15 + 75 points
Map Your Life by copystar
August 3rd, 2008 8:35 AM / Location: 42.314123,-83.03676Robert Putnam [a Harvard political scientist] likes to imagine that there is a triangle, its points comprising where you sleep, where you work, and where you shop. In a canonical English village, or in a university town, the sides of that triangle are very short: a five-minute walk from one point to the next. In many American cities, you can spend an hour or two travelling each side. “You live in Pasadena, work in North Hollywood, shop in the Valley,” Putnam said. “Where is your community?” The smaller the triangle, the happier the human, as long as there is social interaction to be had. In that kind of life, you have a small refrigerator, because you can get to the store quickly and often. By this logic, the bigger the refrigerator, the lonelier the soul.
There and Back Again: The Soul of the Commuter. Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker. [via words]
I have a medium sized refrigerator:
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posted by JJason Recognition on August 3rd, 2008 2:54 PM
That articles kind of bleak. I always enjoyed commuting.
posted by susy derkins on August 3rd, 2008 2:01 PM
I like them a lot, both your map and the triangle idea.
Early year center, daycare: places invisible for a lot of people, I think is brave to put them on.
posted by Waldo Cheerio on August 3rd, 2008 6:40 PM
In theory then I should be the happiest man alive this summer, as I work 15 feet from where I sleep, and do most of my shopping online...
posted by copystar on August 4th, 2008 4:13 AM
While I went for a literal interpretation of the task at hand I did briefly consider creating a Life Map, the Oprah Winfrey (c) way.
posted by Tac Haberdash on August 8th, 2008 9:59 PM
The bigger the refrigerator, the lonelier the soul.
That's beautiful.
Welcome to the game, Newjack.
A fine completion, and an interesting article.
By the triangle metric, I'm doing pretty well: a seven minute walk to work, and very little food in the house that I didn't carry home on foot; however it's not clear to me the author's choice of vertices are appropriate in a society where the market isn't a significant social center.
The nice thing about a large refrigerator, after all, is that one has to spend very little time shopping. I probably average a tiny bit over an hour a week shopping. Two times that if eating out counts as shopping. There are plenty of activities which take up more of my time. A live/work/play triangle is really more useful. And on that version, I'm doing significantly less well. It's also a tougher one to change, unless you're not at all picky about where you work or the people among whom you play.