The Death of the Cubicle and the Profit Motive
by Wholesome Rage | 28 June 2019
Robert Propst invented the office cubicle to improve the quality of life of office workers in the mid-60s. The padded, insulated walls and customizable work environment was meant to be a big improvement over the heavy tables lined up in tight rows like a school classroom.
What was meant to be private spaces workers could move around in became twisted towards packing as many workers into as tight spaces as possible. The cubicle farm was born.
Gentlemen Volunteers
by Wholesome Rage | 14 June 2019
The Napoleonic era was an interesting period of warfare, to say the least.
A lot of the drilling revolved around morale. In line warfare, soldiers would line up in front of each other shoulder-to-shoulder, no more than 100 paces from each other, and fire. Maybe one in 200 shots would actually hit anything, because they weren’t trained in aiming. Just in reloading as fast as possible, and operating in synchronicity with allies.
Everything was designed to make sure nobody would run away, stick together. Battles were mostly won and lost on whose morale broke first - which is saying a lot. Facing a firing squad, cannons and cavalry is terrifying.
This is why gentleman volunteers are such a weird concept. They were noblemen, the landed aristocracy, who paid their own way to a battlefield, and bought dinner for a general where they asked him very nicely for command of a unit. Then, he’d probably assign them one.
Playing in the Sandbox
by Wholesome Rage | 7 June 2019
This could be considered a spiritual sequel to the Hazardous Materials, in a way.
If some ideas are unstable explosives to work with, others are like sand and water. Easy to work with to the point of not needing to pay them any mind at all.
Let’s talk about sandbox stories.
| Category | # |
|---|---|
| Writing Advice | 24 |
| Gaming | 4 |
| History | 4 |
| Media | 20 |
| Guest Article | 7 |
| Economics | 18 |
| Politics | 30 |
| Audio | 4 |
| Fiction | 1 |
| Mental Health | 2 |
