Television and The Cognitive Surplus

A few weeks back I finally pulled the plug on television. Since I don't own a television, this meant not visiting hulu.com any more. Since then I've noticed some extra time in my life that I'm not used to using, that has long been consumed by passive consumption.

Here Clay Shirky talks about the vast 'cognitive surplus' that our society has, the free time that we don't yet know what to do with and generally spend on things like television, and how social media like Wikipedia are beginning to tap into it.

My favorite stats from his talk: The entirety of Wikipedia represents about 100 million hours of human thought. Americans alone watch 200 BILLION hours of television per year. That's 200,000,000,000 hours. Or 2,000 Wikipedias per year.

If people spend 1% of that television time do something productive, that's 20 Wikipedias per year. And this year we're going to sprinkle in a WikiChoice.

(ht @gapingvoid)

Three Principles of Ethical Economics

As I prepared for my recent 'Discipleship Economics' workshop I tried to strain some foundational principles out of my swirl of thoughts about personal economics grounded in personal values. So far I have come up with Three Principles of Personal Economics that I hope you'll find as valuable as I have. They are all based on what I call the Transcendent Virtue: Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

1) Simplicity - Free your time, commitment, and money by limiting your personal needs and meeting them with a minimum of resources. If we ought to care for our neighbors as we do ourselves, it stands to reason that our personal economics must leave room for our neighbors. This begins with limiting how much of our resources are devoted to our own needs.

2) Generosity - Simplicity without generosity is only stinginess or laziness. If a need can be filled by giving your Time or your Commitment, that is probably the best way. Give money as an act of relationship, not in lieu of it. Money is best given within established, ongoing relationships. Generosity should be proactive: Set aside time, commitment, and money; seek out great ways to use them. The results might amaze you.

3) Ethicality - Even as you simplify your lifestyle you will continue to buy things. Many products are made using substandard ethical or environmental practices. Make a serious effort to buy only the most ethically and environmentally sound products. Remember, your neighbor is anyone that you have the opportunity to care for, and each time you make a purchase, you have the opportunity to care for the people behind your product.

(The difficulty in finding this information is why my friends and I are building WikiChoice, a web service that will give you instant access to the best consumer choices. Follow us on Twitter here.)

The Ethical Imperative

[Last minute post before the Idea Camp tomorrow. These topics are fascinating. I can't wait for the discussion]

Economics has lately been on most people's minds, and perhaps on mine more than some. Instead of the national and international economics favored by the evening news, I've been focused on personal economics - the economic decisions of individuals and families.

As I mentioned in my last post, my views on personal economics grow in the soil of my values, and the greatest value, as I see it, is the golden rule in its most positive form - love your neighbor as you love yourself. That is: give another person's needs the same consideration as your own.

It follows, then, that our personal economics must make room for other people's needs. But my observation of the American lifestyle shows me that we have trouble making room for ourselves. We carry bulging budgets, heavy with debt, obligation, and entitlement, unable to bear the weight of an outside request.

In my case, and in yours if you agree with me that empathetic love is a high value, a personal economic imperative has become clear: Simplicity.

As I prepared to write this I first tried to define for myself what the term Simplicity meant in regards to my personal economics. I have used it to describe what sort of house I wanted to live in, how many hours I wanted to work, even how many pots and pans I wanted to own. So it was hard to pin down a definition, but I think I've come close.

"Simplicity is the freeing up of your time, commitment, and money by limiting your personal needs and meeting them with a minimum of resources."

The importance is obvious - by using less of your resources on yourself, you have more to invest in others, in your neighbors as it were.

The practical ramifications of this sort of Simplicity are as difficult as they are obvious, especially for American accustomed to a self-serving consumer culture. Here are a few examples, I'm sure you can add many more:

• Don't live in the most expensive house you can afford. Choose the least expensive house that meets your needs.
• Don't trade in your used car just because the sexy new coupe is out. If it runs, keep it.
• Share and borrow things like power tools, sports equipment, even cars and computers if you can.
• Stay out of consumer debt.
• Eat out less.
• Make your own entertainment instead of buying it.
• Rethink excessive holiday gift giving.
  

The list could go on. I'd love to hear your ideas on Simplicity! Now to bed. Big day tomorrow.