Slow words

24 August, 2017

In Tim Bray’s summary of A Culture of Growth (go read it, we’ll still be here when you’re done), the bit about the postal system intrigues me, and I’d like to think it’s not just because I’m one civil service exam away from being a third-generation letter carrier.

http://twitpic.com/9lr2gz

There are plenty of obvious downsides to a communication system as slow as 16th-century letter-writing, but let’s look at some of the advantages:

Tangential to this is the news that the Village Voice is ending its print edition. Are we attached to print media for reasons other than nostalgia? A print alt-weekly has a nice place in the world:

Again, the downsides of centralized control of a slower, less shareable communication probably outweigh these benefits. But we’re still losing something.

I type up these posts and throw them into a hole. A few dozen of you might add claps, but a post rarely prompts a reply, and almost never a conversation. I mean, who has time for noodling about websites when the country’s descending into a cruel fascist hellscape the next tab over?

Originally published on Medium.