The MBTA Subway

The new technology of escalators transformed not just how the walking person is transported in a building, but the way architecture itself is designed, and created fluid transitions without the limits of the sky or ground.

Nathan Ames, an inventor, applied for the patent in 1859 for the first kind of moving stairs, with a belt attached with three wheels, and powered by kinetic energy. This was never built.

As the 19th century came to an end, there were improvements in the way people lived and worked, facilitating the development of malls, skyscrapers, and electric subway trains. The print and photography industry paved the way for better advertising of products and services.

• According to the United Nations, about two-thirds of the world's population will be living in cities by the next 30 years.
• The World Health Organization recommends classrooms to be not louder than 35 decibels, which is never the case in big cities.
• Children are facing disruption in their learning, and research points out that those who study in a noisy place are 11 months behind the ones who are studying in quieter places in the same vicinity.

Most of the city planning is done so that the affluent neighborhoods are in quieter areas.

However, this is also nullified when the ultra-rich who travel frequently stay close to the transit hubs (like Airports), being exposed to high decibels of noise.

• Contemporary graffiti dates back to 1967, arising from the Black and Latino communities in New York City, with the aerosol spray paint acting as a catalyst.
• The artists, known as taggers, used to ‘tag’ or paint in as many locations as possible, with the intention to ‘get up’, having maximum people see the art.
• Subway cars and trains became the next big thing to ‘tag’ with graffiti, as their mobile nature ensured that more people would see it. The giant artwork had a unique energy and aura while it moved, creating an effect that is not possible on a static wall.

In about a decade, the ‘vandalism’ of infrastructure and public property became a big problem in NYC, as it had a negative psychological effect on every citizen. The authorities put in measures to make it harder for the writers to hit their targets, but it just made the game more challenging and interesting for the artists.

Extreme steps were taken in 1984 to clear NYC of Subway car/train graffiti, and commuters had to face hardships, but the practice of street graffiti flourished in the coming decades.

Investors had been wary of Slack since it went public in June 2019 because of its slowing growth, lack of profitability, and competition from Microsoft's competing product called Teams.

But as business swerved to avoid contagion, people were flocking to Slack's product to cope with disaster. Slack became a critical service, like Wi-Fi or electricity.

Although Slack also runs on Slack, the company had a work-at-office culture. As the company closed its offices in March, the executive made a series of decisions to make its mission clearer: Slack would take care of its people first during this crisis. In turn, those employees would take care of their customers.

• They offered to reimburse each employee up to $500 for whatever equipment they needed to do their jobs at home.
• When the schools closed, they advised people to work when they could.
• They encouraged their employees to log out and take care of their kids and families.
• They offer to pay employees their full salaries.

The Walkman goes into history as a social distancing device, isolating people who would want to stay immersed in music, blocking out the rest of the world. This was later termed as the Walkman Effect.

The headphones served as both a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign and an instant way to get transported to a different world.

The 80s saw celebrities like Donna Summer, Paul Simon, Andy Warhol and many others flashing the Walkman, turning it into a status symbol.

Earphones, earlier associated with geekery or hearing problems, suddenly turned cool.

• The first official Olympic race started at the Marathon Bridge and ended at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, a distance of about 24.85 miles. Of the 25 entrants, only 9 runners finished.
• After 1896, in the next few Olympic marathons, it was decided that as long as the runners ran the same course, there was no need to keep the distance exactly the same.
• From the 1908 London Olympics, the course was laid out from Windsor Castle to White City stadium. To put the finish line in front of the royal family's viewing box, an extra 385 yards was added.
• It took 13 years of arguing before the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) adopted the 1908 distance as the official marathon.

Technologies connecting us are actually isolating us. From the telegram to the phone to the mobile to the internet, all major cultural inventions have served the purpose of bringing us closer together. And yet, today, in a work hyper-connected, statistics report that we’ve never felt so lonely. 

The frames we create for what we experience both inform and limit the way we think.  And most of the time we are not aware of the frames we are using.

Being able to question and shift your frame of reference is an important key to enhancing your imagination because it reveals completely different insights.