Category Archives: Asides

Interesting links.

Travel Minimalism

Asides

The best part about traveling is the forced minimalism. My life at home, as it has evolved, is quite complex and full of stuff. On the road I’m reduced to what I carry in a small backpack and hand bag — clutter becomes a physical burden. I really enjoy this simplicity as it helps me focus. One of my favorite things to watch as a friend or colleague travels more is how their bag gets smaller and smaller with each trip.

Beyond Consumer Culture

Asides, Quote

[P]sychological evidence suggests that is is close relationships, a meaningful life, economic security, and health that contribute most to well-being. While there are marked improvements in happiness when people at low levels of income earn more (as their economic security improves and their range of opportunities grows), as incomes increase this extra earning power converts less effectively into increased happiness. In part, this may stem from people’s tendency to habituate to the consumption level they are exposed to. Goods that were once perceived as luxuries can over time be seen as entitlements or event necessities.

By the 1960s, for instance, the Japanese already viewed a fan, a washingmachine, and electric rice cookers as essential goods for a satisfactory living standard. In due course, a car, an air conditioner, and a color television were added to the list of “essentials.” And in the United States, 83 percent of people saw clothes dryers as a necessity in 2006. Even products around only a short time quickly become viewed as necessities. Half of Americans now think they must have a mobile phone, and one third of them see a high-speed Internet connection as essential.

Emphasis mine. From the State of the World 2010: Transforming Cultures. They also have a nice, WordPress-powered blog. (A necessity.) You can see the context of the quote in Google Books.

Ning to BuddyPress

Asides

JJJ at BuddyPress has some Helpful Resources for Ning Users. I’ve seen smaller startups rush to fill the space left by Ning’s announcement they’re getting out of their free tier, but honestly if a company with $120,000,000 in funding can’t figure that business out, I wouldn’t hitch my horse to a company with $5-6M. It’s better to get a $10/mo hosting account you know will be around forever and install BuddyPress and have complete and total control over your network, from the domain to the source code.

New York and Durham (Houston?)

Asides

Two reminders for upcoming appearances: This Saturday I’ll be presenting a 24-hour art collaboration with Evan Roth at Seven on Seven at the New Museum. On Monday I’ll be in Durham, North Carolina to speak at Duke University. If you’re interested in the latter, leave a comment and I’ll make sure you get the details. We don’t have a ton of room but I’d like ma.tt readers to be able to attend. After that I’ll be in Houston briefly if anyone wants to do a meetup.

VaultPress

Asides

We just announced VaultPress to the world. You can get your invite here. I’m very excited about this service because it is the first step toward my dream of every WordPress, regardless of where it’s hosted, to have best-in-the-world network (cloud? ;)) services that take all the worry and hassle away. People invest so much time, money, effort, blood, sweat, and tears into their WordPress-powered sites — they deserve for that to be 100% secure.