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That xkcd affirms that our sense of time and attention, and of quality and quantity, has been messed up like this since the Industrial Revolution. I can't safel
by rdiddly 9y ago
That xkcd affirms that our sense of time and attention, and of quality and quantity, has been messed up like this since the Industrial Revolution. I can't safely presume what Randall's point is, but if it's to show that this is a foolish thing men have been saying without cause since time immemorial, he needs to go back further. Show me someone from 1600 complaining about the fast pace of life and I might buy it. But showing quotes about industrialization, that were written after industrialization, doesn't exactly blow my mind.
- Someone 9y agohttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/opinion/sunday/social-networking-in-the-1600s.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/opinion/sunday/social-netw... (about quantity over quality, but not about speed, I think, but too good a quote to skip; from 1677): “Why doth solid and serious learning decline, and few or none follow it now in the University?” he asked. “Answer: Because of Coffea Houses, where they spend all their time.” There’s also https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4306016/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4306016/, which doesn’t go further back then 1860. It doesn’t mention complaints about the printing press (too much too read; won’t learn from copying books) or from the ancient Greeks, so it corroborates the theory that this started with automation (although I can imagine seeing the first complaints when artificial lighting of almost any form was introduced. Maybe even, people did complain when the bow and arrow sped up hunting)
- rdiddly 9y ago"Yea even this now where those who use the Bowe compleat the Hunt with undue Haiste..."