
Buckminster Fuller's Universe - brm
http://www.jackcheng.com/buckminster-fuller-s-universe
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danw
I have a fascination with Bucky's works and the book recommended in the post
is by far the best starting point.

Some things about his life that are interesting:

    
    
      * He got kicked out of Harvard. Twice.
      * He lived a 'normal' life until his late twenties. He thought his life was a failure 
        and was considering ending it when he changed his outlook.
      * He tried to produce a catalogue of all Earths resources believing we would take
        better care of the environment if we know how quickly we were consuming resources
      * He wanted to build a giant model of the Earth outside the UN with live projections of
        all current wars, resource distributions, population density, etc (aka a real world google earth)

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zupatol
If I remember well, his change of outlook was to recognize that every project
he undertook for his own interest had failed. He then decided to work only in
the interest of everyone (or something like that), without even asking himself
how he would pay his bills. Apparently, he managed to pay his bills from then
on.

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gruseom
I saw a wonderful documentary about Buckminster Fuller that included a story
of how his kindergarten teacher was perplexed one day. She gave the children
blocks to play with and told them to make a house, and he kept making his with
triangles! If I remember correctly, she was so concerned something might be
wrong with him that she spoke to his parents.

Some people are just born that way.

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sh1mmer
I thought this was going to be full of quirky insight into Bucky's life, and I
was right!

This is a great article with some pretty sage advice. I'm definitely going to
be buying the book referenced in the article.

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sam_in_nyc
I'm not such a big fan of Buckminster. Are geodesic domes really that
important? I'm sure you could compile a decent sized list of what topics are
related to geodesics, and I'm sure Fuller was really smart, notable, and oh-
so-quirky.

But I'd rather devote time to learning about people who worked on stuff that
had a larger scale impact. Henry Ford, Edison, Tesla, Feynmann, Einstein, etc.

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coliveira
The nice thing about buildings is that they last. Software is not like that. A
framework for a programming problem may not be valuable in 20 years, or even 5
years later.

~~~
danw
On the flip side the good thing about software is that it is quick to
contruct.

If I have an idea for an app I can whip up a prototype in a weekend. I can
turn it into a business and full working app with users.

With a building I can't have an idea for an awesome skyscraper then knock it
together in my back garden by myself.

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diN0bot
the affordable self-sufficient housing units make use of the tepee design. a
tiny fire in the middle of a tepee keeps one cozy in winter (MA, USA) with
most of the smoke going out the top. materials are pretty cheap, too (few
thousand, depending on quality and versatility interested in; a strong storm
can topple one if not done right)

~~~
stcredzero
On the way back from a summer in Alaska, I met a couple that was squatting on
some land in northern British Columbia -- so far north that the fastest way to
get there was through the Yukon. The woman spent their first winter there in a
teepee and had their first child in it. The man descirbed the subsequent
events as: Then she picked me up by the shirt and said, "YOU WILL BUILD ME A
CABIN!"

That was a really nice looking cabin!

(The town was Atlin, for those of you who want to look it up.)

