnit domesticlife domesticity lauradassowwalls purity ralphwaldoemerson https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:1f3e536c7a4a/ Harlan Hubbard’s Ohio River | Common Good Magazine 2026-04-05T06:50:10+00:00 https://commongoodmag.com/harlan-hubbards-ohio-river/ robertogreco harlanhubbard michaelwinters 2026 kentucky thoreau jaybercrow ohioriver religion spirituality christianity johnmuir place nature land landscape jesus christ jesuschrist art https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:965adaad5a90/ Think Nothing of It | Webb Wright 2026-04-01T03:59:35+00:00 https://thebaffler.com/latest/think-nothing-of-it-wright robertogreco webbwright cognition chatbots ai artificialintelligence 2026 socrates plato technology aiboom aibubble chatgpt 2022 society disruption samaltman openai technooptimism brain howwethink thinking criticalthinking agency thoreau thamus oraltradition mythology luddites neoluddites luddism neoluddism aidoomers anthropic darioamaodei jackdorsey labor work ux userexperience friction frictionlessness agi artificialgeneralintelligence michaelgerlich samgilbert microsoft cognitiveoffloading llms laziness zeyachen ruthschmidt frictionmaxxing socraticmind aiboomers https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:004fd9e108de/ Issue 603 | Sunbeams | The Sun Magazine 2026-03-20T07:27:05+00:00 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/603-sunbeams robertogreco capitalism consumerism consumption employment povery sustainability thoreau paullaurencedunbar murielspark samueljohnson jesseholmanjones wendellberry jaybercrow roberthughes kinhubbard ezratafthubbard saki colsonwhitehead ralphwaldoemerson roberhughes tennesseewilliams jenniejeromechurchill mollyivins thomasfuller clivehamilton georgecarlin slow small us society abundance freedom belongings possessions robinwallkimmerer wealth poverty https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:930e5f6960a4/ Stop Meeting Students Where They Are - The Atlantic 2026-02-16T03:39:00+00:00 https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/youth-reading-books-professors/685825/ robertogreco walthunter 2026 pedagogy education highereducation highered colleges universities howweread reading attention howwteach teaching academia tonimorrison songofsolomon ai art chatgpt virginiawoolf writing howwewrite ulkrajanand harrietjacobs williamfaulkner willacather jonathanedwards literature experience wegsebald emilydickinson johnkeats tolstoy victorhugo michaelcrichton charlesswann georgesaunders books thoreau distraction confusion endurance stamina understanding waltwhitman humanities wallacestevens adriennerich adamkirsch vice vices mobydick moby-dick hermanmelville https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:bcede8e5666a/ Long Walks 2026-01-25T21:51:43+00:00 https://www.artforum.com/features/long-walks-208841/ robertogreco 1980 art walking nancyfoote ideas abstraction senses aimlessness expediency chatting conversation consciousness richardlong williamhazlitt hilairebelloc flanno'brien thoreau robertlouisstevenson artforum nature temporary experience installations peterhurchinson foraging cycles time slow spirals circles samueljohnson pilgrimage landscape 1970s https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:40a33c6c7688/ VISION FOR A NEW CABINET: - Front Porch Republic 2026-01-13T17:05:11+00:00 https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2026/01/vision-for-a-new-cabinet/ robertogreco slow small 2026 teddymacker whatmatters mercy poetry haiku fermentation multispecies morethanhuman food thoreau thichnhathanh mlk martinlutherkingjr vulnerability death progress johnhenry human humanism humanity humanities crazyhorse americandream awareness temporality chronology time charity malice trees mothers waldenpond torhouse kitkitdizze laneslandingfarm artleisure leisurearts leisure wolves pigeons acquisitiveness midwifery farms farming rural agriculture https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:9750581dbba2/ Literary Hub » Looking for God in the Writing of Denis Johnson 2026-01-05T19:33:38+00:00 https://lithub.com/looking-for-god-in-the-writing-of-denis-johnson/ robertogreco denisjohnson aaronthier 2018 eternity spirituality christianity bible god human literature infinity thoreau hermanmelville robertstone waltwhitman prose writing howwewrite addiction life living drugs religion terror absurdity 1960s https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:83dfb816af32/ Denis Johnson’s God | The Point Magazine 2026-01-05T19:30:25+00:00 https://thepointmag.com/criticism/denis-johnsons-god/ robertogreco 2018 denisjohnson aaronthier religion christianity bible robertstone terror absurdity literature thoreau waltwhitman hermanmelville 1960s god eternity spirituality human infinity prose writing howwewrite addiction life living drugs https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:a655df5b2836/ Tuned to the World | Commonweal Magazine 2025-11-18T16:43:39+00:00 https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/tuned-world robertogreco thoreau religion christianity faith nature 2025 toddshy environment spirituality richardhiggins https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:a4a42c76f003/ The Last Dinosaurs: On Jenny Erpenbeck’s “Things That Disappear" - Cleveland Review of Books 2025-10-22T02:51:15+00:00 https://clereviewofbooks.com/jenny-erpenbeck-things-that-disappear-philip-harris/ robertogreco jennyerpenbeck philipharris 2025 via:javierarbona objects memory disappearance erasure tylerdurden michaelhoffmann disassembly permanence impermanence history change ephemeral ephemerality walterbenjamin buddha buddhism commodities everyday knowledge belongings possessions thoreau https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:4705ab08cc5c/ In Search of Distraction | The Poetry Foundation 2025-09-19T16:53:02+00:00 https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/144656/in-search-of-distraction robertogreco 2017 matthewbevis distraction digressions daydreaming rebeccasolnit johnbeck thomasdavenport add adhd saulbellow thomasdequincey attention dianearbus creativity laurencesterne diderot society culture johnashbery gertrudestein maxnordau thoreau jeancocteau mariannemoore poetry peterstitt hamlet shakespeare janefreilicher jameslorenbach rbkitaj theodordreyer walterbenjamin film art richardhoward donaldwinnicott proust marcelproust paulnorth elizabethbishop kennethkoch thomashardy jamesschuyler looking seeing joriegraham henrimichaux rolandbarthes henrywordsworth denisdiderot https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:cd4515224aff/ Robert Pirsig obituary | Books | The Guardian 2025-07-27T04:54:28+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/25/robert-pirsig-obituary robertogreco 2017 1970s robertpirsig philosophy obituaries georgesteiner hermanmelville thoreau moby-dick mobydick metaphysics richardbrautigan motorcycles phraedrus michaelcarlson buddhism japan allentate writing howwewrite quality zen robertredford jameslandis williammorrow maintenance care caring morals morality 1970 1974 zenbuddhism https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:f0788d73c9ea/ Podcast - The Final Episode - Through the Looking Glass, On Philosophy & Watches 2025-07-25T08:20:15+00:00 https://www.beyondthedial.com/post/podcast-the-final-episode-through-the-looking-glass-on-philosophy-watches/ robertogreco 2024 allenfarmelo watches philosophy perspcetive mechanics culture social history design phenomenology newage wonder reflection time music literature poetry art visualart sculpture principles architecture film photography machines aesthetics beauty logic watchcanon atonishment curiosity admiration bewilderment technology expertise fascination displaycasebacks horology highhorology garyshteyngart mechanical rousseau mindset contemplation bulldozers animation animism soul timekeeping tools autonomy machineage enlightenment ai artificialintelligence thinking howwethink human humans consciousness humanism animals morethanhuman semiconductors computers computing abstraction robots androids innerworks bots life ingenuity creativity living math mathematics physics purpose knowledge morality ethics got religion plato theory astronomy ralphwaldoemerson inquiry empiricalevidence metaphysics being knowing substance cause identity timespace socialstucture senses mind lifeofthemind nature thoreau status hyperconsumerism c https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:ad743ac06680/ Podcast Insights E23 - Rolex vs. Gen X - BEYOND THE DIAL 2025-07-24T23:14:55+00:00 https://www.beyondthedial.com/post/e63-rolex-vs-gen-x/ robertogreco tolisten 2021 rolex genx generationx 1980s 1990s vintage nationalism luxury economics watches allenfarmelo umbertoeco traditionalism conservatism technology past marinetti futurism italianfuturists modernity futurists antiestablishment fascism progressivism environmentalism directaction greenpeace luddism luddites neoluddites neoluddism waltwhitman thoreau resistance left society analog liberalism liberals corporations corporatism filippotommasomarinetti filippomarinetti counterculture 1960s backtotheland communalism progress stephengreenblatt philosophy future thomasaquinas christianity atheism time democracy ancientgreece epicureanism ethics silentgeneration generations boomers babyboomers paralysisofanalysis thinking howwethink rebellion communes hippies romanticism childhood ingenuity forums flamewars online internet digital digitization change web billclinton neoliberalism globalization plannedobsolescence quality repair maintenance deindustrialization jean-claudebiver switzerland blancpain vintagenation https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:fc3f9345a3e8/ Swords into Plowshares 2025-05-13T01:49:01+00:00 https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/swords-into-plowshares/ robertogreco 2025 audreywatters grief mourning technology edtech military douglasnoble militaryindustrialcomplex seymourpapert donnaharaway internet computers computing ww2 wwii antoniogramsci chesterwickwire thoreau mlk martinlutherkingjr imperialism war faith philipberrigan danielberrigan coldwar web online weapons ai artificialintelligence spacerace waysofknowing environment sustainability surveillance eugenics genocide antiimperialism capitalism anticapitalism violence nazis food explosives pesticides vandanashiva salmankhan khanacademy khanmigo teachingmachines education schools schooling howweteach teaching learning howwetlearn simonramo airforce logo feminism xyborgmanifesto cybernetics gibill charlesbabbage industrialization automation nationaldefense nationalsecurity baltimorefour catonsvillenine harrisburgseven plowshareseight plowesharesmovement antiwar missiles vietnamwar resistance protests protest civildisobedience tolstoy death bfskinner anti-imperialism salkhan https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:a1d6fb07506a/ Is modern asceticism about conformity or quiet revolution? | Psyche Ideas 2025-05-02T03:30:14+00:00 https://psyche.co/ideas/is-modern-asceticism-about-conformity-or-quiet-revolution robertogreco asceticism slow small irynamykhailova 2025 wittgenstein marieskłodowska-curie alberteinstein luxury humanitarianism humanity popejuliusii medici michelangelo simoneweil solitude solidarity oppressed voluntarysimplicity simplicity minimalism philosophy geoffreygaltharphman freud maxweber christianity protestantism abundance technology capitalism frugality self-discipline virtues virtue us europe modernization modernity pierrehadot ascetics stoicism askesis mysticism religion hermeticism zealotry zealots poverrty celibacy torture starvation lifestyle divinity society politiics consumerism consumption apathy escapism idology plato citizenship girolamosavonarola renaissance secularism socrates materialism digitaldetox veganism environment michelfoucault foucault monasticism decluttering flourishing sustainability well-being compassion earth planet thoreau proseperity austerity valuse fairness equality wellbeing slowfood https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:e1de85008430/ James C. Scott’s “In Praise of Floods,” Reviewed | The New Yorker 2025-04-20T22:00:23+00:00 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/04/14/in-praise-of-floods-james-c-scott-book-review robertogreco jamescscott resistance 2025 nikilsaval authoritarianism disobedience seeinglikeastate ungovernable ungovernability illegibility legibility 1998 socialism ussr sovietunion politics francisfukuyamna braddelong economics friedrichhayek markets standardization meliorism modernity modernism state small slow context local zoning development climatechange climatecisis globalwarming nature environment cooperation management complexity farming agiculture rural anarchism anarchy freedom liberation archaeology anthropology rivers optimism humans humanism transformation 2012 socialchange desertion civilwar fragging vietnamwar withdrawal truculence insubordination evasion civilization ecology thoreau friedrichvonhayek https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:081334ae110f/ Grief is a cave in the middle of the sky 2025-02-09T06:22:33+00:00 https://matthewbattles.substack.com/p/grief-is-a-cave-in-the-middle-of robertogreco matthewbattles thoreau 2025 grief grieving elizabethbishop walden multispecies morethanhuman brankaarsić ernstreijseger wernerherzog dieterplage lenaherzog grahamdorrington loss https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:2af4f4679472/ When the Prince of Heaven Sleeps – Roger Reeves 2024-12-14T23:12:01+00:00 https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/when-the-prince-of-heaven-sleeps/ robertogreco rogerreeves 2024 sleep time photography dmx miketyson johncoltrane muhammadali being everyday princeofheaven thoreau waldenpond animals pigeons chores homemaking solitude reflection reaction tonimorrison earlsimmons ruffryder darkmanx intimacy alovesupreme frankkofsky sonnyliston photographs photos normanmailer kennorton georgeforeman deerlake capitalism music jazz boxing domesticity human-animalrelations human-animalrelationships multispecies morethanhuman dishwashing greenhouses gardening https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:03654a76c9e8/ The seed in winter - by Matthew Battles - The Mnemonic Deep 2024-11-18T00:13:59+00:00 https://matthewbattles.substack.com/p/the-seed-in-winter robertogrecomatthewbattles slow small seeds multispecies morethanhuman plants attention 2024 landscape thoreau wanderlust ambition friends fellowship jenniferroberts seeing waysofseeing lifem lifecycle ninamaclaughlin nicholasanderson presence winter malcolmguite parableofthesower christianity alexismadrigal octaviabitler human humanism https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:a9307af30be0/ The Whip-Poor-Will Has Been an Omen of Death for Centuries - JSTOR Daily 2024-11-16T07:04:36+00:00 https://daily.jstor.org/the-whip-poor-will-has-been-an-omen-of-death-for-centuries/ robertogreco birds nature us 2024 whip-poor-wills animals horror washingtonirving thelegendofsleepyhollow multispecies morethanhuman hplovecraft stephenking thoreau susanfenimorecooper jenniferprice passengerpigeons sparrows cuckoos conservation uk omens folklore stories storytelling literature https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:d98270d01971/ The Walking Rebellion: Restoring the Mind at Three Miles an Hour 2024-10-24T01:28:26+00:00 https://schooloftheunconformed.substack.com/p/the-walking-rebellion-restoring-the robertogreco walking ruthgaskovski pecogaskovski howwething technology smartphones phones cellphones attention outdoors tedgioia aaronlong antoniamalchik staugustine saintaugustine augustine mentalhealth cognition walkingrebellion haddenturner anxiety body bodies wandering johnforster charlesdickens thoreau thinking howwethink health exercise chrisarnade cars place cities nature suburbs biophilia us uk rebeccasolnit urban urbanism beccaparsons shaneo'mara jeantwenge sherryturkle social socialwalking children parenting katherineerickson tradition history landscape pilgrimage spirituality routine stephenweller paulkingsnorth cspeirce josebriones lightphone punkt emilyharrison meaganfrancis strolling resistance rebellion relationships mind kierkegaard lmsacasas thomasbevan diamond-michaelscott ashutoshjoshi patrickwhalen rosiewhinray amhickman thescribelee elizabethyeoman freyaindia senses sensing jointattention companionship neuroscience meaganfrancisn screens augustineofhippo https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:79a307fd62ef/ Four (or more) seasons 2024-09-27T15:58:39+00:00 https://austinkleon.com/2018/12/22/four-or-more-seasons/ robertogreco2023 austin seasons time thoreau janiylinampa kurtvonnegut pauloctavious photography vonnegut change cycles https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:2fc6c35dd0f8/ Words for Conviviality 2024-09-21T20:18:46+00:00 https://currentpub.com/2024/09/19/words-for-conviviality/ robertogrecojeffreybilbro 2024 coviviality words media technology ivanillich toolsforconviviality industrialization professionalization waelghonim internet web online misinformation renewal albertborgmann spotify twitter conversation relationships truth hermanmelville margaretfuller thoreau dialog engagement https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:6ab354b6b3c1/ "The World Reveals Itself to Those Who Walk" 2024-04-15T16:28:32+00:00 https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/the-world-reveals-itself-to-those-who-walk/ robertogreco audreywatters 2024 walking place attention maps mapping cameras smartphones connectivity phones internet web online cities rousseau nietzsche multitasking technology distraction slow novelty anniemurphypaul thoreau thinking howwethink tv television us australia uk canada england cars exercise canon cv nyc urban urbanism driving cognition gps gettinglost culture society seeing wernerherzog https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:00fdd58c9fa5/ Alastair Humphreys: The Joys Of Microadventures 2024-03-08T19:54:33+00:00 https://www.noemamag.com/a-single-small-map-is-enough-for-a-lifetime/ robertogreco local small maps mapping walking adventure alastairhumphreys 2024 maryoliver rickeygates intimacy place thoreau bogs robertmcfarlane landmarks attention attentiondeficit language observation naturalhistory multispecies morethanhuman conservation community nature solitiude marshes https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:5a466782976d/ The Enchantment of Modern Life, by Jane Bennett (2001) | Princeton University Press 2024-02-10T20:42:58+00:00 https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691088136/the-enchantment-of-modern-life robertogreco janebennett modernity morethanhuman multispecies enchantment karlmarx maxweber deleuze schiller thoreau kafka theodoradorno morality everyday generosity perception 2001 ethics aesthetics politics supersition interdisciplinary capitivation kant gillesdeleuze friedrichschiller attachments crossings immanuelkant https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:3acf816317ed/ Birds Do Not Sing in Caves - YouTube 2024-02-08T18:29:33+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgXgkpu7pkg robertogreco thoreau solitude slow small intentionalliving distraction attention philosophy waldenpond society life living simplicity conformity minimalism voluntarysimplicity technology self-reliance self-knowledge civilization happiness existence fulfillment ignorance materialism capitalism self-exploration purpose finance commerce self howwelive norms culture self-examination personhood transcendentalism humanism humanity thinking howwethink oppression systems systemsthinking constructs whatmatters context reality cities urban urbanism economics traps awakeness awakening humanresources supplychains markets circuits closedloops rural heidegger https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:5691284e2387/ Thoreau’s view on Technological Progress | Kishore Balasubramanian English IOP 2024-02-08T18:25:46+00:00 https://kishorebalasubramanian.wordpress.com/thoreaus-view-on-progress/ robertogreco“As with our colleges, so with a hundred “modern improvements”; there is an illusion about them; there is not always a positive advance. . . . Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end. . . . We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.“ To him, the biggest problem with technology is that it’s just there. It was also new, affordable, and popular making people think that since earlier generations did without it, must therefore have progressed. He also felt that people have to spend too much time working to earn money to afford technology and that technology tends to distance us from the natural environment. Both these points are illustrated in the following passage in Economy (from Walden):
One says to me, “I wonder that you do not lay up money; you love to travel; you might take the cars and go to Fitchburg today and see the country.” But I am wiser than that. I have learned that the swiftest traveler is he that goes afoot. I say to my friend, Suppose we try to see who will get there first. The distance is thirty miles; the fare ninety cents. That is almost a day’s wages. I remember when wages were sixty cents a day for laborers on this very road. Well, I start now on foot, and get there before night; I have travelled at that rate by the week together. You will in the meanwhile have earned your fare, and arrive there some time tomorrow, or possibly this evening, if you are lucky enough to get a job in season. Instead of going to Fitchburg, you will be working here the greater part of the day.
Travelling by train might seem to be the most ‘efficient’ way to travel, but Thoreau challenges us to rethink how this new technology affects our experience and what are its full costs. And although Thoreau’s example here considers transportation only, the points he makes are generally applicable to all our decisions relating to technology. The book Walden by Thoreau is, among other things, a book about progress. According to Thoreau technological advances such as the railroad and the telegraph have sped up life at an inhuman rate. Increasing the amount of time we have to spent of technology and decreasing the amount of time we have to think. Instead of the people running the machines, the machines are running the people. No matter how hard we work, we can never keep pace, let alone pause to think about what we’re doing. Thoreau wants us all to slow down and reconnect with real time, Nature’s time. By slowing down, we give ourselves some space to think about our values and the direction this fast-paced life is taking us. Live simply.
“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail”
Thoreau placed the above words in action during his “experiment” at Walden Pond from 1845 to 1847. His 2 year stay with nature was Thoreau’s proof that material progress was not necessary for a rich life." [via: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgXgkpu7pkg ]]]> thoreau technology progress nature ideals resistance luddism liddites prosperity slow small liberation freedom simplicity voluntarysimplicity life living philosophy machines luddites https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:8ba9325ceb7e/ Rally A Posse: A Conversation With Austin Kleon 2024-02-02T15:44:21+00:00 https://janeratcliffe.substack.com/p/rally-a-posse-a-conversation-with robertogreco austinkleon 2024 fandom howweread howwewrite reading writing praise gratitude wonder creativity parenting community newsletters robertgottlieb robertcaro play playfulness kurtvonnegut bikes biking ernestbecker self-care sleep garysnyder mariehowe thoreau janeratcliffe vonnegut https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:739689df4325/ The Concept of Experience | Issue 2 | n+1 2024-01-10T09:11:53+00:00 https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-2/essays/the-concept-of-experience/ robertogrecomarkgreif 2005 experience via:daniellucas life living time aestheticism perfectionism thoreau flaubert happiness consumerism quakers puritans utility regret method process presence quaker gustaveflaubert https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:4d666931c808/ Scott Nearing - Wikipedia 2024-01-04T00:26:31+00:00 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Nearing robertogreco... economists part company with the ominous pictures of an overpopulated, starving world, prostrate before the throne of "competition," "individual initiative," "private property," or some other pseudo-god, and tell men in simple, straightforward language how they may combine, re-shape, or overcome the laws and utilize them as a blessing instead of enduring them as a burden and a curse.[13] Much as Karl Marx drew radical implications from the ideas of the conservative Hegel, Nearing took the economic logic of his department head, Simon Patten, and made radical inferences about wealth and the distribution of income that his mentor had hesitated to draw.[14] He believed that unfettered wealth stifled initiative and impeded economic advancement, and hoped that progressive thinkers among the ownership class would come to realize the negative impact of economic parasitism and accept their civic duty of enlightened leadership.[15] Nearing outlined an economic republicanism based on "four basic democratic concepts—equality of opportunity, civic obligation, popular government, and human rights."[16] While living in Arden in 1910, Nearing learned about The Landlord's Game, the forerunner of Monopoly, and taught it to his students. This use of the game as an instructional device led to its spread among colleges.[17] But Nearing's aggressive social activism in the classroom and through the printed word brought him into conflict with his employers at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, resulting in his dismissal and his emergence as a cause célèbre of the American radical movement during the next decade. On the morning of June 16, 1915, Nearing's secretary telephoned him to report that a letter from the provost had arrived, saying that "as the term of your appointment as assistant professor of economics for 1914–1915 is about to expire, I am directed by the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania to inform you that it will not be renewed."[18] Penn's board of trustees was heavily stacked with bankers, corporation lawyers, financiers, and corporation executives, and Nearing's writing had not gone unnoticed.[19] His tenuous situation had been exacerbated by an open letter to The North American in which he challenged the right wing evangelist Billy Sunday to apply the Gospel to the conditions of industrial capitalism, including "the railroad interests ... the traction company ... the manufacturers ... the vested interests."[20] Reaction to Nearing's dismissal from the academy was swift, with department head Patten and others issuing statements condemning the decision. Progressives in the Wharton School quickly compiled a summary of the facts of the case and sent it to 1500 newspapers, journals, and academics around the country.[21] Even conservatives in the faculty were deeply troubled since, as one Wharton professor observed, "the moment Nearing went, any conservative statement became but the spoken word of a 'kept' professor."[21] Conversely, some radicals felt vindicated in their belief in the conservative nature of the American academy. Socialist writer Upton Sinclair told Nearing in an open letter that "You do not belong in a university. You belong with us Socialists and free lances . ... Instead of addressing small numbers of college boys, you will be able to address large audiences of men."[22] Nearing's dismissal was retrospectively called by one historian "the most famous breach of academic freedom" of the era.[23]"]]> scottnearing history simpleliving economics academia academicfreedom politics socialism communism marxism activism highered highereducation upenn wharton pacifists vegetarians farming homesteading simplicity voluntarysimplicity radicalism radicalization asceticism rural dissidents dissidence thoreau us gandhi jesus christ karlmarx animals philosophy economists competition growth degrowth backtotheland backtothelandmovement coldwar left leftism ussr sovietunion palmerraids property markets marketfundamentalists belief ideology simonnelsonpatten ralphwaldoemerson tolstoy self-reliance society labor capitalism jesuschrist https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:4b7b26fe6482/ Notes on Anarchism | freedom this time 2023-08-15T03:06:59+00:00 https://freedomthistime.wordpress.com/notes-on-anarchism/ robertogreco anarchism anarchy readinglists davidgraeber pierre-josephproudhon noamchomsky ursulaleguin communism fiction utopia liberalism libertarianism socialism statesocialism capitalism statecapitalism individualism property privateproperty ownership oscarwilde mutualaid peterkropotkin tolstoy civildisobedience thoreau wladen wilhemvonhumboldt anarcho-primitivism rousseau mikhailbakunin mutualism markets governance hierarchy horizontality proudhon ursulakleguin https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:073b3a92202a/ Personal Machines and Portable Worlds - Christopher Butler 2023-07-09T19:58:31+00:00 https://www.chrbutler.com/personal-machines-and-portable-worlds robertogreco“My book is so much about how technology dictates culture. The devices that we use aren’t just accessories to culture or windows that we consume things through; they are collaborators, gateways, and molds…the idea of a personal computer had to be invented, manufactured, and marketed. We had to imagine computers as personal machines.” This is an important point. We could live in a world where computing is a public works — where terminals to central processing work like telephones used to. You can pick them up or put them down, but nothing inside of them is yours. But we don’t live in that world. As soon as the first computer booted up in the first home, the computer became a personal object. And when an object becomes personal, it is difficult to leave it behind. We want it with us. Perhaps that one thing — a simple desire for a personal machine — set us on the course we have followed since. Not Moore’s Law, not Capitalism, but personhood. Later, in the same post, Chayka writes of the Palm Pilot — an early attempt at portable computing — that, despite it not providing much in the way of “fun” features for a kid, there was still an “ineffable appeal to holding a gateway to a digital world in your hand.” A world. There’s that word again. Why a world? There is a sense of dimensional transcendence to computers. As C.S. Lewis wrote of the wardrobe, “It’s inside is bigger than its outside.” In the early days of mobile computing, it was hard to not compare the capaciousness of a computer you could carry with you to something like a book. Of both you could say their insides were bigger than their outsides, but when it came to information, you’d have to settle for figurative capaciousness in a book; their actual contents are literally cover to cover. A digital machine’s contents are an entirely different thing. In the time of the Palm Pilot, a tiny door to a vast digital world was more powerful as an idea than a tool. The digital world just wasn’t as big back then as it is now. But to Chayka’s first point, we built the digital world using these little devices that didn’t do very much. We made it worth the journey. And meanwhile, the object was our companion, and inside was a tiny, personal digital world — our notes, our messages, our few digital texts. It was not much, but it was ours." ... "Many of the examples I’ve looked at so far align with my ideas of what makes a machine personal because they were designed with limitations imposed upon them, and many of the examples I’ve discussed that no longer feel personal have been designed to surpass those limitations. If machines were designed to be more personal, we’d have very different machines. Sometimes it feels like it is simply a matter of whether a machine is connected to the internet or not. But of course it’s more than that. It’s as much about what we do with our machines as it is about what they were designed to do. I think we can still experience the personal machine by choosing to experience a machine that way. In a way, the continued popularity of vinyl is a good example of this. For the same price as a single record, you can get several months of access to more music than you could ever hear in that time. Still, some people choose records over digital files. It’s too easy to dismiss this as an affectation. It’s a choice to experience music in a particular way. It’s also a choice of a personal machine — a record player rather than a phone. One benefit of personal technology reaching the maturity it has is the abundance of choices. It may seem like you must use an iPhone — perhaps everyone you know and care about is group messaging with iMessage — but you can choose something else. Every choice has benefits and costs. Ten years ago, I chose to leave Facebook. The benefits were many; the costs were not having easy access to where people I cared about shared information I wanted to know. A few years ago, I stopped using an e-reader — I had used a Kindle, and then a Kobo, both great machines. The cost was no longer being able to send articles from the web to my machine and reading them, as well as books, in bed. The benefit was not having too many choices in front of me when I just want to read one thing. I went back to the printed book. You could say that’s as much of an affectation in 2023 as playing a vinyl record. Maybe. But it’s a choice. I haven’t owned a laptop for many years. My primary machine is a Mac Mini set up in my home office. The cost is I can’t work from my couch or the local coffee shop. The benefit is I have some separation in my life between work and not work. For me, these choices turn using the same machines everyone uses into a more personal experience." ... "I also notice that when I look at these older machines and the old media they use, I often find myself feeling like I’m looking at a door to a world. I look at a book — there’s a world. Every playable disc in our house — each a world. Once you become accustomed to worldspotting, you can see them in anything. Every object is a world. In the World; of the Worlds Perhaps the days of personal machines are over. Maybe the complexities that Mau and his cohort wrote about are not safely reducible. Maybe we can’t decomplexify the world of things. Maybe. And if we can, I wouldn’t dare imagine it could happen quickly. But if we can, where do we start? What do we look at? What do we use again, despite there being sleeker, faster, frictionless options available? What limits do we embrace so that we can re-balance the human with the machine? I have spent the last few years slowly disconnecting in various ways. I’ve chosen to use things that only do a part of what readily available alternatives do and more. I’ve chosen to stop using some things altogether. I have found that these choices have enhanced my experiences because they’ve supported true insight; they’ve helped me be more aware of what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, and who I am becoming. I have found that they change the world because they change my world. Jung said that in each of us is another. I think that in each of us is another world. A good personal machine reveals that world and helps us shape it."]]> christopherbutler whatisacomputer porability computers computing objects 2023 personal personalmachines machines gadgets communication expression imagination toys technology laptops smartphones phones purpose utility entertainment infinitude devices audiencesofone portals identity exploration legendofzelda zelda worldbuilding brucemau massivechange complexity institutewithoutboundaries potential thoreau simplicity human humans balance invention creation distraction attention waste want voyeurism kylechayka personhood palmpilot capitalism mooreslaw worlds companions maremecum vademecum designfiction sciencefiction scifi projectara robinsloan marydoriarussell quantumleap limitations constraints choice kindle kobo iphone tradeoffs limits facebook disconnecting carljung jung https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:8225eb3c6c52/ How to wander | Psyche Guides 2023-04-28T16:52:10+00:00 https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-wander-in-a-world-that-values-purpose robertogrecowandering walking 2023 unschooling deschooling slow nature situationist drifting flaneur derive senses multisensory sensing compliance freedom memory place curiosity flâneurs flaneurs flâneur dérive wellbeing happiness attention thinking thoreau rousseau rebeccasolnit thichnhathanh wendellberry travel exploration exploring sensory walterbenjamin baudelaire surrealism dada ellenmueller art pragmatism well-being drift https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:032c5f8214bc/ Thoreau in Good Faith | Public Books 2021-07-25T19:24:20+00:00 https://www.publicbooks.org/thoreau-in-good-faith/ robertogreco calebsmith thoreau 2021 via:javierarbona walden aldabalthrop-lewis nature morethanhuman urban urbanism life living ethics capitalism christianity belief communion relationships privilege attention asceticism simplicity slow small consumption joy pleasure delight quietism complacency oppression society advantage legacy religion canon rebeccasolnit sharoncameron janebennett brankaarsić lauradassowwalls hannaharendt multispecies cities commodification senses sensing ecoterrorism tedkaczynski radicalism vigilance vigilantes us politics activism morality moralism style beauty retreat antiimperialism antiracism abolitionism social sociality care caring compromise anti-imperialism antiiimperialism unabomber theodorekaczynski https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:da5887b728e0/ Opinion | What I Miss During the Coronavirus Pandemic? Swimming. - The New York Times 2021-01-17T02:06:10+00:00 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/opinion/sunday/swimming-covid.html robertogreco bonnietsui 2020 pandemic coronavirus covid-19 swimming water meditation bodies attention focus senses immersion mobydick liminality liminal immediacy presence present rogerdeakin lynnecox cognition cognitivescience thoreau amostversy danielkahneman charlesdarwin alberteinstein psychology clarissadalloway ferrisjabr walking creativity wallacenichols daydreaming lordbyron hyperconnectivity hope nature outdoors florencewilliams darwin wallacestegner moby-dick https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:27aecac2d5c0/ Books with unusual but brilliant structures - Austin Kleon 2020-08-21T16:39:16+00:00 https://austinkleon.com/2020/08/20/books-with-unusual-but-brilliant-structures/ robertogreco austinkleon 2020 structure writing howwewrite howweread reading thinking linear alinear nonlinear johnmcphee form storytelling sarahmanguso cyoa interactivefiction if maggienelson richardmcguire christopheralexander apatternlanguage alanfletcher tristamshandy carmenmariamachado sarahbroom isabelwilkerson lewishyde anniedillard samanderson seishonagon zuihitsu hojoki janealison narrative chrisware markdanielweski pamerlacolloff thoreau ralphwaldoemerson linearity https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:2b38915b55f0/ Building an Inclusive Campus 2019-05-14T20:15:44+00:00 https://www.slideshare.net/jessestommel/building-an-inclusive-campus robertogreco teaching howweteach jessestommel 2019 scaffolding syllabus syllabi pedagogy inclusivity inclusion humanism cathydavidson henrygiroux measurement assessment differentiation coddling compassion respect equity outcomes standardization learning howwelearn ranking metrics norming uniformity accreditation rigor mastery rubrics performance objectivity education highered highereducation grades grading bias alfiekohn hierarchy power pedagogyoftheoppressed martinbickman thoreau https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:cd08366d5edf/ What It Takes to Put Your Phone Away | The New Yorker 2019-04-28T06:07:22+00:00 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/29/what-it-takes-to-put-your-phone-away robertogreco jiatolentino 2019 internet attention jennyodell capitalism work busyness resistance socialmedia instagram twitter facebook infooverload performance web online nature nextdoor advertising thoreau philosophy care caring maintenance silence happiness anxiety leisurearts artleisure commodification technology selfhood identity sms texting viber podcasts grouptexts digitalminimalism refusal calnewport mobile phones smartphones screentime ralphwaldoemerson separatism interdependence https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:8bcfe870ab49/ The Library is Open: Keynote for the 2018 Pennsylvania Library Association Conference – actualham 2018-10-21T01:04:53+00:00 http://robinderosa.net/uncategorized/the-library-is-open-palakeynote/ robertogreco open libraries access openaccess 2018 oer publishing knowledge textbooks college universities robinderosa place past present future web internet online learning howwelearn education highered highereducation joemurphy nextgen safiyaumojanoble deomcracyb inequality donnalanclos davidlewis racism algorithms ralphwaldoemerson thoreau control power equality accessibility safiyanoble https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:2ccfaa6abd90/ Why Americans see Buddhism as a philosophy rather than a religion — Quartz 2018-08-27T23:56:43+00:00 https://qz.com/1190957/why-americans-see-buddhism-as-a-philosophy-rather-than-a-religion/ robertogreco buddhism us counterculture philosophy doctrine 2018 sokauniversityofamerica mindfulness secularism religion beatgeneration jackkerouac zen zenbuddhism daisetsuteitarosuzuki thichnhathanh shakusōen anagārikadharmapāla paulvcarus ernestfenellosa williamsturgisbigelow ralphwaldoemerson soka sua thíchnhấthạnh thoreau thichnhathahn https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:5203f1f3288c/ Rebecca Solnit on a Childhood of Reading and Wandering | Literary Hub 2018-04-19T01:41:35+00:00 https://lithub.com/rebecca-solnit-on-a-childhood-of-reading-and-wandering/ robertogreco rebeccasolnit 2017 children unschooling deschooling parenting education libraries wandering howwelearn freedom autonomy forests childhood novato california learning canon publicgood us egalitarianism democracy socialism thoreau walking cv unknowing uncertainty woods writing howwewrite books literature stories storytelling listening reading sanctuary vanishing nature plants wildlife multispecies morethanhuman society publicgoods https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:3fd7db51d4a7/ On the Wildness of Children — Carol Black 2016-05-08T03:22:11+00:00 http://carolblack.org/on-the-wildness-of-children/ robertogrecoIf children learn to normalize dominance and non-consent within the context of education, then non-consent becomes a normalized part of the ‘tool kit’ of those who have and wield power… This is unthinkable within Nishnaabeg intelligence. Interestingly, the most brilliant artists and scientists in Euro-western societies tell us exactly the same thing: that it is precisely this state of open attention, curiosity, freedom, collaboration, consent, that is necessary for all true learning, discovery, creation." … "We no longer frame people as either “civilized”or “savage,” but as “educated” or “uneducated,” “developed” or “developing” (our modern terms for the same thing). But we retain the paternalistic attitudes of our forebears, toward our children and toward the “childlike” adults we find all over the world — a paternalism in which the veneer of benevolence is underpinned by the constant threat of violent force. Control is always so seductive, at least to the "developed" ("civilized") mind. It seems so satisfying, so efficient, so effective, so potent. In the short run, in some ways, it is. But it creates a thousand kinds of blowback, from depressed rebellious children to storms surging over our coastlines to guns and bombs exploding in cities around the world."]]> education unschooling children childhood carolblack attention culture society learning wildness wild wilderness thoreau ellwoodcubberley williamtorreyharris schooling schools johntaylorgatto outdoors natureanxiety depression psychology wellness adhd mindfulness suzannegaskins openattention miniaodlafreeman paulejeune wilfredpeltier leannebetasamosakesimpson consent animals zoos nature johannhari brucealexander mammals indigenous johnholt petergray work play howwelearn tobyrollo chastisement civilization control kosmos colonization colonialism land-basededucation land-basedlearning place-basedlearning place-basededucation https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:69f840250e75/ - Wonderful passage on NYC #centralpark designer,... 2015-12-30T03:08:07+00:00 http://blog.triciawang.com/post/136185369956/wonderful-passage-on-nyc-centralpark-designer robertogreco triciawand rebeccasolnit thoreau fredericklawolmstead johnmuir landscape naure society purity socialengineering space openspace publicspace cities urban urbanism centralpark nyc manhattan culture experience earthmoving refuge solitude https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:5862532f5123/ A MOOC is not a Thing: Emergence, Disruption, and Higher Education - Hybrid Pedagogy 2015-03-20T06:03:37+00:00 http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/journal/a-mooc-is-not-a-thing-emergence-disruption-and-higher-education/ robertogrecoTrue stability results when presumed order and presumed disorder are balanced. A truly stable system expects the unexpected, is prepared to be disrupted, waits to be transformed. ~ Tom Robbins Pete Rorabaugh writes, “The analysis, remixing, and socially engaged construction of personally relevant knowledge — often happens when the institutional framework is disrupted, diverted, or left in the dust.” Many hackles are rightly raised by the ubiquity of this word “disruption”, and its implications for the business of higher education; but the best MOOCs do not deal in the bourgeois concept of disruption, they deal in a very real rupture that is confusing to us all. Something convulsive. A monstrous birth. The MOOC is a dialectic. It invites us in with a curled finger, as sinister as it is salient. Learning isn’t (and has never really been) in the hands of academics, administrators, institutions, corporations, Forbes magazine, the Chronicle of Higher Education. It’s in the hands of Rosemary Sewart, and people like her. The ones who come fully alive to learning without being told when and where it’s going to happen, without being placed obediently on a board like a pawn. The ones who throw wide the classroom doors, who hack schooling, or learn by reflecting on the flurry of input in their everyday lives; as Rosemary says, “learning … where life happens.”
We are all schoolmasters, and our schoolhouse is the universe. To attend chiefly to the desk or schoolhouse while we neglect the scenery in which it is placed is absurd. If we do not look out we shall find our fine schoolhouse standing in a cow-yard at last. ~ Henry David Thoreau
While we’ve all focused our consternation on how MOOCs may take down the walls of the university, or how they may represent the MOOCDonalds of higher ed., we are missing the most important, and most frightening, potential of MOOCs. They force us to reconsider the very fabric of how we think about learning — its occurrence, emergence, habitat, and administration. From August 12th to August 18th, 2012, Hybrid Pedagogy ran MOOC MOOC, a now infamous mini-MOOC, meta-MOOC, MOOC about MOOCs that garnered not only a good bit of attention for its efforts, but also built a lasting community that remains curious about emerging ideas of MOOCification, the place of mini- and micro-MOOCs, and the implementation of open learning environments in traditional higher ed. classrooms. As well, MOOC MOOC set a precedent for MOOCish conversations about MOOCs, and spurred us to think deeply about where online education is headed. It would be easy to contend, at this early stage in their evolution, that every MOOC has been a MOOC about MOOCs — that every MOOC is a meta-MOOC, a MOOC MOOC. The early connectivist MOOCs pioneered by folks like George Siemens and Stephen Downes were, whether explicitly or implicitly, exploring the form, the pedagogy, and the process of MOOCs. At the same time, we were unaware of anyone who had done a MOOC unflinchingly trained on the MOOC phenomenon. A MOOC that explored unhesitatingly — even a bit recklessly — the potential, pitfalls, drawbacks, and advantages of this approach to teaching and learning. MOOC MOOC aimed to expose all of us to the grand experiment of MOOCs by having us participate directly in that grand experiment, albeit in a concentrated, one-week format. (And there was mighty participation. Andrew Staroscik created this interactive graph of tweet volume on the #moocmooc hashtag.) Rather than a knee-jerk critical reaction to the march of the MOOCs, we encouraged participants to inhabit the MOOC, exploring its pedagogical potential as an exercise in discernment but not judgment. For one week beginning January 6, 2013, MOOC MOOC will return for a continued examination of the MOOC phenomenon, now grown well beyond a rising surge into a more perfect storm. This new iteration, which we’re fondly (and absurdly) calling MOOC MOOC [squared], will inspect not only the broadened landscape of MOOCs (including Coursera’s swelling presence and for-credit bid, Udacity’s flash mob-style on-ground gatherings, and the rise of LMS-based MOOCs like Instructure’s Canvas.net), but also will turn the lens on itself, repurposing and remixing the original course and the conversations and artifacts that arose from within the course. MOOC MOOC will be housed once more within the Canvas LMS, fueled by the ongoing discussions of the MOOC MOOC community. There is no good or evil inherent in a MOOC, only in what it will or will not unleash. We must stop thinking of education as requiring stringent modes and constructs, and embrace it as invention, metamorphosis, deformation, and reinvention. This is the territory of the inventor always, the territory of the pugnacious and irreverent. Learning in MOOCs should be cohesive, not divided, and it must happen multi-nodally. The parsing of learning that formal education has always relied on will give way to something, if not holistic, then simultaneous, distributed, alive in more than one place at a time. If the best MOOCs show us that learning is networked, and that it has always been, then learning is more rampant than we’ve accounted for."]]> mooc moocs seanmichaelmorris jessestommel 2012 education highered pedagogy highereducation dialectics learning howwelearn teaching howweteach udacity coursera canvas.net chrisfriend edx moocification networkedlearning networks rogerwhitson tomrobbins thoreau rosemarystewart hybridpedagogy georgesiemens stephendownes connectivism https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:222d0adcb851/ The Science Of Simplicity: Why Successful People Wear The Same Thing Every Day 2015-03-16T19:07:40+00:00 http://elitedaily.com/money/science-simplicity-successful-people-wear-thing-every-day/849141/ robertogrecoOur life is frittered away by detail. …Simply, simplify. In essence, don’t sweat the small stuff. Make your life easier by concentrating on the big picture. Correspondingly, a number of very successful people have adopted this philosophy in their daily routines. Decision Fatigue: Why Many Presidents And CEOs Wear The Same Thing Every Day Whether you love or hate him, it’s hard to argue against the notion that President Obama has the most difficult job in the world. As the leader of the most powerful country on the planet, the president has a lot on his plate. Regardless of what he does, he will be criticized. Simply put, he’s got a lot of important things to think about beyond his wardrobe. This is precisely why President Obama wears the same suit every single day. Well, almost every day, we can’t forget about the time the Internet exploded when he wore a khaki suit. Although, that probably says less about him and more about us. The majority of the time, however, Obama wears either a blue or gray suit. In an article from Michael Lewis for Vanity Fair, the president explained the logic behind this routine:
‘You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits’ [Obama] said. ‘I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.’ He mentioned research that shows the simple act of making decisions degrades one’s ability to make further decisions.
As Stuart Heritage puts it for the Guardian, “Barack Obama has pared his wardrobe down to such a degree that he can confidently walk into any situation and make decisions that directly impact on the future of mankind.” The president is not alone in this practice. The late, great, Steve Jobs wore his signature black turtleneck with jeans and sneakers every single day. Moreover, Mark Zuckerberg typically wears a gray t-shirt with a black hoody and jeans when seen in public. Similarly, Albert Einstein reportedly bought several variations of the same gray suit so that he wouldn’t have to waste time deciding what to wear each morning. This is all related to the concept of decision fatigue. This is a real psychological condition in which a person’s productivity suffers as a result of becoming mentally exhausted from making so many irrelevant decisions. Simply put, by stressing over things like what to eat or wear every day, people become less efficient at work. This is precisely why individuals like President Obama, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Albert Einstein decided to make life easier by adopting a monotonous wardrobe. Obviously, as these are some of the most successful and productive individuals in history, they are on to something. Make Life Simple Indeed, having a diverse collection of clothing is overrated. We waste so much time worrying about things that have no substantial consequences, and don’t even realize how easily we could change this. This is exactly why President José Mujica of Uruguay rejects conformity and refuses to wear a tie, stating:
The tie is a useless rag that constrains your neck. I’m an enemy of consumerism. Because of this hyperconsumerism, we’re forgetting about fundamental things and wasting human strength on frivolities that have little to do with human happiness.
He’s absolutely right. The vast majority of us are guilty of obsessing over material things. When it comes down to it, they bring no real value to our lives. True fulfillment is acquired by going out into the world and fostering palpable and benevolent changes. Buying a new pair of shoes might make you feel more confident in the short-term, but it will not enrich your life in the long-term. Undoubtedly, the world would be an extremely boring place if we all wore the same exact thing every day. Yet, we might all consider simplifying our lives a bit more by reducing the amount of time we spend thinking about pointless aspects of our day. In the process, one might find that they are significantly less stressed, more productive and more fulfilled. Life is complicated enough, don’t allow the little things to dictate your happiness. Simplify, simplify."]]> uniforms clothing fashion minimalism choices 2014 barackobama stevejobs markzuckerberg johnhaltiwanger uniformproject josémujica alberteinstein glvo thoreau pesonaluniforms pepemujica uniform https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:b451b11194a6/ Gandhi’s Printing Press — Isabel Hofmeyr | Harvard University Press 2015-02-18T21:22:12+00:00 http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674072794 robertogreco gandhi printing press media history books toread 2013 isabelhofmeyr nonviolence resistance ethics satyagraha truth truth-force reading writing slow newspapers contemplation reflection projectideas lcproject openstudioproject thoreau self-discipline information slowjournalism journalism publishing zines howweread howwrite https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:a9e149202e16/ Why Walking Helps Us Think - The New Yorker 2014-09-05T19:09:26+00:00 http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/walking-helps-us-think robertogreco solviturambulando exercise creativity life ulysses jamesjoyce maps mapping vladimirnabokov psychology physiology thinking marilyoppezzo danielschwartz marcberman memory attention urban urbanism stephendedalus leopoldbloom virginiawoolf adamgopnik mrsgalloway thoreau thomasdequincey williamwordsworth walking https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:459e028adf0e/ BBC News - The slow death of purposeless walking 2014-05-07T23:41:54+00:00 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27186709 robertogreco walking thinking 2014 flaneur wandering charlesdickens georgeorwell patrickleigh constantinbrancusi thoreau thomasdequincey nassimtaleb nietzsche brucechatwin wgebald johnfrancis fredericgros geoffnicholson merlincoverley observation attention mindfulness rebeccasolnit finlorohrer vladimirnabokov flâneurs flaneurs flâneur https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:480b38f3f9e5/ Something About How Steve Roggenbuck's Poetry Will Save the Internet 2013-11-14T21:12:56+00:00 http://gawker.com/something-about-how-steve-roggenbucks-poetry-will-save-1456424675 robertogreco via:timmaly steveroggenbuck poetry internet twitter socalmedia mfa youtube writing reading spelling teaching learning graduateschool highered highereducation literature jonathanfranzen daveeggers kennethgoldsmith piotrczerki youth life living thoreau waltwhitman yolo commenting video literacy schooliness creativity education mfas https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:bafb8be2b371/ Thoreau 2.0 - XOXO Conference Talk 2013-09-28T18:58:05+00:00 https://static.pinboard.in/xoxo_talk_thoreau.htm robertogrecoI learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Thoreau wrote this never having tasted any of traditional forms of success. He was thinking of a different, more fundamental kind of success, one that I wish for myself, and earnestly wish for all of you."]]> maciejceglowski 2013 xoxo pinboard philosophy life resistance failure success money protest nsa prism law legal thoreau ethics maciejcegłowski https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:a019b950d745/ Spring 2011 | The Walk Exchange 2013-06-28T04:08:05+00:00 http://walkstudytrainingcourse.wordpress.com/spring2011/ robertogreco walking nyc walkexchange 2011 thoreau francisalÿs rebeccasolnit richardlong hamishfulton micheldecertau guydebord alexvillar vitoacconci lucylippard barnetschecter brucechatwin lygiaclark jameswalsh fredricklawolmstead robertsmithson janetcardiff readinglists toread urban urbanism rural theory derive simonsheikh songlines dérive https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:51fd38e8dbe6/ Orion - May/June 2013 - Page 18-19 2013-06-27T20:06:23+00:00 http://www.orionmagazine-digital.com/orionmagazine/may_june_2013?pg=20#pg20 robertogreco rebeccasolnit sisters siblings thoreau activism importance 2013 purpose labor work writing laundry martinlutherkingjr walden abolitionists history picasso michaelbranch michaelsims chores purity liberation freedom prison mlk pablopicasso https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:88fa1aac7d92/ Bill Watterson's Speech - Kenyon College, 1990 2013-04-22T22:22:52+00:00 http://www.serverunderground.com/archive/bill_watterson.html robertogreco billwatterson art life meaning meaningmaking living 1990 commencemtspeeches thoreau via:tealtan creativity leisurearts playfulness play johnstuartmill cartoons comics comicstrips inquiry thinking thought lifeofthemind problemsolving values sellingout expectations motivation intrinsicmotivation soulownership worth subversion eccentricity success achievement salaries money artleisure sellouts https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:6008e9169528/ Lapham’s Quarterly : Animals 2013-03-24T22:36:04+00:00 http://laphamsquarterly.org/magazine/index.php robertogreco animals lapham'squarterly 2013 audubon species family brids nature behavior lewislapham thoreau camus eowilson hermanmelville albertcamus https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:dcdf442f8833/ The Most Dangerous Gamer - Magazine - The Atlantic 2012-04-13T08:53:59+00:00 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/the-most-dangerous-gamer/8928/?single_page=true robertogreco literature narrative taylorclark miegakure marctenbosch interactivefiction asceticism storytelling payingattention attention observation noticing intuition myst littlebigplanet money belesshelpful fiction jenovachen flow tombissell gamedev chrishecker einstein'sdreams alanlightman invisiblecities italocalvino jonblow deannavanburen art 2012 thewitness thoreau srg edg videogames gaming games braid jonathanblow if cyoa https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:1b782cab7624/ Walden : Henry David Thoreau : Internet Archive 2012-02-10T15:34:14+00:00 http://www.archive.org/details/walden_librivox robertogreco librivox audio audiobooks philosophy classideas 1854 walden thoreau https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:54314e34d87f/ The Thoreau Problem | Rebecca Solnit | Orion Magazine 2012-02-06T04:06:00+00:00 http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/277/ robertogreco walden selflessness via:steelemaley justice revolution change 2007 protest imprisonment civildisobedience walking berries deprivation freedom rebeccasolnit thoreau https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:415ba1024072/ Happiness Takes (A Little) Magic | The Wirecutter 2012-02-05T23:08:47+00:00 http://thewirecutter.com/2012/01/happiness-takes-a-little-magic/ robertogreco 2012 unabomber tedkaczynski slow clayjohnson informationdiet infromation xenijardin mattrichtel walden thoreau behavior psychology technology happiness theodorekaczynski https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:aae088fb8b0d/ What Einstein, Twain, and Forty Eight Other Creative People Had to Say About Schooling | Psychology Today 2011-07-30T05:04:16+00:00 https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201107/what-einstein-twain-forty-eight-others-said-about-school robertogreco education psychology petergray unschooling deschooling compulsory schooling schooliness quotes alberteinstein plato marktwain oscarwilde chuangtzu winstonchurchill woodyallen dollyparton georgebernardshaw finleypeterdunne thomasedison thoreau bertrandrussell hlmencken georgesaville stalin normandouglas paulkarlfeyerabend teddyroosevelt robertfrost alicejames beatrixpotter margaretmead williamhazlitt laurencepeter annesullivan florenceking emmagoldman edwardforster williamjohnbennett johnupdike robertbuzzell robertmhutchins elberthubbard peterdrucker micheldemontaigne marshallmcluhan ivanillich maxleonforman montaigne josephstalin theodoreroosevelt philipkdick https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:90927693db23/