Un-Wired

Today was a surprisingly emotion tugging day for me…  I received a notification of subscription renewal for Wired Magazine for just shy of $30 for the year (a monthly issue – hard-copy via “snail-mail”).  This is more than normal (at least in the past) and I just don’t believe I can justify the continued subscription now I’m into my sixth year of retirement.  So, I’ve canceled my subscription…
I started reading Wired back in 2000, when I got hired as a web-development manager in San Francisco (just before the “dot-bomb”) at a “dot-com”.  The company I was working at had a whole bookshelf of every back issue of Wired from inception to present (2000).  I started at issue #1 and read them all – cover to cover – during the time I was separated from my family.  After I got current, I purchased my own subscription and have maintained it all of these 20+ years – until today.  So, I am probably one of just a few people who can say they’ve read EVERY issue of almost 30 years of Wired.  Interestingly, (to me anyway), I was the only person at the company who EVER read the magazine.  I asked!  I also asked why we kept the annual subscription if no one read the magazine, and was told:  “We have a handful of subscriptions and we just renew them all each year.”
Now, in full disclosure, I have to qualify that I’m “currently” a few months behind in my reading, due to “life issues”, so you will probably see multiple quotes from 2022 issues in the future as I wrap up the outstanding reading.  My future son-in-law is also a hard-copy subscriber, and he’s promised to hold on to and pass along his copies.  Other than that, there’s always the public library…
Having cancelled my subscription to Time Magazine last year (June 2022 – after a near 50 year relationship), it feels strange to cut another string from my past primary written information sources.
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On This Day In:
2022	You Ought To Be Having Fun
2021	Democrats Talking To Republicans
	Talkin’ To Myself And Feelin’ Old
2020	You Are Not Late (Yet)
2019	Too Difficult To Try
2018	Hold Fast
2017	The Only Real Security
2016	Time Said
2015	If Only Common Sense Were More Common
2014	PTI
2013	What Now, Then?
2012	Big C, Little B
	Duty, Honor, Country

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An Exquisite Balance

It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs:  the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas …  If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you …  On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful ideas from the worthless ones.
—    Carl Sagan
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On This Day In:
2022	You Ought To Be Having Fun
2021	Democrats Talking To Republicans
	Talkin’ To Myself And Feelin’ Old
2020	You Are Not Late (Yet)
2019	Too Difficult To Try
2018	Hold Fast
2017	The Only Real Security
2016	Time Said
2015	If Only Common Sense Were More Common
2014	PTI
2013	What Now, Then?
2012	Big C, Little B
	Duty, Honor, Country

Read Full Post »