Giving up on keeping up with the Joneses
There is nothing less Slow than a book tour. I'm now criss-crossing North America to promote my new book, Under Pressure, and my schedule is a punishing round of interviews, speeches and short-haul flights. The good news is that I only have to do this once every few years. And that I get a chance to catch up on my reading. Just started the hauntingly beautiful Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje. The other day I came across an intriguing column by Christopher Caldwell in the Financial Times that reminded me of some earlier comments on this blog about how capitalism fits into the Slow revolution. It seems that the go-getting US middle-classes, one of the main engines of the global economy, are having a change of heart. After years of working longer and longer hours to pay for bigger and bigger houses and cars and everything else, they are starting to ask whether all the toil and hurry and stress are worth the trouble. In a study released earlier this month by the Pew Research Center in Washington DC, middle-class Americans were asked to name their Number One priority in life. The top answer, given by 68 percent of respondents was: "having enough free time to do the things you want." Is this because Americans are warming to the Slow revolution? Or are they simply growing disillusioned with an economic system that seems less and less fair? Or both? Either way, some basic assumptions about the economic future are coming under review. For the first time in history, median family incomes adjusted for inflation actually fell during the last boom (1999-2006). And over 40% of middle-class Americans no longer believe that the "rich achieve their wealth through hard work and ambition." Maybe this is the moment to start hammering out a recipe for Slow capitalism....
The spring is covering Finland with birth and the we are crawling out under our stones...
Here´s a Ludvig -thought on Slow capitalism:
Show me a company who will:
1. prohibit watches from the employees,
2. prohibit hurrying on the workplace,
3. have a free hour after the lunch hour,
4. have the scent baked rolls in the morning
and I will show you a more happy and effective working environment and more profitable company.
These are just few simple, cheap, things that can make any worker feel good. Isn´t that the core of the problem: how does one feel? Now we all know the difference between a worker who feels good and one who feels like shit. A happy worker makes profits and unhappy makes losses. This is a fact based on empiric self examination. The numbers on this research clearly proved that an individual worker with a bad attitude can be up to 3,4 billion % less effective for the company he´s working for. That´s a fact.
Capitalism will never be an entirely positive thing for the world but Slow capitalism gives a better chance tho see the little wonders that the world hides from those who hurry... ;)
Voimaa!
We have a regular 8 hour schedule, yes, but it's very rare that we have to work overtime. Things are pretty well organized and we usually have lots of free time to surf the web a bit and take our coffee and cookies in the kitchen.
The work that I do is sort of preventive, creating music that might be used in future projects. So, this way, I'm building a soundtrack database that can save us from rushing into frenetic work. I can create in a very calm way, and I'm a fast composer anyway, so it all merges well. It's a great job.
Of course I'd say that it could get even better, some other slow values could be brought into the company, but let's see what happens as time goes by. I'm still the noobie around here.
A Portuguese man-of-war
Has come knocking at my door
Albeit in electronic form
Which is the 21st-century norm
This nasty beastie with a tail
Is e or evanescent mail
Few have not yet been afflicted
And worse, many are now addicted
So spare a thought before you send
That CC does not equal friend
Nor anyone that needs to know
The hidden meaning in the snow
Created by your e-mail blizzard
That?s clogging up society?s gizzard
Help me with my email detox
By sending less to my inbox!