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Look at this lead pencil. There's not a single person in the world who could make this pencil. [0] [0]: Milton Friedman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Gppi-

Look at this lead pencil. There's not a single person in the world who could make this pencil. [0] [0]: Milton Friedman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Gppi-O3a8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Gppi-O3a8

adrianN 8y ago
If you wish to make apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe - Carl Sagan
- samstave 8y ago
  I also love this showerthought from reddit: All the materials for wverything made has existed on earth for billions of years, they just werent assembled in the right order yet.
  - sitkack 8y ago
    Humans are the right collection of molecules to form a self aware machine that can make showerthoughts. We are literally animate matter.
    - abathur 8y ago
      But did we have any of them before we invented the shower?
akadruid1 8y ago
There's the guy who spent $1500 and six months making a sandwich from scratch[0], including growing, collecting and killing the ingredients [0]: https://youtu.be/URvWSsAgtJE https://youtu.be/URvWSsAgtJE
- michaelt 8y ago
  spent $1500 (By flying from Minnesota to LA and renting a boat to get salt from the sea)
  - bazooka_penguin 8y ago
    You're right, he cheated by using premade vehicles. He should've made those himself
    - m463 8y ago
      I think the animal husbandry skill tree would be fastest, but children and a sedan chair would work if more time was available.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
agumonkey 8y ago
Sorry to differ, I think this is twisted by an era where liberal market was held as god like status. Take the rubber and metal out because for now. To draw a dark line on a surface, you take the first bit of wood you find, grind it into a point and burn it. You have a pencil. I really believe that the free market centuries made people believe it was the only or most efficient way to get an object done, just like people thought java ee was the only way to make a web application in early 2000s.
- todd8 8y ago
  You’ve moved the goal posts. It’s not that the construction of some thing, anything, that can be used to write with is difficult. As you point out a piece of charcoal isn’t hard to make. Milton Friedman’s point is that even something as simple and inexpensive as a pencil involves people all over the world working together to create it. Some mine graphite, some run ships to move the graphite, some manufacture paint, some grow rubber trees, etc. All of this activity, coordinated and made efficient by the market is behind even a simple thing like a pencil.
  - agumonkey 8y ago
    I agree on goalpost but still differ on Friedman's point. Culture shifts into thinking you need objects to the point of making you forget what you wanted in the first place. Friedman wants to marvel at the thought of his beloved market.
    - EForEndeavour 8y ago
      Friedman does wax lyrical about his beloved market toward the end of that video, but the main point I drew from his quote about the pencil is that it's absolutely mind-blowing to stop and contemplate the incredible cooperation and pre-existing systems required to construct so many of the mundane, dirt-cheap objects of the modern world. The fact that someone could eschew mass-produced lead pencils in favour of a self-made writing implement doesn't diminish the fact that it's practically impossible for any one individual on the planet to ever actually build a pencil you can buy for the equivalent of a few seconds to minutes of labour. That pencil, and so many other mundane items like it, are artifacts beyond the crafting capabilities of any one human.
dekhn 8y ago
actually, lead pencils were all originally made in a single location. the outcome now is just due to modern manufacturing. If people wanted to build a decent pencil locally, it would be possible, just not economic.
- onesun 8y ago
  That's not what was said. A "single person" cannot make a lead pencil. I agree. Ask yourself whether the Primitive Technology guy could make a pencil in the middle of the Australian rain forest. He can make a lot of great things, but in order to make a pencil, he would need additional tools, and those tools would be made by someone else, hence the statement that "a single person cannot make a pencil."
  - dekhn 8y ago
    My statement is 100% consistent with Friedman's original statement: https://thenewinquiry.com/milton-friedmans-pencil/ https://thenewinquiry.com/milton-friedmans-pencil/ Note that multiple times in history, due to war reasons, societies independently developed making pencils because they did not have access to the resources, and substituted other resources.

adrianN 8y ago

If you wish to make apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe - Carl Sagan

samstave 8y ago
I also love this showerthought from reddit: All the materials for wverything made has existed on earth for billions of years, they just werent assembled in the right order yet.
- sitkack 8y ago
  Humans are the right collection of molecules to form a self aware machine that can make showerthoughts. We are literally animate matter.
  - abathur 8y ago
    But did we have any of them before we invented the shower?

akadruid1 8y ago

There's the guy who spent $1500 and six months making a sandwich from scratch[0], including growing, collecting and killing the ingredients [0]: https://youtu.be/URvWSsAgtJE https://youtu.be/URvWSsAgtJE

michaelt 8y ago
spent $1500 (By flying from Minnesota to LA and renting a boat to get salt from the sea)
- bazooka_penguin 8y ago
  You're right, he cheated by using premade vehicles. He should've made those himself
  - m463 8y ago
    I think the animal husbandry skill tree would be fastest, but children and a sedan chair would work if more time was available.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

agumonkey 8y ago

Sorry to differ, I think this is twisted by an era where liberal market was held as god like status. Take the rubber and metal out because for now. To draw a dark line on a surface, you take the first bit of wood you find, grind it into a point and burn it. You have a pencil. I really believe that the free market centuries made people believe it was the only or most efficient way to get an object done, just like people thought java ee was the only way to make a web application in early 2000s.

todd8 8y ago
You’ve moved the goal posts. It’s not that the construction of some thing, anything, that can be used to write with is difficult. As you point out a piece of charcoal isn’t hard to make. Milton Friedman’s point is that even something as simple and inexpensive as a pencil involves people all over the world working together to create it. Some mine graphite, some run ships to move the graphite, some manufacture paint, some grow rubber trees, etc. All of this activity, coordinated and made efficient by the market is behind even a simple thing like a pencil.
- agumonkey 8y ago
  I agree on goalpost but still differ on Friedman's point. Culture shifts into thinking you need objects to the point of making you forget what you wanted in the first place. Friedman wants to marvel at the thought of his beloved market.
  - EForEndeavour 8y ago
    Friedman does wax lyrical about his beloved market toward the end of that video, but the main point I drew from his quote about the pencil is that it's absolutely mind-blowing to stop and contemplate the incredible cooperation and pre-existing systems required to construct so many of the mundane, dirt-cheap objects of the modern world. The fact that someone could eschew mass-produced lead pencils in favour of a self-made writing implement doesn't diminish the fact that it's practically impossible for any one individual on the planet to ever actually build a pencil you can buy for the equivalent of a few seconds to minutes of labour. That pencil, and so many other mundane items like it, are artifacts beyond the crafting capabilities of any one human.

dekhn 8y ago

actually, lead pencils were all originally made in a single location. the outcome now is just due to modern manufacturing. If people wanted to build a decent pencil locally, it would be possible, just not economic.

onesun 8y ago
That's not what was said. A "single person" cannot make a lead pencil. I agree. Ask yourself whether the Primitive Technology guy could make a pencil in the middle of the Australian rain forest. He can make a lot of great things, but in order to make a pencil, he would need additional tools, and those tools would be made by someone else, hence the statement that "a single person cannot make a pencil."
- dekhn 8y ago
  My statement is 100% consistent with Friedman's original statement: https://thenewinquiry.com/milton-friedmans-pencil/ https://thenewinquiry.com/milton-friedmans-pencil/ Note that multiple times in history, due to war reasons, societies independently developed making pencils because they did not have access to the resources, and substituted other resources.