Sidewalk Life

Is Bill Gates George Washington?

Saw these magazines side by side at the airport.  Coincidence?  Or is Bill Gates the George Washington of our times? 

Both led a revolution, became king of the new world, then walked away at the height of power to start a new life.   

The Tyranny of Numbers

More and more things in my life seem to be dictated by numbers.

My heart rate.

How long I ride.

How far I run.

Gas mileage I get.

Maybe I should stop measuring myself all the time and just enjoy what I'm doing.

Hedonism Lives!

Conservation seems to be a new trend.  'Green' is on every magazine cover, WalMart is selling compact flourescent lightbulbs, and cars are getting smaller.  'Less is more' seems to be catching on.

And then I went into Jeffrey on 14th ST.  I witnessed an orgy of shoe shopping that would make Caligula blush.   Women from everywhere tearing through shoe boxes and discarding them like Christmas morning.  (Claire Danes took home three pair by the way).

Green may be the new black, but it's going to have to come with a sense of style. 

Diconnected

I left my cell phone out in Sag Harbor on Monday.  At first I panicked and thought I'd be completely useless and out of touch all week. But honestly, I haven't really missed it.   Although I did just call my number to check messages. Nothing that important. 

Makes me think I could live a cell phone free lifestyle.

Our History, In Toys

There's a great little exhibit on toy history at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison.

It occurred to me while I was walking through, how much toys try to teach us about life and how they reflect the times.

Like an SUV for kids. Both personal transportation and good for hauling things.

Before there was video games, there was electronic football.  The user had absolutely no control over where the pieces moved.

Same idea as Bob the Builder. Who doesn't like construction?

You can freeze frame, pause, and rewind. 

Building for gifted kids.

Not sure what these games were about.  Never really played them.

Agricultural training toys.

Like interactive detective tv shows.

Were these supposed to teach us that insects aren't that scary?

Wiffle ball.  A great solution for one-on-one baseball.

Playdough.  Still useful for creativity exercise.

Teaching our girls to be housewives.

The cowboy mythology .  President's still get elected by tapping into this myth.

Early CSI lab.

Space.  The final frontier.

Couldn't really stop the power of television.   

Fantasy.

Personal transportation for kids and ad agency execs.

Things that sing and make noise.

House for boys?

Genius.  Build an elaborate trap for a simple chore.  (sometimes what planners do)

War is the answer!

And people think video games are violent.

Learn about careerism and family planning.

Is this about playing surgeon or playing doctor?

Authority and coercion games.

Creative tools. 

Learn to sit in traffic jams.

War is the answer!

Dare-deviling.  Cool.

Can't remember what these were about.

Counterintuitive chemistry I guess. Things shrink when heated?

Never played role playing games. I hear they're popular.

Can't see any redeeming qualities in this game.

Early days of manipulating what's on TV.

The revolution will be televised.  I like how it says Video Computer System near the cartridge input.  It's like it was struggling to be taken seriously and thought 'video game' was too childish.

Mobile video games.  Great for keeping kids occupied on long car trips.

I never had the patience for the rubik's cube.

What was the attraction to these?

Power for little people.

I'm too old to know what these were about.

Made a billion off trivia.

My Little Pony?

The best summer toy ever.

These seem to be new ones I know nothing about.

Great Quotes for Planners

"The truth is more important than the facts." -Frank Lloyd Wright

I just visited Jason's blog Meme Huffer for the first time, where I saw this and lots of other quotes for planners.  Useful stuff on there.  Thanks Jason.

The Future Is Shiny

I talked about the future today with 9 year olds in a focus group.  According to Manhattan nine year olds the future will be shiny, computers will have arms and lots of litle things will be invented, but nothing world changing. 

How Monopoly Explains US

James Poniewozik wrote an interesting piece in Time magazine about the board game Monopoly.  He suggests that Americans learn a warped sense of capitalism as children from playing the game.  Some of the things he says:

"a game whose object is to corner a market and beggar our neighbors."

"On the one hand it portrays business as Darwinian, random and vaguely criminal.  (You do occasional, unexplained stints in jail and can get out by paying somebody off.)  On the other hand, it makes real estate moguldom seem homey and attainable."

Sounds reasonably close to what you learn at business school.

I'm a Non-Conflicted Consumer

I don't really know what it means to be a non-conflicted consumer, but according to this survey on how people spend money, I'm not the tightwad I consider myself. 

Looking through the demographics, the study seems skewed to well-educated, highly employed and highly paid Caucasians, so it's not really a reflection of all Americans. Nevertheless, there were some  interesting findings.

People seem to have some guilt about spending too much on beverages.

They think they give too much to waiters and not enough to charity.

They seem to accept the high cost of cable television

They think they don't spend enough on cell phone features...

...or investments...

...or on pampering themselves.

And oddly enough, one out of three of them don't like sushi.

I've attached a  pdf of the survey results so far. 

Download tightwad_results2.pdf

We Are What We Buy

At least that's the implication form this Time Magazine chart from the America at 300 million issue.  It appears Pepsi and Bud Light are keeping America hydrated. 

I'm not sure why it took me so long to post this.  Nevertheless, it's a good issue with useful data.