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Why Are 80s Retro Items Expensive?

January 26, 2018

Society

change, comparing, economy, growing up, nostalgia, society

In my post about nostalgia I talked about the fact that we recollect not space or time, but feelings. Still, problems related to time (and space) can and do creep in. Have you notice how expensive retro items have become?

For instance, I couldn’t have imagined when I was a kid, growing up in the 80s, that items such as my Casio wristwatch, my Tomy water games, or my board games, would three decades later be worth 10 times their value. To some extent, this is something you can expect with retro or vintage items.

And yet, one would think that such should be the case with something that is either far older (say, a toy from the 1920s) or far more rare (say, a limited-edition camera). To see a simple plastic toy from the 80s, which was surely produced in substantial quantities, cost a hundred euros or more, is baffling. What could be the reason for that, why are some 80s retro items expensive?

retro items expensive
I had a similar watch in the 80s. Back then it cost peanuts. Nowadays, not exactly
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Superstitious People and the Meaning of Life

January 24, 2018

Philosophy

causality, ignorance, luck, meaning, perception, superstition

The title (“Superstitious People and the Meaning of Life”) might come off as hopelessly pompous. Let me assure you that you will not find answers about the meaning of life in this article 😛

First of all, let’s start with the basics: what do we mean by superstitious people? And then we will have to deal with the crux of the matter: why are there superstitious people?

A superstitious person is one who perceives a connection that is non-causal between two events. In simpler terms, a superstition is the belief that event A causes event B, although there is no apparent link between them.

For example, an evident causal connection (a causal link, in other words) is that between accidentally dropping a glass of water, then seeing the floor wet and full of glass shards. Your dropping the glass (event A) has caused the state of the floor (event B). Sometimes a causal link can be more complex, such as in the linkage between thunder and rain. There can be thunder without rain, as there can be rain without thunder. But if there is thunder followed by rain, there is an obvious connection between the two events.

superstitious people
Me? Unlucky? Get outta here!
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Linear Narrative Progression? No, Thanks

January 23, 2018

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

art, creativity, fiction, literature, time, writing

Narrative Progression: From Point A to Point B

One of the biggest markers of inexperienced genre fiction writers is the way their narratives progress. In genre fiction such as romance fiction, detective fiction, etc. events often occur in a very linear way. A leads to B which leads to C; one second, then one second, then one second. A narrative progression where events are described in the order they have occurred is called a linear narrative progression and, as you realize, it is the simplest way to narrate an event. Let’s see a quick example, which we can later adapt and reuse.

Last weekend I went to New York and met a guy named John. Today I saw John walking down the street here, in Boston. We agreed to go fishing next Sunday

It’s a clear, natural-looking example. You wouldn’t think that there’s anything wrong with producing an entire narrative like that, right? Only, there is, which is the motivation behind today’s article. I will first show you why it’s a bad idea to structure your book following a linear narrative progression, then I will show you how to restructure it in a nonlinear narrative progression.

linear narrative progression
In a narrative, unlike reality, time doesn’t have to progress in a linear fashion
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