Sometimes I wish I was a pioneer
When is technology is nuisance?
As you do your daily tasks today, ask yourself this question: "How much of what I am doing right now is because technology is making me do it this way?" and then ask yourself, "How much time and energy would I save by not having this task and living more like a pioneer?"
I realize that technology has revolutionized our lives, in fact I wouldn't be posting here.... but would my life really be more difficult without it? Or just simpler and lovelier?
I am sounding like Thoreau.
This morning, I edged the driveway and curbing and flowerbeds around my front yard.
I live in an older neighborhood and have quite a large yard for today's standards.
So what?
I did it with a pair of scissors.
I started at 10:19AM and was done with the whole yard by 10:30AM.
"Don't you have an edger for that?"
Yes I do. I have a custom deluxe gas edger with attachments for clipping and tilling.
So why didn't I use it?
Always the experimenter, I had to try something out. I hypothesized that if I just grabbed the scissors on the kitchen counter, I could have it all done in the amount of time that it took me to just get out the edger and "get it going". And my secondary hypothesis was that I would break less sweat than if I was lugging the damn thing around the yard and use less energy and spend less money (gasoline).
I proved my hypothesis.
I was completely finished in 11 minutes.
ELEVEN MINUTES!
I estimate that the time for edger use would have gone something like this:
As you do your daily tasks today, ask yourself this question: "How much of what I am doing right now is because technology is making me do it this way?" and then ask yourself, "How much time and energy would I save by not having this task and living more like a pioneer?"
I realize that technology has revolutionized our lives, in fact I wouldn't be posting here.... but would my life really be more difficult without it? Or just simpler and lovelier?
I am sounding like Thoreau.
This morning, I edged the driveway and curbing and flowerbeds around my front yard.
I live in an older neighborhood and have quite a large yard for today's standards.
So what?
I did it with a pair of scissors.
I started at 10:19AM and was done with the whole yard by 10:30AM.
"Don't you have an edger for that?"
Yes I do. I have a custom deluxe gas edger with attachments for clipping and tilling.
So why didn't I use it?
Always the experimenter, I had to try something out. I hypothesized that if I just grabbed the scissors on the kitchen counter, I could have it all done in the amount of time that it took me to just get out the edger and "get it going". And my secondary hypothesis was that I would break less sweat than if I was lugging the damn thing around the yard and use less energy and spend less money (gasoline).
I proved my hypothesis.
I was completely finished in 11 minutes.
ELEVEN MINUTES!
I estimate that the time for edger use would have gone something like this:
1: getting it out of the recesses of the garage (behind the mower) =
3 minutes
2: Opening the gas tank and refilling with gas/oil mixture =
5 minutes
3: Attempting to crank it up for the first time in months =
10- 15 minutes
4: Cussing and stomping around =
1 minute
5: Edging the driveway =
4 minutes
6: re-pulling the cutting string and cussing=
1 minute
7: Wiping sweat off brow and taking a sip of water from the cup sitting on the front porch =
2 minutes
8: Edging the curb =
4 minutes
9: Unjamming the cutting string =
9: Unjamming the cutting string =
2 minutes
10: Edging the flowerbed =
4 minutes
11: Shaking off the grime and putting the edger away =
2 minutes
Total time using the gas edger: 38-43 minutes
Total time using scissors: 11 minutes
ELEVEN MINUTES and NO SWEATING!!!!
Breast augmentation surgery and
laser hair removal.
My StumbleUpon Page
No comments:
Post a Comment