Analog by Night

“Ultimately, [Pierre] Bourdieu writes, intellectuals compete to gain a monopoly over the power to consecrate. Certain people and institutions at the top of each specialty have the power to confer prestige and honor on favored individuals, subjects, and styles of discourse. Those who hold this consecration of power influence taste, favor certain methodologies, and define the boundary of their discipline. To be chief consecrator is the intellectual’s dream” -pg 51, Bobos in Paradise, David Brooks

This evening over dinner I was reading through The Motley Fool Investment Workbook. It sent me into a bit of a philosophical spiral that landed itself smack dab upon technophilia. I’ll give you some quick background, and then I’ll give you the spiral almost directly.

You see, with this new amount of projected income I’ve taken a little interest in making sure it goes towards it’s own growth. True capitalism, and I would never deny my capitalist roots, involves, simply using money to make money. I believe that can be done ethically, and I intend to do so.

In the beginning of the book there’s a few pages on self-examination, to help you develop a clearer picture of what you’re real financial personality is like. That wasn’t too hard for me, as I’ve been quite conscious, if not conscientious of my spending, debt, and income my whole life. The book asks you to make a few lists, fears, regrets, prides regarding spending, and then at the end of the section goals.

I closed the book sharply. That was too big a task for tonight. It was, and it frightened me that I didn’t have clear goals in sight, big goals, ten year goals that weren’t simply logical extensions of what I was doing now, ie. the smart thing to be doing ten years from now.

Here begins the spiral:

I don’t know what my goals are.
How embarrassing that I don’t have big clear goals.
I used to have more goals than I knew what to do with.
Goals are dreams
I need to dream out loud.
I need to talk with Abigail about her dreams.
Abigail has said she’s too cynical.
I’m cynical too, but it’s because we’re trying to be realistic about what CAN ACTUALLY HAPPEN in our lives.
Are we selling ourselves short?
Other people make amazing things happen, and they do it because they commit to fantastic dreams.
Then they realize those dreams by MAKING THINGS.
Making things is just technology. (note: i don’t just mean electrical shit, i mean books, bridges, paint, spaceships, cars, planes, medicines, buildings, computers, eyeglasses, decanters, golf clubs and everything else we make)
Technology enables people to make things, and when they can’t make those things, they invent them.
Technology is the effort by human beings to solve the problems that keep them from those unrealized dreams.
Technology is mans effort to actualize his/her dreams.

And that is why I think the one thing that should be celebrated more than anything else, are the technologica advancements, that permit people to live, thrive, express, extend and realize those dreams.

But the dreaming has to come first.

I work with these awesome people now. We’re crushing on each other a little.

This is how I feel about it: 

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