The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “media”

How the Bit Was Born: Claude Shannon and the Invention of Information
How the Bit Was Born: Claude Shannon and the Invention of Information

“Information is what our world runs on: the blood and the fuel, the vital principle … transforming every branch of knowledge.”

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We’re Breaking Up: Rebecca Solnit on How Modern Noncommunication Is Changing Our Experience of Time, Solitude, and Communion
We’re Breaking Up: Rebecca Solnit on How Modern Noncommunication Is Changing Our Experience of Time, Solitude, and Communion

“Previous technologies have expanded communication. But the last round may be contracting it.”

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Hope, Cynicism, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves
Hope, Cynicism, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves

“Critical thinking without hope is cynicism. Hope without critical thinking is naïveté.”

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Wisdom in the Age of Information and the Importance of Storytelling in Making Sense of the World: An Animated Essay
Wisdom in the Age of Information and the Importance of Storytelling in Making Sense of the World: An Animated Essay

Thoughts on navigating the open sea of knowledge.

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“Don’t Read Books!” A 12th-Century Zen Poem
“Don’t Read Books!” A 12th-Century Zen Poem

“It’s annoying for others to have to hear you.”

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On the Soul-Sustaining Necessity of Resisting Self-Comparison and Fighting Cynicism: A Commencement Address
On the Soul-Sustaining Necessity of Resisting Self-Comparison and Fighting Cynicism: A Commencement Address

“In its passivity and resignation, cynicism is a hardening, a calcification of the soul. Hope is a stretching of its ligaments, a limber reach for something greater.”

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Addiction to Truth: David Carr, the Measure of a Person, and the Uncommon Art of Elevating the Common Record
Addiction to Truth: David Carr, the Measure of a Person, and the Uncommon Art of Elevating the Common Record

“We all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn’t end any time soon.”

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The Humane Art: Virginia Woolf on What Killed Letter Writing and Why We Ought to Keep It Alive
The Humane Art: Virginia Woolf on What Killed Letter Writing and Why We Ought to Keep It Alive

“A self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living.”

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Click Like You Give a Damn: The Politics of Linkbait and How Feeding on Buzz Ensures a Malnourished Soul
Click Like You Give a Damn: The Politics of Linkbait and How Feeding on Buzz Ensures a Malnourished Soul

“We have to start shaping the world we want with our clicks, because clicking is a public act.”

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Italo Calvino on Distraction, Procrastination, and Newspapers as the Proto-Time-Waster
Italo Calvino on Distraction, Procrastination, and Newspapers as the Proto-Time-Waster

“Every day I tell myself that reading newspapers is a waste of time, but then … I cannot do without them. They are like a drug.”

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