illusion

We trained hard . . . but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.

- Charlton Ogburn, From "Merrill's Marauders: The truth about an incredible adventure" in the January 1957 issue of Harper's Magazine

When you travel enough, sooner or later you end up in places you've been before and regardless of where it is, there's always a form of nostalgia. A memory of something about the place that has since changed, a memory of the place that is still real. Like seeing a vehicle you sold on the road, you have intimate knowledge of each scratch on the vehicle, each dent. You know the place, your feet touch the ground with a firmness, planted in the knowledge of previous visits. It's dangerous sometimes because it colors expectations, closes your eyes to what is new and changed.

As more unit knowledge becomes available, unit demand should decrease. Seeing this, greedy people are trying to artificially inflate unit demand. They will fail. They have to.

There are no micro-transactions. There can never be micro-transactions - or in 20 years we will be talking about nano-transactions. And 20 years from there, something else. Why not just say, "increasingly small transactions"?

Solar energy actually comes as alternating current - we just trap half a cycle and block that half from getting away.