Well, this photograph is not only about instant gratification. It’s also about the value of good things.

This is my second pair of Red Wing 2233 boots, which I bought 14 years ago in 1996, and which are my weekend boots for general mayhem and destruction (I have a pair from 2003 which I use during the week). This is the part about the value of good things – sometimes it’s cheaper to buy more expensive but excellent things, as long as you take just a bit of time every now and then to take good care of them.

Which brings me to the title and the question of instant gratification – the boot on the right was exactly like the boot on the left before I spent ten minutes caring for it with lots and lots of shoe polish, and a good brush. Ten short minutes to go from a wreck to something absolutely stunning. This feeling of instant personal realization is priceless for our self worth, considering that we have jobs where the time scales between starting something and seeing (or not) the fruits of that labor can be measured in weeks, months, or even years.

That’s why it’s great to have a few things in life that are this quick and fulfilling.

[originally posted on my Flickr stream]

The Value of Things

Value is a complex thing. Either in a currency system, or in a system of barter, value is something that must be discussed, negotiated, settled. It depends essentially on the ratio between offer and demand, and offer depends on the scarcity of each of the components that make up each good or service. Demand is even more complex, depending on what is needed, but increasingly, on what is wanted.

The evolution of scarcity

In great part, the history of Humanity is the history of technology. Fire is technology. The wheel is technology. Writing, mathematics, farming, bureaucracy – they’re all technologies. And technology upsets the status quo of what scarcity is. The wheel made distance a less expensive commodity. Gutenberg made information so simple to disseminate to the point that it transformed something easy to safeguard to something easy to copy. The loom made textiles worthy of a King available to the poorest. And technology keeps its relentless pace.

The evolution of demand

Producers of goods and services, to safeguard their livelihoods in the face of dwindling scarcity, created fashion. It’s just the simple act of creating “wants” where before there were “needs”. It’s fashionable to have the latest clothing. To live in the best places. To have a finer car. You don’t need any of those things, it’s all a question of what is fashionable.

Meta Evolution

Digital is the meta invention. Digital + The Internet are the Gutenberg press squared. Cubed. What once was made easy is now completely effortless. If you can describe it or scan it, you can make it available to the world, and thanks to the search engines, if you tag it well, it will be found by those who need it (or merely want it). Even if you’re just copying what someone else created, even without their consent.

The Problem

If an artisan spends a considerable percentage of his/her time creating something physical, if you just go and grab what they created, it’s theft. In part because it’s easily enforceable (you can lock physical things up) and also because it’s our culture, of property of physical goods. If an artisan spends a considerable time creating something that can be scanned or is natively digital, and wants to sell it, the buyer can easily duplicate it. Physical goods vs. Informational goods. They’re very different (and even the design of physical goods is usually easily replicated).

Trying to stop the ocean

The intellectual property industry’s reaction was to try to lock content up with DRM (Digital Rights Management). Millions were spent trying to lock what can’t possibly be contained. What they didn’t understand is that it takes only a single copy to get freed to be replicated endlessly to everyone who wants it. Basically it was a big and shortsighted waste of money.

An opportunity

Instead of fighting what can’t possibly be fought, some intelligent people created the Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org) – basically, the expanse between “All Rights Reserved” (full copyright) and “No Rights Reserved” (placing something in the public domain). Instead of only having only the extreme options, they created several types of machine/people/lawyer readable legal licenses under which you can license what you create. Want your work to be available for free, but only for non-commercial uses? But not used in derivative works? But you insist on having it attributed to your name? No problem, Creative Commons licenses have it covered.

For free? Why?

Because the money to be earned is not on things that can be copied. That’s a lost battle. If you’re a musician, you can make more money on concerts and events. If you’re a photographer, more money can be made by shooting specific assignments for customers, or on photography workshops. If you’re a writer, you can make more money by participating as a speaker at conferences. The era of making something and making your livelihood from just selling copies of it is nearing its end. And getting your creations known to the widest possible audience is the key for getting work that can’t be replicated.

Summing up

This is the reason why I don’t create single copies of my photographs or limited editions. I want people to enjoy my photography not because it’s scarce, but because they like it. I do sell signed and numbered copies (limitless editions only), but only for the people who voluntarily want to financially support my art. Don’t buy it as an investment – buy it because you enjoy it and want to see more of it! Everyone else is welcome to just download and use (non-commercially) my photographs any way they like it – on your computer desktop, on your blog, by printing and hanging it on your walls!

You can visit my portfolio at pedromourapinheiro.com

Although I’m not a real programmer, I submitted a LEGO Mindstorms NXT project, and we ended up being the biggest team, with nine members!! Here’s the video:

And besides the project, I had two very unique experiences: first, meeting Mitch Altman and buying a TV-B-Gone kit and assembling it right there and then with his help, and the second, meeting the people from AltLab, Tiago who I had met before at Twittlis, and Catarina, who were demoing their Makerbot Industries open source 3D printer.

Putting 2 + 2 together, I managed to challenge Catarina to design and print an enclosure for my assembled TV-B-Gone, right there at Codebits!

TV-B-Gone inside an enclosure printed on a MakerBot Industries CupCake CNC.

If you have your own 3D printer, you can download the model files here, and print your own TV-B-Gone enclosure!

Kids, *this* is the future, and you probably saw it here first!

This would have been bad 20 years ago...

The graphics inside suffer from the same design genius.

This story is almost 25 years old, and fortunately I still had the privilege to meet him and his son by accident a few years ago before he passed away, to thank him and tell his son how important the lessons he taught were for me and the person I am today.  It was not what he taught though, it was how he did it.

Now that I see it through the eyes of an adult, his system was brilliant.  The only thing that had a scheduled time of the day was dictation (obviously), the rest was our responsability.  Yes, he gave eight year olds responsability.  He’d write up on the blackboard the day’s chores and exercises on the various subjects, and transcribing it to a specific notebook was the first thing we did in the morning.

It was then up to us to follow whatever order we wanted to accomplished the set tasks.  If we finished everything before the day was over, we had a bookcase full of classic comic books we could read (Tintin, Asterix, Blake and Mortimer, Lucky Luke, etc.); if we didn’t finish, whatever was left was our homework.  He changed the amount of work from day to day, both in amount and complexity, to allow all students to experience the excitement of not having homework, and to slowly goad us into greater productivity; other days he gave enough work that nobody could ever avoid taking it home.  He was quietly present in the background, correcting the previous day work, there to answer all questions we might have.

At the time we couldn’t really understand the value this system had, it was more of a drag (even with the possible reward) than anything else.  It was only years later that I realized how much of a difference those two years made on everything else later in my life.

Thank you, Mr. Reis.

From:   xxxx_xxxxx@yahoo.fr
Subject: ASK RESERVATION
Date: 17 March 2008 12:17:45 GMT+00:00
To:   xxxx_xxxxx@yahoo.fr

Hello, Mrs
I name myself XXXX XXXXX and at the time of my weddings with my wife I would like to reserve a room with complete pension with the centre your of your hotel for 10 days a limiting stay. My stay in your hotel will be carried out from the 08/04/2007 to the 18/04/2007.
I would like to also to ask for you a service of order really very capital. I would like to pay the plane tickets but it is that the travel agency here does not have a terminal of taking away, and I have only only my bank cards to make my purchases because the banks here are currently burdens some and I cannot make money withdrawal, which does not enable me to be able to pay the plane tickets.

The service that I would like to thus request near you is as follows: To take on my credit card the amount of the room with complete pension and also the sum of 7000euros which you will turn over by mandate WESTERN UNION or MONNEY GRAMME to the person in charge for the agency for the purchase of the plane tickets and 2000 euros that I offer to you as commission on the service which you to me render.
I ask you for an estimate as follows:
* the total price of the room including the pension supplements for the 10 days.
* 7000 € for the plane tickets.
* 2000 euros like Commission on the service.
I give you the various details:
I.e. you will take on my credit card the amount of the rooms including the complete pension for the 10 days and the sum of 7000 euros for the plane tickets and to forward this sum by mandate WESTERN UNION or mandate MONNEY GRAMME. with the person in charge of the agency located In Ivory Coast of which I will communicate the co-ordinates at the convenient period to you. In fact, we have a reduction with this agency and envisaged to reserve our tickets. I am thus on standby of your confirmation in order to communicate to you my N° of Credit card + the scratch date for the payment. I remain in waiting of the total invoice.
Very Cordially
Mr. XXXXX XXXX . I speak French and a little English

Envoyé avec Yahoo! Mail.
La boite email la plus appreciée au monde.

Nice.

Update: the relevant twitter entries from the visit. Times are GMT, so in the Ukraine the time was two hours ahead.

• On our way north towards Chernobyl, our travelling companions are Dutch couple who have a house in Portugal and speak perfect Portuguese! 07:51 AM February 16, 2008
• Inside the first Chernobyl exclusion radius. 09:05 AM February 16, 2008
• 300m from the Chernobyl reactor 4 10:15 AM February 16, 2008
• Just visited the abandoned amusement park 10:44 AM February 16, 2008
• Exploring apartments in a 16 story building, we went to the top also. 11:11 AM February 16, 2008
• Abandoned kindergarten, very intense experience. 11:31 AM February 16, 2008
• Getting ready to have lunch in Chernobyl 12:31 PM February 16, 2008
• Leaving Chernobyl 01:30 PM February 16, 2008
• Just left the Chernobyl containment area, we had to go through another set of radiation measurements. 01:51 PM February 16, 2008
• Back in Kiev, having a drink with our travel companions. 03:53 PM February 16, 2008

The biggest news now is that I’m going with my friend João Rechena to Ukraine this next weekend, with the purpose of visiting and photographing Chernobyl (see tourchernobyl.com for details).  I hope the geiger counter I ordered arrives in time for the trip!

“…a fast guy in tights and a movie about coffee.” – priceless!!

Who pays this increase in immobilization costs? The final customer, meaning housing and offices are much more expensive than they should be if the necessary official legal steps took a reasonable time. And who profits from it? The lenders – and the bureaucracy, who reaps even more taxes on the interest charged over the loans.