− | This magician's trick of '''shifting the units of mesure from money to time''' is the core novelty of what the philosopher Frédéric Gros calls Thoreau's "new economics," a theory that builds on the following axiom, which Thoreau establishes early in ''Walden'': "The cost of a thing is the amount of whatI will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run." | + | This magician's trick of '''shifting the units of measure from money to time''' is the core novelty of what the philosopher Frédéric Gros calls Thoreau's "new economics," a theory that builds on the following axiom, which Thoreau establishes early in ''Walden'': "The cost of a thing is the amount of whatI will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run." |
− | Thoreau's new economics was developed in an industrial age, but his basic insights apply just as well to our current digital context. ... When people cosider specific tools or behaviors in their digital lives, they tend to focus only on the value each produces. ... Standard economic thinking says that such profits are good, and the more you receive the better. ... Thoreau's new economics, however, demands that you '''balance this profit against the costs mesured in terms of "your life"'''. How much of your time and attention, he would ask, must be sacrificed to earn the small profit of occational connections and new ideas that is earned by cultlivating a significant presence on Twitter? | + | Thoreau's new economics was developed in an industrial age, but his basic insights apply just as well to our current digital context. ... When people cosider specific tools or behaviors in their digital lives, they tend to focus only on the value each produces. ... Standard economic thinking says that such profits are good, and the more you receive the better. ... Thoreau's new economics, however, demands that you '''balance this profit against the costs measured in terms of "your life"'''. How much of your time and attention, he would ask, must be sacrificed to earn the small profit of occational connections and new ideas that is earned by cultlivating a significant presence on Twitter? |