Toward a theory of information relativity

People will also believe that they understand something when they don’t really understand it. Have you ever left a meeting where everyone seemed to be in agreement, yet their later actions made it clear that they didn’t agree after all? It’s common to see nodding heads in a room when people don’t agree – they think they agree but in reality they don’t. This is because when an explanation is sufficiently vague, people are free to believe what they want to believe. Politicians often use this rhetorical principle to great effect. Words like “freedom, justice and fairness” mean different things to different people. Vague explanations are common in business, and they can give the illusion of agreement. But they don’t get results.

But Does Anyone Really Care?

noah calls attention to some great thoughts on technology behind communication. reads from jackie mason and thoreau:

…After all, the man whose horse trots a mile in a minute does not carry the most important messages; he is not an evangelist, nor does he come round eating locusts and wild honey. I doubt if Flying Childers ever carried a peck of corn to mill.

Let Them Eat Tweets - Why Twitter Is a Trap

“Connectivity is poverty” was how a friend of mine summarized Sterling’s bold theme. Only the poor — defined broadly as those without better options — are obsessed with their connections. Anyone with a strong soul or a fat wallet turns his ringer off for good and cultivates private gardens that keep the hectic Web far away. The man of leisure, Sterling suggested, savors solitude, or intimacy with friends, presumably surrounded by books and film and paintings and wine and vinyl — original things that stay where they are and cannot be copied and corrupted and shot around the globe with a few clicks of a keyboard.

Nice, right? The implications of Sterling’s idea are painful for Twitter types. The connections that feel like wealth to many of us — call us the impoverished, we who treasure our smartphones and tally our Facebook friends — are in fact meager, more meager even than inflated dollars. What’s worse, these connections are liabilities that we pretend are assets. We live on the Web in these hideous conditions of overcrowding only because — it suddenly seems so obvious — we can’t afford privacy. And then, lest we confront our horror, we call this cramped ghetto our happy home!

this is less about twitter and more about the deconstruction of quality human communication.

Against Realtime

The future is now, more so than ever. Silicon Valley, filled with worshipers of the new, has embraced “realtime” as the latest trend. If it didn’t happen in the last 10 minutes, it doesn’t matter.

…

This relentless neophilia is based on the notion that information only has value if it’s fresh. That the only news is breaking news. That the only thing you want to know about your friends is what they’re doing right now.

What if it’s all wrong?

Learning cursive writing is pointless so here's an article on it being slowly eliminated from schools.

Lisa Jones, who teaches third grade at Edgelea Elementary, said she’s noticed that consequence of the de-emphasis, not just by schools but by society: “The most difficult part for me is that now they can’t read it, because they don’t see it anywhere.”

(via hasketsbasket)

Perspectives

jstn:

“While interviews traditionally present what people say, in Perspectives the interviewees don’t actually say anything. With the spoken portion of the footage edited out, Perspectives leaves only body language, pauses for thought, and interjections to do the communicating.”

Nice use of Vimeo, too. (via brendan)