Comments on: Tools

By: Hoplite

Hoplite — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:48:58 +0000

A good tool should be social, but a professional tool should never be too social. If you’re a hatchet, then you should chop even close friends and family with vigor because that’s what a real professional tool does.

And a thank you for The Prisoner references above!

By: Speech is silver, but silence is golden « The Palimpsest of Sawbones Surio

Speech is silver, but silence is golden « The Palimpsest of Sawbones Surio — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 17:28:42 +0000

[...] very clear. Things are not going to be better if you are dependent on a monthly salary. After all, “You, Sir, are a ‘tool’ “ and you are about to get even more smaller and overwrought as we get more Specialisation and more [...]

By: zoran

zoran — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:26:16 +0000

Jacob you are a pure Genius….In fact, you have motivated me so much since may of this year that I have given up my cushy office job to work overseas. I now only own two suitcases and my only bill is child support and few toiletries.

By: Q

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:05:40 +0000

There was a post before the third Matrix movie came out that was very good at describing something similar, and something that was way better than what the movie turned out to be.

Anyways – we all “live” in The Matrix. It’s just a matter of how much you participate in it. Since the Matrix was built way before any of us were born, you have to use The Matrix if you want to escape its power. You have to co-exist within The Matrix, or find a place within it where it has little to no hold, but must still use it to get to that point.

The Matrix has you – it has us all. Drink a Coke, watch TV, walk on a street, use the Internet, pay for anything.

By: stephanie

stephanie — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:29:43 +0000

Ah, maybe time for you to re-read that Ellul book! One of the most dangerous assumptions in modern times (post-modern, post-post-modern) is the feeling of immunity to propaganda, or to the influence of “the machine.” Everyone feels immune, and that their decisions are their own. But it’s not so easy to escape. Not saying you –personally — don’t think for yourself, but many people think they are thinking critically when they are not. Something to look out for. We are *immersed* in a machinery that is difficult to see.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:10:46 +0000

@Basil – Read the book Disciplined Minds to see how “creatives” are handled. The problem here is that you can not tell a creative person what to do (by definition), but you can make sure that your creatives follow a certain ideology which you then define.

@chris – I think this is why TV is so popular.

@racasper – The modern word for this is “serve”.

@stephanie – You can be “not part of the machine” by having/reclaiming individual decisions. A push rod that don’t want to push.

@MoneyEnergy – Actually not so much capitalism as Taylorism.

By: MoneyEnergy

MoneyEnergy — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:59:48 +0000

Good description of capitalism! There’s a difference between being part of a dehumanized machine and being a part in an organic ecological system… we need to wake up to get beyond the tendencies/gravity that will pull us back into these cog positions unless if we fall asleep and when we let others define us. That’s how it all falls into place…

By: stephanie

stephanie — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:31:19 +0000

I’m not sure I find this post all that motivational. I just find it puzzling.

My question is, how can you *not* be part of the machine? Unless you grow your own food, live off the grid, and do not participate in any economic systems at all (other than bartering services), you are a tool, or a cog in the machine.

By: racasper

racasper — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:13:28 +0000

I think that a Tool should enjoy being used, because it fulfills their purpose.

By: Executioner

Executioner — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:12:26 +0000

This entry reminds me of an article from a few years ago.

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/07/10-reasons-you-should-never-get-a-job/

By: chris

chris — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:53:56 +0000

Those of us who have worked in a factory have first hand knowledge of this. I think that’s why they invented beer, wine and the other drugs.

By: Marci

Marci — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:23:35 +0000

Oh gosh, this sounds very Orwellian to me. And I quote “It connotes an attitude and a policy of control by propaganda, surveillance, misinformation, denial of truth, and manipulation of the past, including the “unperson” — a person whose past existence is expunged from the public record and memory, practiced by modern repressive governments.” Very much like “The Prisoner” series.

By: Basil

Basil — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:15:30 +0000

Not sure how you can relate to being a “tool”. You have never been a “tool” so how can you know ? I was a “tool” for 20 years so I know how it feels

By: Kevin M

Kevin M — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:49:24 +0000

Not exactly the post I expected when I saw the title “Tools” right after your bicycle repair post. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

By: Dreamer

Dreamer — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:11:01 +0000

Ahh Jacob what can I say, pure magic.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:43:13 +0000

When I worked in the finance department of a fortune 500 company, I saw how people are literally treated as cogs. There was a set number of cogs we were allowed to have in each group. If the gods above said we now needed to have 2 less cogs in a group, then 2 cogs were gone. Didn’t matter which cogs, I just needed my Daily Cog Report to show 3 cogs instead of 5 cogs. Cogs always seem to get the work done.

I was disgusted by this sort of thing, so I quit, and indeed found myself to have been a cog too. My replacement was named before the week was out.

These days I still pretend to be a cog, but I prepare in secret for the day when I will no longer have to pretend. Soon, on that glorious day I will stand up and declare, “Fools! I am actually a human being! And I have used YOU to break free of this slavery!” Of course they will merely blink, scratch their heads, and assign another cog before the week is out.

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:20:31 +0000

I don’t know…. at this point… to thank you, or slap you!

Motivational, indeed.

By: Abuwabu

Abuwabu — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:56:06 +0000

Indeed. Be smart not useful. Tools are useful. Don’t be a tool.

By: CB

CB — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:46:31 +0000

I work in a widget factory and the widget treadmill is running faster, that is, more productively. Fewer human widget movers are required.

Now I realize that I cannot be distinguished from the widgets that I am manipulating.

Quarterly profits above all else!

Was rereading the Work chapter in “Your Money or Your Life.” Primitive man needed about 3 hours per day of productive work to survive (including commute). By tying people into expensive shelter, food, and clothing, consumerism absorbs the rest of our hours (or limited lifespan) and enables the “economy” to produce more consumer items.

By: Knobby Kabushka

Knobby Kabushka — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:09:40 +0000

@george – my screensaver is a picture of the original Prisoner with the words he spoke.

“I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own.”

very few indeed can say that, if any…