Belatedly reading this and as per the footnote, I agree that car ownership is a great example, and I think car ownership in Cuba is a good example of degenerate gnome mode.
iirc there is even an author’s note at the end that discusses this - it’s awesome what they do to keep the cars from the ‘50s working, but also they’d all clearly be better off with new cars which are much safer, better gas mileage, etc etc.
Awesome read! Towards the end of it, for some reason, I kept thinking of India as an example of a societal-level degenerate gnome archetype. I am not sure if the framework scales from individuals to groups to cultures, but with a little bit of adaptation and adjustment for time scales, I think it does. And that helps explain a lot of otherwise "quirky" aspects of different organizations and societies.
This is excellent - especially your “own- use- maintain” trichotomy (not sure if that is a thing, but it is now) and the sensitivity of each of those states to the cost of capital. Very insightful. I couldn’t help thinking that each of the great spiritual traditions have their own version of this. The New Testament speaks often about the “sanctity of the Temple” which is a gnome metaphor for the material house in which the spirit is maintained and has its physical manifestation. Spiritually we should all be aiming for permanent gnome status, because that expression of individual divinity is what we are created for, practically that tends not to work out so well or be so easy because it requires a level of resistance to conformity that costs too to much energy to maintain and is, frankly, “educated” out of most people. Great food for thought at the start of the week.
Belatedly reading this and as per the footnote, I agree that car ownership is a great example, and I think car ownership in Cuba is a good example of degenerate gnome mode.
(and I have to admit my knowledge of car ownership in Cuba is mostly from this book that someone got for my son at some point: http://www.allthewonders.com/books/book-trailer-premiere-all-the-way-to-havana/)
iirc there is even an author’s note at the end that discusses this - it’s awesome what they do to keep the cars from the ‘50s working, but also they’d all clearly be better off with new cars which are much safer, better gas mileage, etc etc.
Awesome read! Towards the end of it, for some reason, I kept thinking of India as an example of a societal-level degenerate gnome archetype. I am not sure if the framework scales from individuals to groups to cultures, but with a little bit of adaptation and adjustment for time scales, I think it does. And that helps explain a lot of otherwise "quirky" aspects of different organizations and societies.
This is excellent - especially your “own- use- maintain” trichotomy (not sure if that is a thing, but it is now) and the sensitivity of each of those states to the cost of capital. Very insightful. I couldn’t help thinking that each of the great spiritual traditions have their own version of this. The New Testament speaks often about the “sanctity of the Temple” which is a gnome metaphor for the material house in which the spirit is maintained and has its physical manifestation. Spiritually we should all be aiming for permanent gnome status, because that expression of individual divinity is what we are created for, practically that tends not to work out so well or be so easy because it requires a level of resistance to conformity that costs too to much energy to maintain and is, frankly, “educated” out of most people. Great food for thought at the start of the week.
Putin is goblin mode at the extreme. Who is gnome mode at its best?