3 ms·

Freakonomics did a nice podcast on this topic: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/i-pencil/ http://freakonomics.com/podcast/i-pencil/ The idea is that no one ali

• jameshart 10y ago
  "This is a result of our industrialized society" Is that the idea? Isn't the point rather that the existence of a pencil is only possible as a result of industrialization and trade. It's not as if before industrialization, there was an artisanal pencil maker who traveled the world gathering the materials needed to make a batch of pencils, and crafted them together using pencil-making secrets passed down from father to son over generations. No person has EVER been able to make a pencil; it's something that has only ever been possible for a network of interdependent industrial concerns.
• jxramos 10y ago
  I read someplace an updated version called "I, IPad", but I can't find it anywhere online. It was a cool walk through all the materials and techniques mobilized in this crazy globalized effort to yield an IPad. The original pencil version still conveys the same networks being mobilized to yield a good simple product immediately familiar to everyone.