Silicon Valley is awash in wooden …

Silicon Valley is awash in wooden Montessori toys and shrouded in total screen bans. Parents at work talk about how they don’t allow their teens to have mobile phones, which only underscores how well these executives understand the real damage their product inflicts on young minds.

– from Careless People book by Sarah Wynn-Williams

Lately I’ve been wondering whether having …

Lately I’ve been wondering whether having all of our material needs met from birth has been a positive aspect of our lives. It seems to me it may have resulted in some absence of yearning or striving in us. The quest, I like to call it. When one’s parents or grandparents have already quested and conquered, what is there for subsequent generations to do?

– from The God of the Woods book by Liz Moore

Most countries like Facebook. Germany’s an …

Most countries like Facebook. Germany’s an outlier. The Germans disapprove of everything Facebook stands for. It wasn’t very long ago that Germans lived with networks of spies and informants in their country – the Stasi in East Germany and the Gestapo before that. As a result, they have a fundamental suspicion of anyone who wants to gather lots of personal information – which of course is Facebook’s business model. Where others see a website that’s good for wasting time, Germans see a comprehensive surveillance tool that needs muscular oversight.

– from Careless People book by Sarah Wynn-Williams