about me

What's new?

July 2012. Hanging out at my house in Spokane, trying to keep my young forest garden alive through the summer.

FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions, aFraid to Ask Questions, and Fun to Answer Questions)

I've just discovered your site. What should I read first to understand what you're all about?

Start with my recent essays and newer blog archives, which are linked at the bottom of the home page. If you're reading for fun or inspiration, you might prefer my old stuff, especially Best of Zines. But if you're reading for serious understanding, or if you're going to email me with questions, you need to read my new stuff, because my thinking has adapted over time.

Also there are some interviews of me. In text, the BoingBoing interview by Avi, and older interviews by by Tim Boucher and Burn the Furniture.
In audio, interviews by Paul Wheaton (2011, 28 minutes), Aaron (2006? 40 minutes), Ken Rose (2011, 46 minutes), and Mark Haim at KOPN (2009, 51 minutes).
And here are four videos, around 100 minutes total, of me being interviewed in October 2005 for What A Way To Go: Life at the End of Empire: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

How do you say your name?

My first name rhymes with Dan, not Don. Think of the Flock of Seagulls song, not the Kurosawa film. And I pronounce my last name like it rhymes with "free-er," but the French pronunciation is cool too.

Can you summarize your thinking?

The objective physical universe is a mental construct of limited usefulness. Reality itself has the structure of a dream -- and the Dreamer has depths that we cannot imagine. "You" and "I" are like two fingertips that don't know there's a body -- and that "body" is probably the fingertip of an even larger body, and so on...

So I agree with religion that our world arises from awareness, intelligence, and intention -- but I also agree with science that reality is improvised and full of experiments and mistakes. Sometimes the mistakes are epic. I no longer believe that civilization is a fluke or a dead end. It's more like a puzzle. Given human intelligence and mutability, large complex societies were inevitable, and we have to learn to do them right or go extinct trying.

In my latest thinking about the future, I'm trying to build a bridge between the doomers and the extropians. Energy decline, climate catastrophe, and economic collapse are inevitable, but they will not stop innovations in artificial intelligence, biotech, and the hacking of our own brains and bodies. Technology will change what it means to be human, but this will not create utopia -- as always, it will create bigger problems than it solves.

How about a haiku?

How exactly do you live?

I've answered some questions about this in my Frugal Early Retirement FAQ.

Do you have an RSS feed?

Doing it myself would be too much work, but Patrick has written a script that creates a feed based on the way I format my entries. I've uploaded it to http://ranprieur.com/feed.php. You might also try Page2RSS.

What blogging software do you use? And why don't you enable comments on it?

There are three reasons I don't do comments, any one of which alone would be sufficient. 1) I love hand-coding my own html (so I don't use any blogging software), and comments are tricky to code. I enjoy keeping things uncomplicated. 2) Allowing comments would obligate me to read all the comments and moderate the discussion, and I spend too much time reading computer screens already. 3) I want to have only my favorite stuff as permanent content, and doing it the normal way, with comments and permalinks, would make it impossible (or rude) for me to filter down my own posts and reader comments. A principle of permaculture is that anything in high enough quantity becomes a pollutant, and I believe the internet has been polluted by too much storage capacity -- if people can save everything, they lose the valuable skill of culling.

Do you plan on publishing your writing?

It's already published right here! I'd like to make a physical book, but I want to do a thorough job: scan the handwritten zines, polish the essays, pick out the best blog posts, write disclaimers for stuff I've changed my mind on, have a contest for cover design, and find a publisher that uses acid-free paper at a reasonable cost. Maybe I'll eventually do it myself with a laser printer and some kind of home binding gizmo.

Meanwhile, in May of 2011, a reader went on lulu.com and cranked out a book in a day. It's called How to Drop Out and Other Essays. That link goes to the paperback, and here's the hardcover. In May of 2012, she put together a collection of my zines: paperback and hardcover. Nobody is making money on this, not even Lulu since they take a percentage of the author's profits. Some of the texts are also available as free pdf downloads. Thanks Lexie!

Why don't you submit your writing to places that will allow it to reach a wider audience?

No one who understands fame wants to be famous. I like my small, smart audience. Hopefully someone will "steal" "my" ideas and go on the book tours so I don't have to.

Will you housesit for me?

Now that I own a house, my housesitting days are over. But I might need one some time.

I thought you lived on an off-grid homestead.

I do have ten primitive acres with a tiny hut and some berry bushes, but I don't spend a lot of time there. For more, check out my Landblog FAQ.

Will you come speak at my class or event?

I give my writing away free, because no matter how much I give away, I still have it! I'm less generous with my time. If you want me to come speak, you'll have to pay my transportation costs (ideally in cash), and if it's in another city, someone will have to pick me up and drop me off at the airport/station (unless it's walkable). And if I'm going to be staying the night, or in town for more than a few hours when I'm not at the event, I need a place to hang out with kitchen and internet access. I don't mind crowded messy places or sleeping on couches -- I'd much rather stay with real people than in a hotel. And if your event is so low budget that no one is being paid, you don't have to pay me. You just have to make it easy for me.

What's your email address?

My name as one word, and then gmail and the other stuff.
If you have a comment on something I've written, or something you would like other people to read, you might try posting it to the Ran Prieur subreddit. My inbox is for stuff you only want me to read. I read all personal emails and answer many, but I can't do deep thinking on request. Everyone wants to send me something that they love and I've never heard of, and then I love it too, but that's only ever happened a couple of times. You don't have to bring gifts -- if you just want to email me and say hi, I like that!

Will you be my friend on Facebook, Google+, or some other social network?

So far I've been able to avoid joining those sites, and I ignore all requests. They consume a lot of attention for a low-quality connection.

Do you take donations?

Here's my donation page. I'm doing very well for money right now, but if anyone feels like donating, I won't say no.

More photos?

Here's me looking awfully skinny in Missouri in December 2008 (thanks Ken), and at the permaculture class in April 2006. (Thanks Chuck). And here I am on my land in Summer 2005. Oh, and here's a video of me, an outtake from the film "What A Way To Go".

personal links

100 things about me
Frugal Early Retirement FAQ
Winter Tour FAQ
How I bought a house
I bought land
Eyesight recovery
My July 2004 bike trip
Top 50 Films
Top 150 Songs
Top 25 Albums plus Hawkwind
The Condensed Beatles