the first step is realizing it's there

Rube Goldberg

n. a comically involved, complicated invention, laboriously contrived to perform a simple operation. - Webster's New World Dictionary

Hello.

My name is Daniel Henderson. I think a lot, probably too much. But I try to be entertaining.

Upon thinking of what to call my professional blog, which will be about sustainability, pointing out what isn't, and hopefully helping folks figure out solutions, I thought about what I might use as an analogy for the current state of developed civilization. Simply put, developed civilization uses extremely resource intensive (energy, water, materials, labor, transportation, etc.) procedures to arrive at an end product or service that is often not even really that necessary. A Rube Goldberg machine seemed like a good fit.

There are millions of Rube Goldberg machines running out there, each set up by clever human beings. Unfortunately most of them aren't trying to be a joke, and they are taken much more seriously. They each have their own support structures, legal frameworks, proven precedents, and resistance to change. But from a systems perspective, which I consider sustainability to largely be about, there is ultimately one large machine that is the sum (or perhaps less) of its parts. It is the one in which we all live.

The first step is realizing it's there. The second is realizing what could be.

Welcome aboard...