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"conversation"
OK. Sometimes writing is better than speaking, especially for quick updates. In old novels like Anna Karenina and Tale of Genji, many of the characters communicate by passing notes via servants who then hand deliver them.
Here’s how they did it in Anna Karenina:
“Countess Lidia Ivanovna usually wrote [...]
One sweltering windless night while having dinner outside in Burma, my ears were assaulted by a monk chanting scripture — with amplification. Too much amplification.
There was nothing to do but listen. And I’ll never forget the conversation I had with somebody nearby.
Me. What’s he saying?
Them: It’s a prayer.
Me: [...]
While there is some good in making machines more like humans, why do we try to make humans more like machines?
I was at the post office recently to mail a package. When I reached the counter the clerk started to rattle through a list of options, with prices, most of which were not relevant [...]
To get to my office, I have a round trip two-hour commute on the NYC subway each day (come see me on the F train). That means I’m free from the net during that time. It’s like taking a hike in the connection wilderness. And I love it.
Could one of New York City’s advantages [...]
With the Startup – Rockband comparison nicely described, here’s a reason that gets too little notice in benefits of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is an excuse to talk to someone. I remember hearing Jeff Pulver remark that much social networking activity comes from loneliness. While entrepreneurship is not at all the same as social networking, [...]
Fortune-telling Pulpo Paul did what few (if any) others did, eight 100% accurate World Cup predictions, which if we simply assume that the octopus chose at random, leads to an expected 1/256 chance of getting them all correct.
I’m glad Pulpo Paul made it straight through with perfect accuracy, and not just because of Spain’s [...]
Louise Bourgeois passed away today. If you don’t know about her, you can read up here.
But there’s one personal reason why I remember her.
For decades, she ran a weekly salon out of her home in Chelsea. As long as you had something to show, you could call ahead, make an appointment, [...]
Though I don’t smoke, I spend enough time looking and listening to notice that when NYC put out a big tax on cigarettes, the city extinguished a conversational spark.
It used to be that the smokers’ question: “bum a smoke?” would lead to a talk — as well as a cigarette. And I’m sure I’ve [...]
In “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” Douglas Adams tells us about the Babelfish, a small fish you put in your ear, which lives on sound waves and excretes brain waves, neatly translating any language (if you don’t mind a fish in your ear). I can’t describe how much I wanted a Babelfish while I [...]
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