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The Lost Art of Carrying Loads
- vehemenz 1mo agoThough it's associated with Africa, head portage was commonly practiced nearly everywhere. https://youtu.be/BRnwg3dpboc?t=731 https://youtu.be/BRnwg3dpboc?t=731
- jjkaczor 1mo agoOver the decades, I have gotten many a weird look from family, friends and strangers when I use my head for assisting carrying things - but, it works, and often lets me use either one - or both hands to stabilize the "load", provides unobstructed view and far easier maneuverability (less walking backwards, easier to navigate corners, etc.). It's a "no-brainer", "use-your-head" simple thing...
- nicechianti 1mo ago[dead]
- absoluteunit1 1mo agoInteresting article. But I don't know if I am imagining it; I'm starting to feel Claude's (AI) writing everywhere. Like this sentence for example: > The genius of the gaucho’s system isn’t storage. It’s integration. The x isn't y. Its z.
- naravara 1mo agoYeah as soon as I hit the gaucho section my clanker alarm started going off like crazy.
- tom_ 1mo agoYes. I missed that specific bit, but, the more I read on, the less it felt like a nice in-flight magazine-tier diversion and the more it felt like I was reading the result of asking Claude to write an essay about the bearing of loads. (Which makes me personally a lot less interested in reading it.)
- throwaway173738 1mo agoYeah the writing tastes like processed food. There’s no substance just “here’s some stuff people do” but nothing about why it works or where you could learn more.
- DonHopkins 1mo agoJust ask "More James Burke Connections". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCJh5D0FCZk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCJh5D0FCZk
- buellerbueller 1mo agoAssuming it is AI-written, who cares? Would the article have been written if AI hadn't authored it? Did you derive less utility from the article than had it not been written at all? Bunch of Veruca Salts here. I want ALL the entertainment/information, I want it NOW, I'll pirate it if I have to, and GOD FORBID IT USE AI.
- kakacik 1mo agoWhile I agree that the topic is actually pretty interesting and any decent info > no info, in more general terms we pay with the most important commodity we have - our free time. So just because something is free doesn't mean people automatically flock in masses for it and have uncritical relationship with it.
- buellerbueller 1mo agoYes, but criticism itself takes our free time, and there are better places to allocate that criticism/free time than this particular pile-on.
- tom_ 1mo agoBe the change you want to see!
- buellerbueller 1mo agoBy whingeing about an allegedly Claude-written blog post on [checks notes] carryology.com??? Literal Gandhi!
- tom_ 1mo ago[dead]
- cindyllm 1mo ago[dead]
- icantevenhold 1mo agoYea I also stumbled across that one. Overall the article was really enjoyable to read, but this one sentence threw me off. X isnt y it’s Z needs to die
- modo_ 1mo agoHere's a certified human written post from the one and only Yvon Chouinard about tumplines. Patagonia actually used to sell a tumpline compatible with some of their packs briefly in the 2010s! https://www.patagonia.com/stories/culture/design/on-tumplines/story-18753.html https://www.patagonia.com/stories/culture/design/on-tumpline...
- DonHopkins 1mo agoLoad bearing load carriers.
- jeffrallen 1mo agoYou're absolutely right! This is a load-bearing article.
- KPGv2 1mo agoI suppose I read enough books that I've seen this from human writers all the time for decades. It's even an English construction that I was specifically taught Japanese and Spanish equivalents in my foreign language classes decades ago, and I use the German equivalent with my family all the time.
- Xmd5a 1mo ago[dead]
- oidar 1mo agoThanks for the essay Claude. It’s good info, just something feels off. It doesn’t feel like a person wrote this article… what are 10 options to fix this?
- fredley 1mo agoCtrl-F load-bearing. 1 hit.
- coldtea 1mo ago> For the gauchos, real utility was never about .... It was about ... > the rastra’s silver coins weren’t merely ornaments: ... they were portable wealth > ... isn’t just inconvenient; it can also be fatal. > it was more than a container. It was a collaboration > ... isn’t about resisting nature, but collaborating with it. > the next frontier of carry isn’t ..., but rediscovering what we’ve left behind
- trentor 1mo agoNot a single comment about the content.
- yoggies_bro 1mo agoObvious slop The problem is not "AI written" it is that is is poorly written and wastes the reader's time
- roryirvine 1mo agoNot just that, it's a poorly-disguised shilling operation for Bellroy: When we talk about “we” (or “our” or “us”), we mean Bellroy Pty Ltd and all its wholly owned subsidiaries. We are based in Australia but we review gear from all over the world. Source: https://www.carryology.com/privacy-policy/ https://www.carryology.com/privacy-policy/
- alexpotato 1mo agoWith regards to how skill is more important than technology in these other form of carrying: A couple years ago I read Survival of the Bark Canoe by John McPhee [0]. There are several discussions of a crooked knife and how it was the "multitool" of craftsman in the northern forests and was used for everything from making canoes to snowshoes. This led to me learning more about crooked knives and even starting https://crookedknives.com https://crookedknives.com. One of the most interesting parts about this journey was reading the below quote: "Skill allows you to do a lot with one tool whereas many tools can be used to replace skill". e.g. it's hard to learn how to use a crooked knife but once you do learn, it's like having a plane, gouge and carving knife all in one hand. This article feels very similar in that it probably takes more skill to use a soft bag or basket to carry loads instead of a modern backpack but also gives you a lot more options. 0 - https://amzn.to/4cR46FW https://amzn.to/4cR46FW
- colincowardly 1mo agoI blame OnlyFans.
- alexpotato 1mo ago> Freshly harvested birch is flexible, allowing it to be woven into complex forms. Once woven and shaped, those fibers create a rigid structure that resists sagging beneath heavy loads while remaining lightweight. There are stories of Native Americans weaving baskets that were so precisely made that they could carry water.
- jcmontx 1mo agoI'd like to add another thing about the gaucho: the recado (the traditional saddle) was also a really important part of his equipment. It was basically his whole camping setup. The different layers could be taken apart at night and used as a mattress, blankets, insulation from the ground, etc. Then in the morning everything went back on the horse.
- PaulHoule 1mo agoFunny I've been obsessed with carrying systems since last December when I started going out-as-a-fox to do photography which means carrying a lot of photography gear, therian gear, costume changes, gear to hold gear, etc. I used to be really clumsy but it seems the more gear I wear the less I get tangled up in things, the more deliberately I move, it's like it rewrites my body image. Anyhow I ought to find that web site, which sells stuff for carrying, interesting, but somehow I don't. Lots of expensive backpacks, like really expensive backpacks. I already have an expensive backpack. No leg bags. (I found one that's not quite alt-fashion or cosplay and it's the best for a phone, a few credit cards and 100 business cards.) Nothing 1/10 as cool as the third world solutions they point to for inspiration. And I found a messenger bag on Amazon for half of their cheapest bag that might not tick all my boxes but somehow nothing ever seems to fall out of it even when it could. It took me forever looking at fashion-oriented sources to find an easy way to carry a tablet where I could grab it instantly [1], then I found out you get something for $12 meant for waitresses which is the right size and has tons of pockets. I'm planning now to get a police baton holder for my selfie stick [2] since it is one more way to demonstrate how prepared I am. [1] to show people photos I just took and a radical innovation for taking group photos because I can know if I got one where nobody had their eyes closed, funny half the people I show it to think it is a miracle, the other half take it for granted [2] ... now if I could just convince somebody for a moment that it is a lightsaber!