Candidly the first draft was more naive and thought I was onto something special (naively). Digging through and realizing so many concepts have been covered before, so made sure it at least tied-in some personal perspective
At a certain point, most things can be boiled down something some philosopher has covered (and that's just through their specific lens). So the ideas are rehashed in this sense, though it'll be new to some people, and the perspective could help the concept to "connect" for someone else
Not satire though I get where you're coming from -- the idea of rugs costing so much was shocking to me too. Though some of the other comments re artistry, amount of time put into craft, etc help put it into perspective too
Hey HN - long-time lurker and decided to start writing essays (inspired by PG and many of y'all as well). This one came from months of joking with my friends about different "fancy rug" problems which led me to think about my own "fancy rugs". Enjoy!
I have to ask... why the extra lettuce? At In-N-Out I sometimes ask for less lettuce because I feel like it's unnecessary filler compared to the other ingredients, lol. Maybe they've just been giving my unused lettuce to you...
Not OP but I also order extra lettuce on burgers. Lettuce is free "crunch", basically. Crunch is good in general - and especially necessary on burgers, which otherwise tend to sliminess.
Lettuce is one of the least appealing things I can imagine adding to a half decent burger. I’ve also never once cooked a burger I’d describe as “slimy”.
Obviously it’s all subjective at the end of the day.
Thanks for lettuce-sharing :-D agree with other post-er on extra "crunch". Personally I like the lightness of the lettuce in contrast with the burger oils and onions, it's the right balance for me. And in my mind it's more free food (my stomach capacity is quite large)
Merging all the dimensions of the question into Value as a function of Cost seems part of the challenge.
Value is such a subjective concept. You finally get down to "We all need things transcending pure utility, connecting us to stories bigger than ourselves." at the end of the post.
Even if "bigger than ourselves" takes on some explicit religious angle--thinking the Amish here--there is still copious room to dislike the fact that the Amish are rolling around in "them new-fangled buggies" instead of being on foot like they were in the Good Book.
I think part of the Amish line of thought is instead of randomly and quickly adopting technology/growth a community should take time to understand what the impacts are of using them.
Some people think Amish don't use electricity, but that's not true. You'll find quite a few of them with things like solar panels and LED lights. These things tend to have very long lifespans and no grid connections limiting needs from outsiders.
The Amish way is ultimately impractical to practice without being embedded in a society which is much larger and inimical to their own way of thinking as otherwise those willing to both bear the cost of accepting modern ways of and willing to do violence burn your shit and settle on your land. In more peaceful times people may chose only to impoverish your people and buy your lands but the net effect is the same.
The inherent built-in futility limits the virtue of this approach.
I don't disagree with your point, which is, I think, that the Amish are essentially freeloading on the security afforded by the surrounding society.
Indeed, the smaller "tribal-esque" approach of the Amish may be considered similar to that of the Native American tribes, and American History seen as a natural experiment of how the Amish would fare if government security were to vanish.
For me, writing this up was like finally laying-out and using some "fancy rug" ideas and admitting to myself they're nice though not necessarily practical nor particularly special. Though they're special to me and that's something I've come to appreciate for what it is.
I hope this was a "sweet deal" read for a good amount of people! And seems likely mostly somewhere in the middle, though confident that most people can take something interesting back with them
