Why We Drive

Why We Drive PDF Author: Matthew B. Crawford
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062741985
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
A brilliant and defiant celebration of driving as a unique pathway of human freedom, by "one of the most influential thinkers of our time" (Sunday Times) "Why We Drive weaves philosophers, thinkers, and scientific research with shade-tree mechanics and racers to defend our right to independence, making the case that freedom of motion is essential to who we are as a species. ... We hope you'll read it." —Road & Track Once we were drivers, the open road alive with autonomy, adventure, danger, trust, and speed. Today we are as likely to be in the back seat of an Uber as behind the wheel ourselves. Tech giants are hurling us toward a shiny, happy “self-driving” future, selling utopia but equally keen to advertise to a captive audience strapped into another expensive device. Are we destined, then, to become passengers, not drivers? Why We Drive reveals that much more may be at stake than we might think. Ten years ago, in the New York Times-bestselling Shop Class as Soulcraft, philosopher-mechanic Matthew B. Crawford—a University of Chicago PhD who owned his own motorcycle shop—made a revolutionary case for manual labor, one that ran headlong against the pretentions of white-collar office work. Now, using driving as a window through which to view the broader changes wrought by technology on all aspects of contemporary life, Crawford investigates the driver’s seat as one of the few remaining domains of skill, exploration, play—and freedom. Blending philosophy and hands-on storytelling, Crawford grounds the narrative in his own experience in the garage and behind the wheel, recounting his decade-long restoration of a vintage Volkswagen as well as his journeys to thriving automotive subcultures across the country. Crawford leads us on an irreverent but deeply considered inquiry into the power of faceless bureaucracies, the importance of questioning mindless rules, and the battle for democratic self-determination against the surveillance capitalists. A meditation on the competence of ordinary people, Why We Drive explores the genius of our everyday practices on the road, the rewards of “folk engineering,” and the existential value of occasionally being scared shitless. Witty and ingenious throughout, Why We Drive is a rebellious and daring celebration of the irrepressible human spirit.

Why We Drive

Why We Drive PDF Author: Matthew B. Crawford
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062741985
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Get Book

Book Description
A brilliant and defiant celebration of driving as a unique pathway of human freedom, by "one of the most influential thinkers of our time" (Sunday Times) "Why We Drive weaves philosophers, thinkers, and scientific research with shade-tree mechanics and racers to defend our right to independence, making the case that freedom of motion is essential to who we are as a species. ... We hope you'll read it." —Road & Track Once we were drivers, the open road alive with autonomy, adventure, danger, trust, and speed. Today we are as likely to be in the back seat of an Uber as behind the wheel ourselves. Tech giants are hurling us toward a shiny, happy “self-driving” future, selling utopia but equally keen to advertise to a captive audience strapped into another expensive device. Are we destined, then, to become passengers, not drivers? Why We Drive reveals that much more may be at stake than we might think. Ten years ago, in the New York Times-bestselling Shop Class as Soulcraft, philosopher-mechanic Matthew B. Crawford—a University of Chicago PhD who owned his own motorcycle shop—made a revolutionary case for manual labor, one that ran headlong against the pretentions of white-collar office work. Now, using driving as a window through which to view the broader changes wrought by technology on all aspects of contemporary life, Crawford investigates the driver’s seat as one of the few remaining domains of skill, exploration, play—and freedom. Blending philosophy and hands-on storytelling, Crawford grounds the narrative in his own experience in the garage and behind the wheel, recounting his decade-long restoration of a vintage Volkswagen as well as his journeys to thriving automotive subcultures across the country. Crawford leads us on an irreverent but deeply considered inquiry into the power of faceless bureaucracies, the importance of questioning mindless rules, and the battle for democratic self-determination against the surveillance capitalists. A meditation on the competence of ordinary people, Why We Drive explores the genius of our everyday practices on the road, the rewards of “folk engineering,” and the existential value of occasionally being scared shitless. Witty and ingenious throughout, Why We Drive is a rebellious and daring celebration of the irrepressible human spirit.

Traffic

Traffic PDF Author: Tom Vanderbilt
Publisher: Vintage Canada
ISBN: 0307373177
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
Driving is a fact of life. We are all spending more and more time on the road, and traffic is an issue we face everyday. This book will make you think about it in a whole new light. We have always had a passion for cars and driving. Now Traffic offers us an exceptionally rich understanding of that passion. Vanderbilt explains why traffic jams form, outlines the unintended consequences of our attempts to engineer safety and even identifies the most common mistakes drivers make in parking lots. Based on exhaustive research and interviews with driving experts and traffic officials around the globe, Traffic gets under the hood of the quotidian activity of driving to uncover the surprisingly complex web of physical, psychological and technical factors that explain how traffic works.

Why We Drive

Why We Drive PDF Author: Andy Singer
Publisher: Microcosm Publishing
ISBN: 1621061353
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Today, we're married to our cars. But life behind the wheel of an automobile didn't come naturally to Americans. Crooked politicians, unscrupulous businessmen, burning streetcars, and convoluted tax shenanigans are a few of the players in this gripping tale of corruption, greed, and endless miles of asphalt. In Andy Singer's accessible, scandalous tale of motordom, comics, text, and historic photographs tell the story of the rise of the U.S. highway system and the corresponding demise of rail and public transportation. He also explores how we can ditch the car and rebuild a functional transportation system that can bring wealth, happiness, and freedom.

Shop Class as Soulcraft

Shop Class as Soulcraft PDF Author: Matthew B. Crawford
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781594202230
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
A philosopher/mechanic's wise (and sometimes funny) look at the challenges and pleasures of working with one's hands “This is a deep exploration of craftsmanship by someone with real, hands-on knowledge. The book is also quirky, surprising, and sometimes quite moving.” —Richard Sennett, author of The Craftsman Called “the sleeper hit of the publishing season” by The Boston Globe, Shop Class as Soulcraft became an instant bestseller, attracting readers with its radical (and timely) reappraisal of the merits of skilled manual labor. On both economic and psychological grounds, author Matthew B. Crawford questions the educational imperative of turning everyone into a “knowledge worker,” based on a misguided separation of thinking from doing. Using his own experience as an electrician and mechanic, Crawford presents a wonderfully articulated call for self-reliance and a moving reflection on how we can live concretely in an ever more abstract world.

Drive

Drive PDF Author: Daniel H. Pink
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101524383
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
The New York Times bestseller that gives readers a paradigm-shattering new way to think about motivation from the author of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction-at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose-and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live.

The World Beyond Your Head

The World Beyond Your Head PDF Author: Matthew B. Crawford
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374708444
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
A groundbreaking new book from the bestselling author of Shop Class as Soulcraft In his bestselling book Shop Class as Soulcraft, Matthew B. Crawford explored the ethical and practical importance of manual competence, as expressed through mastery of our physical environment. In his brilliant follow-up, The World Beyond Your Head, Crawford investigates the challenge of mastering one's own mind. We often complain about our fractured mental lives and feel beset by outside forces that destroy our focus and disrupt our peace of mind. Any defense against this, Crawford argues, requires that we reckon with the way attention sculpts the self. Crawford investigates the intense focus of ice hockey players and short-order chefs, the quasi-autistic behavior of gambling addicts, the familiar hassles of daily life, and the deep, slow craft of building pipe organs. He shows that our current crisis of attention is only superficially the result of digital technology, and becomes more comprehensible when understood as the coming to fruition of certain assumptions at the root of Western culture that are profoundly at odds with human nature. The World Beyond Your Head makes sense of an astonishing array of common experience, from the frustrations of airport security to the rise of the hipster. With implications for the way we raise our children, the design of public spaces, and democracy itself, this is a book of urgent relevance to contemporary life.

Who Can You Trust?

Who Can You Trust? PDF Author: Rachel Botsman
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1541773683
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
If you can't trust those in charge, who can you trust? From government to business, banks to media, trust in institutions is at an all-time low. But this isn't the age of distrust -- far from it. In this revolutionary book, world-renowned trust expert Rachel Botsman reveals that we are at the tipping point of one of the biggest social transformations in human history -- with fundamental consequences for everyone. A new world order is emerging: we might have lost faith in institutions and leaders, but millions of people rent their homes to total strangers, exchange digital currencies, or find themselves trusting a bot. This is the age of "distributed trust," a paradigm shift driven by innovative technologies that are rewriting the rules of an all-too-human relationship. If we are to benefit from this radical shift, we must understand the mechanics of how trust is built, managed, lost, and repaired in the digital age. In the first book to explain this new world, Botsman provides a detailed map of this uncharted landscape -- and explores what's next for humanity.

How to Drive

How to Drive PDF Author: Ben Collins
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 1452154104
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Here's the ultimate guide to being the best—and safest—driver possible. And an absolute must for everyone with a learner's permit. Former Top Gear Stig and professional driver Ben Collins shares expert skills culled from a twenty year career as one of the best drivers in the world, famous for racing in the Le Mans series and NASCAR, piloting the Batmobile, and dodging bullets with James Bond. Refined over thousands of hours of elite-level performance in the physics of driving, his philosophy results in greater control and safer, more efficient and fun driving for all skill levels.

Welcome to Your Brain

Welcome to Your Brain PDF Author: Sandra Aamodt
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1596915234
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Challenges popular myths while drawing on recent findings in neuroscience to offer insight into how the human brain works, sharing information on topics ranging from the brain's role in religious beliefs to the differences between male and female brains.

Never Stop Driving

Never Stop Driving PDF Author: Larry Webster
Publisher: Motorbooks
ISBN: 0760363420
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
With glorious photography and sharp writing, Never Stop Driving presents the case for the mental and social benefits of driving and engaging with automobiles. It also shows you—from dreaming about a car to living with it—how to jump in and get the most from your machine. There’s never been a better time to go for a drive. As a nation, we are chronically overstressed, overworked, and not sleeping enough. Worse yet, our digital devices are taking ever increasing chunks of what remaining free time we do have. Activities that force us to engage with ourselves and the environment around us are needed more than ever. Might I suggest a spin in a four-wheeled escape pod? The car—the act of driving, repairing, maintaining—drives out distraction and demands we be “present.” Making the car a pursuit invites not just the freedom of the road, but the potential to connect with thousands of like-minded individuals as well as the pleasure of simply caring for the machine. Further, there’s the thrill of commanding an object that represents a high point of human ingenuity and design. Cars invite passion. The first step is embracing the itch and acting on it. Learn how to choose your perfect weekend car, hunt for it, and make the deal. Then, find peace in the wrenches with tips on taking the plunge into maintaining your ride, including how your car can be an opportunity to tear your kids away from their screens and strengthen your bond with them. Next, explore the joy of driving, from scenic byways to taking your car to its performance limit. You’ll also tour the various highlights of the driving life, like how to become an automotive archaeologist, the possibilities for those short on cash but high for adventure, the car as a social gathering point, and what the future with autonomous cars means for those who love to drive. Never Stop Driving shines some light on why we find these machines so captivating, offering some inspiration and validation, and finally inviting those who are curious but haven’t made the leap to get in the car. Let’s roll.