Andrew Tatge > Recent Status Updates

"Diversity is after all the very source of true democracy. But factors of expediency like high-pressure salesmanship, organizational oversimplification and moneymaking in an end in itself have surely impaired individual's capacity to seek and understand the deeper potentialities of life"

"Low-road" buildings invite adaptation and experimentation. They are unpretentious and re appropriated often. Think garages, workshops and lofts. "High-road" buildings are prestigious and carefully tended over generations with respect for their original functions or history. Tweaks here and there, sometimes generational in time spans. Churches, libraries, historic homes.

Social and technical innovations are entwined and hard to distinguish from one another. In the past, tech was distributed and used more hierarchically. Since it's increasingly distributed and appropriated differently, local contexts are more important than ever for sustainable (social/technical) innovations.

So far, an explanation of Bauhaus motivations (surprisingly humanist given bauhaus' aesthetic being stereotyped as coldly rational), the interdisciplinary curriculum, and a showcase of students' responses to prompts. Stresses eventually doing work that betters humanity (not necessarily $ profit), hands on work with materials to explore them (and oneself) before applying them in a practical way.

Mindfulness in the art of killing. Oddly, chapter on blocking and attacking reminds me of table tennis.

Quick, witty and often poignant. More like sitting with an old friend and hearing them rant about the state of the world rather than a focused argument or story. Full of great quotes.