An hypothesis and a question

The big people in the big offices can read newspapers, magazines, and other print material for as long as they wish in pleasurable and nonthreatening secrecy. The little people in the little cubicles, on the other hand, are very much on display, and even if they get all their work done can not use the time left over to read newspapers, magazines, and other print material. No matter how productive, it seems unproductive, and is not a great way to get from little to big.

The Internet came about for its own reasons, and blogs too. But once there was a certain amount of online material, the little people--i.e. the young--started reading that stuff in their spare time at work instead of the print material. Thus they satisfied their private intellectual desires while also satisfying their semi-public professional requirement of always looking at least potentially engaged in the work at hand. Once they graduated to the bigger offices, they brought those reading habits with them, and that to perhaps an under-appreciated extent promoted digital culture at the expense of traditional print. Of course there were other forces at play, but this was one.



Standing outside the office for fresh air, coffee in hand, reading a print magazine that I feel too self-conscious in perusing at my desk. Man approaches.

"Hey man, you got a hard quarter?"

"A hard quarter?"

[He holds up a quarter in his left hand.]

"What's a soft quarter?" I ask.

[He holds up two dimes and a nickel in his right hand.]

"Oh I've never heard of that." I reach into my pocket and give him a quarter, just to give it to him.

He smiles and gives me dimes and nickel.

"Oh," I say. "Thank you."

Why did I say thank you?