Saturday, September 25, 2010

Two different Readings

Today I read two different things.  The first was a list of cheap and healthy food staples to purchase at the grocery store.  The second was a profile by the New Yorker on Mark Zuckerberg called "The Face of Facebook".  Both quite quite different.

Part 1
The list consisted of ingredients: oats, eggs, potatoes, apples, chickpeas, and spinach etc.  In trying to live a healthy life, I consistently look for ideas.  The whole foods ideas have been especially appealing to me because I like to cook.  The creative aspect of cooking reels me in, though the time it takes (usually an hour per meal) is a little repulsive.  There has been a lot of writing and talk about our frenetic and impatient era and I have thought for a long time that I was a "stop and smell the roses" kind of person.  However, my impatience over food has caused me to rethink that.  My ability to smell the roses has little to do with the slow bloom and more to do with the exquisite wonder of momentary beauty.  Point being a dish made with whole foods: healthy, hearty and delicious is one of those transitory moments of wonder.  The icing on the cake is when I've made it myself, but I can appreciate the beauty of a good meal made by anyone.  Wholesome ingredients and wholesome food, well done, can be amazing!

Part 2
Facebook.  In the past, I have generally felt ungrateful and, at times, scornful of social networking sights (facebook & myspace in particular).  And yet I do have one of each.  This particular profile of Mark Zuckerberg had all that I have come to appreciate about profiles in the New Yorker.  A broad palette of observation not only about the person profiled but also about what they do and the issues they deal with on a consistent basis.  I have found that New Yorker profiles are some of the most fair articles I have ever read.  At the end I feel that I have been given a lot of information both good and bad without being told what I should believe about that person.  The journalism is neat, tidy, three dimensional, colorful, and engaging without browbeating.  I feel that there is more than one way to look at this person and that I have actually seen the person from a few different views.  Impressed and inspired does not begin to cover my reaction to the writing.

On the other side is the content.  And this content was interesting.  I have not see the Social Network movie about Zuckerberg and the beginning of Facebook, nor have I read the book that it is based on.  From what this article claims, neither portrait is very flattering.  Though Aaron Sorkin claims he was not trying to demonize the Facebook mogul.  The idea that Facebook is based on (the world as a more Open place) is one that has been a point of worry and excitement for me. On the one hand, I am all kinds of in favor of openness and cooperation.  Sharing and participating together light my intellectual fires.  But on the other hand, there are definitely things that I would prefer people not to know.  There are things I have been exposed to that I don't particularly think should have been shared.  But then again, keeping an open world might make people more honest: i.e. if everything you ever did would be public knowledge, would you live a different life?

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