Joel’s Scattered Thoughts

I like Lifehacker’s Hive Five feature where they have people recommend their top five application for a given task. This week it’s Five Best File Syncing Tools. I could probably use a tool like this - a lot would depend on how awkward these are to use.

Scott Berkun has a post on the pleasure of turning things off.  When you read through the comments, people generally agree that turning computers/internet connections off is the way to go.  I disagree.

The crux for me is his statement that "The real world, when done right, kicks the virtual worlds ass."  The trouble is that the real world is so rarely done right.  I’d prefer to be a hero with all the money I can spend in the real world to paying bills and working a desk job.  I’d rather work at gaining fame with group of people than do the the dishes every night.  How can I make sure the real world is done right? 

It’s not as though this is a new thing.  Back in 1651, Hobbes described the natural state of man as solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.  In many ways we have been layering virtual worlds on top of the world that is since the days of the very first humans.  Computers and the Internet are just the latest instruments serving our desire to distance ourselves from reality.  Without a certain disregard for what is, humanity’s crowning achievements would not exist. 

There are few people out there that would not benefit from switching off a things in their lives.  Just consider which things you are switching off.  "Minimize your therbligs until it becomes automatic; this doubles your effective lifetime." - Heinlein