Very interesting recommendation. Is it a slog to get through? Or readable?
1,136 karma · joined October 29, 2020
Your whole being leads to a design process. Your whole being, the circumstances you grew up in determined what you value. This determines whether you like cozy spaces, or stark sterile spaces, dark or light wood, pops of colours or neutrality. If you grew up with hoarders, perhaps you were always drawn to zen minimalism. And if you nourished that seed, later in life, you wouldn't just be able to leave that need at the door when you started designing something. You'd bring your whole value system to it. You'd look for elimiation. Same with if you like symmetry, or if you like "authenticity" which is maybe just a posh word for transparency of purpose. My favourite example of this is the Windows Phone. They assumed people are digital natives, and don't mind flat rectangles which tell you just the information you need (live tiles) and no more. It started the downfall of skeumorphism and put paid to Apple's old iOS design too, but in effect, it was driven by a value system of an interface being digital-first and not needing to conform to physical reality since people are well-versed with the digital world.
Perhaps designers love to talk too much about this stuff, all of it in hushed worshippy tones which can be off-putting. But there are kernels of truth in it, I think.
Whether that makes me a deadened robot, or even marginally more effective than the next guy, is of course not entirely clear. It's just a compulsion. But the point is that people who are fastidiously tidy with their workdesks aren't mythical unicorns, but everyday people.
Similarly, in the winters, I'd imagine North of the Tropic of Capricorn would play the role of the Tropic of Cancer.
Having done my own share of hikes, though, I will say that going ultralight right from the beginning has been a gift that has kept on giving. Seeing people carry heavy tents and stainless steel cooking gear and ridiculously heavy sleeping bags makes me quake in my shoes. I just couldn't do it.
And then lastly, I really, really, cannot say enough good things about ease of access. I have shoulder pockets for compass/sunglasses. A bottom pocket in my backpack (Palante) for snacks and trash storage. Side pockets for water that I can reach without taking the pack off, and they're deep enough to not have the bottles fall out. A fanny pack for small items like chapstick, sanitiser etc. And finally _deep_ pockets in my shorts for my phone. NOT having to take my pack off makes me happy over and over and over again.
This whole thread reads like pedantry for the sake of it.
My friend, I lived most of my life in India. Trust me. I know everything there is to know about heat. I KNOW the engineers who're in this field. I see them every year at the same damn conference, where they talk the same damn talk all the time.
Hypothetically, sure, one can do both. Improve efficiency AND reduce. But please, tell me where we've done that? CPUs? Electricity usage? CO2 emissions? Nowhere.
So, sure, in the swamps of Florida, we should be OK with using the AC. But in the dry heat of Texas? Or southern California? Why doesn't America do even the simple things right? In city planning, in cooling, in HOA's dictating lawn upkeep and on and on and on.