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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

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Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

Conversational account. For work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian. IKEA builder.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 5
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      Veblen-doer hierarchy Science is savagery. “Hmm what happens if I eat the apple like the nice snake says?” Engineering is barbarism: “How do I solve this problem with minimal refinement?” Design is civilization: “How can I express Brooklyn aesthetics with maximal refinement?”

      3 replies 0 retweets 19 likes
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    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 5
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      Thought inspired by conversation with @niftynei (currently on twitter hiatus) re: next @scorpioseasontv theme. Tag yourself. I’m in noble scientific savage mode.

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    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 5
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      For those who don’t get it, my primer on Veblenism from 2011, and it’s relationship to technological refinement, may help.https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/03/10/the-return-of-the-barbarian/ …

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      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 5
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      Something I did not recognize fully then: refinement is not the same as precision. Precision is a function of necessity. The clock simply won’t run if the gears aren’t aligned precisely enough. Refinement is precision beyond functional necessity, driven by aesthetic necessity.

      1:32 PM - 5 Oct 2020
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      • Gordon Brander Callum Flack Tyler DIR DIN Arnaav Bhavanani 🦔 Spear of Fire Laurent Fourier Y Kerry Benjamin Dean Mahala
      2 replies 0 retweets 13 likes
        1. Callum Flack‏ @callumflack Oct 5
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          Replying to @vgr

          Like this, esp science as wonder (Veblen-doer list). I think refinement can also feedback into precision in other ways, harassing further invention:pic.twitter.com/qeLxVaPnEn

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        2. Peter Wang‏ @pwang Oct 5
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          Replying to @vgr

          Simonden observed that the difference between Artisanal and Technical mentality is that the former requires an artisan to bring together information and energy at the site or material to be transformed, whereas technical/industrial mode separates informational and energy inputs.

          1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
        3. Peter Wang‏ @pwang Oct 5
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          Replying to @pwang @vgr

          This latter approach affords scale, but at the cost of needing to homogenize (either final output, or source materials). Unfortunately, it also creates a distance between the point/act of invention and the point/act of use. Into this gap flows obsolescence and irrelevance.

          1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
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