i made the front page for all of reddit today

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/jqgr6j/i_desperately_wish_to_infect_a_million_brains/

I have learned a lot.

I wonder if "big oil" (or something similar) desperately wants people to do the political fight instead of personal choices.  After all, they have set up a rigged playing field so that if people protest, they are easily ignored.  But if we take away their money - that truly cripples them.   Therefore, I wonder if there are 50 "big oil" shills in this screaming for people to do political stuff instead of personal stuff.

I confess that most of the time I feel like the information I share is just really obvious stuff and that it is a bit pointless to say it out loud.  After all, I put a video up on youtube and now it gets hardly any views.  

But this ...    wow ...   I can now understand why permies.com is so active and why my other stuff appears to be doing so well.  It would seem that the stuff I talk about is ... powerful?  Unusual?  Profound to the point of being "too profound"?    I feel like this stuff is going to need to be told to a lot of these people several dozen times before they start to understand it.  Until then they will do all sorts of gyrations to pretend it is not real.  

I think what matters is the upvotes.   And the comments are, possibly, written mostly by corporate trolls.  

Maybe?  

I'm not seeing paid corporate trolls there. I'm seeing a typical cross section of the internet using public. And I'm seeing a lot of support for the big picture, even if there is a lot of disagreement on how best to get there.

paul wheaton wrote:I confess that most of the time I feel like the information I share is just really obvious stuff and that it is a bit pointless to say it out loud.  

I once trained at a gym where everyone could bench at least 400 lbs.  After a while, everyone was so used to that, it was shocking when you found out that there were people that couldn't do that.  I think you may have fallen into that mindset.  If you are surrounded by people that have all been exposed to the permie concepts, whether by listening to your podcasts, watching Geoff Lawton on youtube, or whatever, and living with people that practice these things day to day, you may have lost sight of just how profound some of these ideas are.

I guess my main point is, don't sell yourself short.  A lot of your ideas are far from obvious to the average person.  Powerful and unusual are much better descriptors.

I just sat down with the boots to talk about some decisions.  All of the conversation struck me as exceptionally rational.  

I'm thinking that this group of people have traveled a life path where the information between all of us is quite similar.  Which is why they are here.  Maybe this school of though is a bit unusual - and appeals to just a few people.

Have you ever had a yard sale? Often things you expect to get snatched up for even a relatively high price will get no interest, and stuff you think won't draw a quarter is the first stuff snatched up. Even working in retail, sometimes I can simply find no pattern to why some stuff sells and some doesn't at a given time. I guess it boils down to the fact we are all students in life. One favorite quote I try to remember often, "There are more things in Heaven and Earth Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies." Feeling that I "have it all figured out" is dangerous ground I try to avoid. I believe the only way to keep truly living is to keep learning.

Loads of respect for doing that... I looked at the thread and the noise generated there has me, again, hating the internet.    The noise to signal ratio is just off the charts with all these chaff cannons reflexively firing off unconsidered and nonfactual positions.  I need a shower.

I suspect that we might soon end up in a space where we can have a joke about how any two environmentalists can never agree about what to do to help the environment.

I'm glad you made the front page!  I went and looked and had a hard time scrolling past the arguments about the 4000 sq ft house.

OK, I scrolled further down, and I did some upvoting, but there's so much noise, it's hard for me to engage.

Congratulations, though, it's good to reach out.

Two environmentalists are in the California desert.  One says "We must use this sun filled, barren spot of sand to build a giant solar array.  It will produce enough electricity to shut down a coal fired plant, will reduce carbon emissions and thus help save the planet."  The other environmentalist looks aghast and exclaims "But what about the desert tortoise!"

I'm not sure what's funny about that... maybe someone with a better sense of humor can form it into a decent "Two Environmentalists walk into bar" joke.

I feel much the same way.  No matter what we do, we impact the environment simply by existing.  Even if I pack up and go live in the woods, I still need to harvest trees for fuel, animals and plants for food and figure out how to clothe myself, make tools and provide a shelter of some kind.  All I can do is try to make the best choices I can.  

My guidelines for stuff....

Make and grow what I can manage to make and grow myself.  This has meant learning to make soap, hair gel, and a lot of other things that I consider necessities.  

Don't by cheap crap from 3rd world countries if I can help it.  It has to be shipped here and a lot of is probably made by 5 year olds chained to machines.  It won't last and I will have to go buy another one in a year.  The old one will end up in a landfill.  This helps no one, including me.  

Buy locally produced whenever possible.  The cheap crap has run a lot of the locals out of business so its not always possible but I try.  

Try not to buy things that involve heavy metals.  Cadmium, Lithium, and Cobalt in particular.  Until we really solve the storage problem, all we are doing is shifting the pollution to countries who are too poor to complain and the conditions, especially in the Cobalt mines, are just dreadful.  We are looking at an off grid solar system, though, so I am not sure how well this is one is going to hold up to that.  I console myself by considering how much propane we won't be burning.  

Try to buy directly from the producers for things I can't make myself.  If I need a knife, I will have one made by a local smith.  My cooking knives were made for me.  The balance suits me perfect and I probably won't need new ones for the rest of my life.  (vs getting a new $50 set a WalMart every year or so).  Yes, just one of my knives cost quite a bit more than $50 but I don't need to shop for them again ever so I save time and over the long haul, money too.  My last purse is one I got from a friend in Argentina who's family raises cattle and make saddles.  They were looking to expand their leather working business into purses and luggage so I worked with Mateo to make a purse that he now sells on line. That was 6 years ago and I got to help out a friend who is now battling cheap Chinese knock-offs on Amazon.  

If I do buy something, I try to get a high quality item that I won't be tossing out in a year because its broken or worn out.  If I can, I will get something made just for me.  I think we have lost sight of craftsmanship so I try to make sure that I patronize craftsmen.  You know them when you see them.  Everything they put their hands to is beautiful and functional and durable.  

I don't need trendy and I don't need to be a walking billboard for the "right" logos to say what clique I belong to.  If you aren't the lead dog, the view never changes.  I shed that herd mentality of mass consumerism in high school when I realized that my family was poor and I was never going to have the "right" logos because those things were expensive.  Then I got a good job, made plenty of money, and realized that I would rather have something of true value and bespoke than some trite mass produced crap.