great article, and great illustration. i especially liked the part about the triangle:
"Putnam likes to imagine that there is a triangle, its points comprising where you sleep, where you work, and where you shop. In a canonical English village, or in a university town, the sides of that triangle are very short: a five-minute walk from one point to the next. In many American cities, you can spend an hour or two travelling each side. “You live in Pasadena, work in North Hollywood, shop in the Valley,” Putnam said. “Where is your community?” The smaller the triangle, the happier the human, as long as there is social interaction to be had. In that kind of life, you have a small refrigerator, because you can get to the store quickly and often. By this logic, the bigger the refrigerator, the lonelier the soul."
I thought that paragraph would make for a good illustration, too...
"Eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, and eight hours to do with as we wilt." That old Union cry is pretty much dead these days, I guess... you know it's rough times when someone can rationalize using seven of those "as we wilt" hours to drive to or from work...
3 comments:
great article, and great illustration. i especially liked the part about the triangle:
"Putnam likes to imagine that there is a triangle, its points comprising where you sleep, where you work, and where you shop. In a canonical English village, or in a university town, the sides of that triangle are very short: a five-minute walk from one point to the next. In many American cities, you can spend an hour or two travelling each side. “You live in Pasadena, work in North Hollywood, shop in the Valley,” Putnam said. “Where is your community?” The smaller the triangle, the happier the human, as long as there is social interaction to be had. In that kind of life, you have a small refrigerator, because you can get to the store quickly and often. By this logic, the bigger the refrigerator, the lonelier the soul."
I thought that paragraph would make for a good illustration, too...
"Eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, and eight hours to do with as we wilt." That old Union cry is pretty much dead these days, I guess... you know it's rough times when someone can rationalize using seven of those "as we wilt" hours to drive to or from work...
congrats on the newyorker gig kevin
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