Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Burnt Popcorn

I sometimes wish that I could live in the Renaissance or even just the 50's so that I could see a patient world. Maybe just for a week.

There is literally nothing in my field of vision sitting at my desk that was not made with haste and purely for economic gain. The Bob Marley tapestry is nice and reminds me to lay back sometimes and let life happen, but even it was manufactured without love. This is why I would rather make a gift for someone with my own capable hands than to give them something made in China, there is more feeling to it.

I very much appreciate all that we have today and I am happy to be able to utilize technology to make my life simpler. That being said, there are too many privileged people in the US of A and elsewhere that seem to still be unhappy. John Q. Public can be woken up from his memory foam bed by his iHome alarm clock, groom himself, put on his suit, have a hot meal made in 20 seconds, and have a busy day at the office and still convince himself that he's unhappy with his life.

Hell, my AC was busted last week and I was upset, but I didn't get angry or flip out. Now that we have developed an astounded arsenal of devices to help us through our days we have become content. I can understand content, as I feel pretty content myself.

What I don't understand are the people complaining to someone on their Androids about having to wait 5 minutes to get their McDonald's.

There is an interesting psychological study about the delay of gratification, especially for children. It was shown that when a toddler was given an oreo and the option to eat it or wait for a few minutes and receive another oreo, the toddler would eat the cookie every time. For the child, gratification must happen as soon as possible regardless of incentive to wait.

This is exactly what I see with the vast majority of people today, the need for instant satisfaction. The Mona Lisa took many months of work to finish, but the Myth Busters crew have a machine that can paint it in 2 seconds. There's a reason why the original is in a museum.

Take some time to think about something silly you complained about today. Did that illegally downloaded movie have bad audio? Is youtube being slow today? Did that damned Starbuck's guy not put enough whipped cream on your mocha? Is it really worth getting mad about?

My popcorn burnt a little in the microwave. It tastes like ingenuity.

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