[Simplicity] [Complexity] [Neomania] [Networking] [Security] [Miscellaneous]
Articles
We don’t all need (or want) the latest and greatest. Keeping up with the Joneses is so like yesteryear.
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“Neomania, defined as an obsession with the new, is a hallmark of American culture. You won’t find it in the dictionary, but you’ll see it in the faces of everyone waiting for the next iPhone or Android. You might even catch it in the reflection of your smart phone as you scroll through the news.” [5 Steps to Overcome Neomania]
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Not everybody is attracted to the glowing orb that is Kubernetes. No, we don’t use Kubernetes
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The scourge of neomania is everywhere: in IT, cybersecurity, fitness, education, diets etc. Neomania is Making Us Crazier (and Less Effective) Teachers
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When the citizenry loses its ability to no longer think critically, we are in deep trouble. There is great pleasure to be had in personal introspection, deep reflection and rumination. Excogitate, don’t supress. Huxley’s Warning
Books
- Orwell’s dystopia tells of repressed automatons, Huxley’s, one of brain-dead compliant masses. Social Media anyone?
“Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us. This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.” Amusing Ourselves to Death
- We see a decadent society unfolding right before our very own eyes, nobody can deny this. The obession with self[ies].
“1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God - 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NIV)