Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology

263 Pages·2004·1.45 MB·English

by  Eric Brende

b e t t e r
off
Pulling the Plug on Technology
Flipping the Switch on Technology
ERIC BRENDE

To Mary
(and in repose, John Senior)

Explanatory Note
What follows in these pages is the story of an unusual adventure taken
by my wife and me as an adjunct to my graduate studies at M.I.T.
Because of the highly personal nature of much of the material and the
low tolerance for publicity of the extraordinary people we lived with,
their names have been changed, minor details altered, and the location
kept secret. Nonetheless, although certain liberties have been taken
with chronology and background circumstance, everything described
in this book actually took place.
Readers have some options in how they choose to proceed. The
story can be read the way stories usually are, that is, as entertainment
(I hope riveting), or as food for thought on the broader human condi-
tion (I hope stimulating), or even in this case as a real-life model for
practical action (I hope instructive).
For those inclined there is still another way to read the book, and
that is as a sort of scientific experiment attempting to establish, among
other things, the answer to a key question about technology—namely,
How much is enough? I say “sort of scientific” because, although any-
one can replicate it, the conditions will probably not be identical.

Contents
E-book Extras:
An Interview and Insight into the Mind of Eric Brende
Ten Tips for a Leaner and More Leisurely Life in a
World of Technology
Explanatory Note
Cast of Neighbors
Map: The Community of Sans Motor & Electricity
Prologue 1
Taking Orders
Section I:
Planting 3
1 Seeds of Discontent 5
2 Paring Back 16
3 Lightening Up 30
4 Artfully Answering Nature 39
5 The Ram 46
6 The Missing Refrigerator 60
7 The Sounds of Silence 65
Section II:
Growing 71
8 Quickening 73
9 A Church Meeting 79
10 A Barn Raising 90
11 The Dating Game 103
12 Meet the Neighbors 108
13 Secrets and Politics 132
14 Heatstroke 138
15 Weighing the Work 153
Section III:
Harvesting 169
16 As the Pumpkins Turn 171
17 After the Fall: Even Farmers Get the Blues 179
18 Birth 188
19 Husbandry 196
20 Pulling in the Reins 202
21 Closing Time 215
22 Outside, and the Box 219
Epilogue 227
Recipe for a Leisurely, Laborsaving Life
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Credits
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher