[ericpan64]

Hey HN - long-time lurker and decided to start writing essays (inspired by PG and many of y'all as well). This one came from months of joking with my friends about different "fancy rug" problems which led me to think about my own "fancy rugs". Enjoy!

[spondylosaurus]

I have to ask... why the extra lettuce? At In-N-Out I sometimes ask for less lettuce because I feel like it's unnecessary filler compared to the other ingredients, lol. Maybe they've just been giving my unused lettuce to you...

[sandspar]

Not OP but I also order extra lettuce on burgers. Lettuce is free "crunch", basically. Crunch is good in general - and especially necessary on burgers, which otherwise tend to sliminess.

[ericpan64]

Thanks for lettuce-sharing :-D agree with other post-er on extra "crunch". Personally I like the lightness of the lettuce in contrast with the burger oils and onions, it's the right balance for me. And in my mind it's more free food (my stomach capacity is quite large)

[smitty1e]

Merging all the dimensions of the question into Value as a function of Cost seems part of the challenge.

Value is such a subjective concept. You finally get down to "We all need things transcending pure utility, connecting us to stories bigger than ourselves." at the end of the post.

Even if "bigger than ourselves" takes on some explicit religious angle--thinking the Amish here--there is still copious room to dislike the fact that the Amish are rolling around in "them new-fangled buggies" instead of being on foot like they were in the Good Book.

[pixl97]

I think part of the Amish line of thought is instead of randomly and quickly adopting technology/growth a community should take time to understand what the impacts are of using them.

Some people think Amish don't use electricity, but that's not true. You'll find quite a few of them with things like solar panels and LED lights. These things tend to have very long lifespans and no grid connections limiting needs from outsiders.

[mlpinit]

Thanks for writing. This was an enjoyable read.

So in the spirit of this blog post what kind of rug did you make and where would you guess the audience/audience distribution falls on the graph?

[ericpan64]

Thank you for the read and glad you enjoyed it!

For me, writing this up was like finally laying-out and using some "fancy rug" ideas and admitting to myself they're nice though not necessarily practical nor particularly special. Though they're special to me and that's something I've come to appreciate for what it is.

I hope this was a "sweet deal" read for a good amount of people! And seems likely mostly somewhere in the middle, though confident that most people can take something interesting back with them