I love finding yet more ways to reduce how much I pollute (that is, hurt people)
There’s nothing like Hands-On Practical Experience. People who haven’t tried keep telling me various ways of hurting people are impossible, that people wouldn’t go for them.
Yet, simply trying reveals ever more little advances. Once I learned to find it joyful and rewarding to reduce suffering instead of a burden or chore, as mainstream global teaches, I find ever more ways to create joy and find reward.
Two examples
I don’t claim these examples make that much of a difference, but the Spodek Method leads to a mindset shift followed by continual improvement, not followed by perfection.
For years, for some reason, I’ve had a hard time moving sound and video files from my computer to my cell phone to where I could listen and watch them there. There were two root problems. One is that I’m lazy about such things. The other is that my laptop runs Linux, which embraces and promotes freedom, but my phone is made by Apple, which prefers proprietary restrictions. Compared to Linux, Apple disdains and tramples on freedom.
I have an Apple phone because a friend’s husband got a new one while the old one worked just fine (as Apple fans do), so he gave it to me for free. It’s a 7, which Wikipedia says was released in 2016. I think I acquired it before covid, but not sure. Wikipedia also said it was made by Foxconn, so maybe by slave labor. I avoid spending money on Apple, though accept using the product when I haven’t paid anything for it.
Anyway, at last I found out how to move files from my computer to phone so I can listen and watch files on the phone that I used to on the laptop. I should mention, I rarely watch videos or listen to podcasts on the browser, like on YouTube or podcast browser apps. I download them (usually videos at the lowest resolution available) and watch or listen on a player without a browser. This way
- Reduces my computer’s power consumption
- Reduces how much data is sent
- Prompts me to watch less
- Prompts me to prioritize what I watch or not
- Lets me watch when I feel like it
Listening and watching on the phone using a native media player instead of directly on YouTube or whatever browser-based media player uses even less power than my computer using a native media player.
The end result: I reduce power demand, energy consumption, and battery wear even more.
The second example is that I’ve shifted far more to raw food. I’ve written about legumes that don’t need cooking, which reduces how much energy I use a lot, since the pressure cooker draws the most power of any appliance.
Plus I got a book on sprouting that a neighbor was throwing away. I haven’t finished it, but I expect it will lead me to sprout more.
End result
The end result is I’m hurting people through polluting and depleting less than ever with no burden or chore.
For an illustrating image, here’s one of my last electric bills, from the year or so before I closed my account, after I’d disconnected my apartment from the grid. I wonder what joyful reductions I’ll find next.
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