Shorties Volume III
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2026/03/03/one-liners-3/
“Our destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.” –Henry Miller
Hotel in Waikiki: from the balcony on the fifteenth floor I can see other high-rise hotels, but on our block are a pair of two-story apartment buildings. At the one apartment building, every patio is filled with stuff, and on the next building over, the patios are all completely empty. Between our high-rise and the apartment buildings is an empty lot with a fence around it, just across from our building. Between the street and the fence is a homeless man, who has occupied that same spot all week. He caught my eye on the first day, as he was visited by many birds, with whom he was sharing a Domino’s pizza. The next day I saw that there’s a Domino’s around the block. While most folks come and go through the day and night, he is always in his spot, like a video game NPC. I assume he doesn’t want to leave his stuff unattended for long. Aside from the difficulty of living outdoors, being tied to a spot to guard your possessions feels like an even worse burden. Humans need to stretch their legs, not be pinned down to a spot outdoors. “Lock down” without a roof or walls.
I am old enough to remember when The Internet wasn’t just screenshots of quotes from other websites.
What strikes me most is the difference between people who’ve learned to construct what I call ‘containers for attention’ – bounded spaces and practices where different modes of engagement become possible – and those who haven’t. The distinction isn’t about intelligence or discipline. It’s about environmental architecture. Some people have learned to watch documentaries with a notebook, listen to podcasts during walks when their minds can wander productively, read physical books in deliberately quiet spaces with phones left behind. They’re not rejecting technology. They’re choreographing it.
Others are drowning, attempting sustained thought in environments engineered to prevent it. They sit with laptops open, seven tabs competing for attention, notifications sliding in from three different apps, phones vibrating every few minutes. They’re trying to read serious material while fighting a losing battle against behavioural psychology weaponised at scale. They believe their inability to focus is a personal failure rather than a design problem. They don’t realise they’re trying to think in a space optimised to prevent thinking.
All the hype around AI this early may slow long-term adoption, as more people are drawn in to be underwhelmed and put off adoption longer than if they were lured in by a more mature product. That may slow the rate of job loss that we might anticipate due to the new technology. Also, perhaps, the AI bubble will have turned out to be a stimulus for deploying renewable energy generation faster than we might have otherwise, which will hopefully be put towards de-carbonization of the grid as the bubble pops.
“Our job is to keep up a police action against the possibility of a police state.” –Orson Wells
I do not mourn the Ayatollah. I think the Trump Doctrine may come to be defined as “Change the Regime and You Change the Nation” and I think it will turn out to be hollow. So far, Venezuela is as it was, and while Iran’s leaders have many challenges, there’s no reason to believe they can’t replace Khameni and continue more or less as they have for the past decades. Even in America, we elected a Great Leader who emits a great sound and fury and is doing real damage, but the People aren’t with him. Obama didn’t end Racism, and Trump can’t make us goose step. When you strike at the heart of a nation, you tend to make the State stronger. In America, after 9/11, we rallied behind a mediocre president, erected a new Police State, and looked the other way as our government tortured people. There is a reason that other presidents have been shy about following up on talk of “Regime Change” and that is because it can’t be achieved from the air. Change doesn’t come from the Top, it comes from the heart of the People. It is the hearts of Iranians that offer the greatest potential to change Iran. The same is true for Venezuelans and Americans. We The People are the change that we wish for.
I have no idea if people are reading what I write, and it really doesn’t matter. It gets the ideas out of the whirlwind in my head so I can make space for new things. —Michael Pusateri
