From the International Herald Tribune (in many parts of Greece and Turkey, the only English-language newspaper available), a really interesting article appears on entrepreneurs building companies to the right size for their lives: Not growing, and happy about it.
This article feels like an adjoining thought to Tim O'Reilly's essay, Buy Where You Shop, about demonstrating your values through your purchases. I wrote about the essay just after we'd purchased our brilliant little digital camera (Buying a Digital Camera Where You Shop) and today's article feels like the step in thinking about how our purchases fit in with the way we want the world to be. I'm not a big fan of the idea that purchasing is equal to voting with dollars, because I think it devalues citizenship to a simple transaction, but I can see how it can act as an effective reflection of values: buy according to what you want to support. In this case, people are opting out of the myth of growth and shooting for sustainable businesses that work for them. V. Cool.
Anyway, not a big deal and I don't want to go on too much more with the sanctimony, but it makes me consider my everyday decisions. Anyone out there have any good small tactics to support what you value? Share and share alike.
Posted by James Sherrett at November 30, 2005 03:57 PM