Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
Read I Pencil
16
Read, "I, Pencil"
Warmup
1. Do you know how to make a pencil? Does anyone?
2. Is it better that everyone only do one specific job, or that some people do many specific jobs?
3. Do the voters as a whole know how to make a pencil? Should they be trusted to ensure that we have pencils?
4. "Supply chains."
Leonard E. Read
Content
"I, Pencil"
Introduction
Mystery
Seemingly simple. But no one can understand me.
Mystery
Knowledge
Parts, People
And people cooperate--people who don't know each other and aren't being directed by a central authority. Why?
Parts
Four Lessons
1. Innumerable antecedents
2. No one knows
3. No master mind
4. Testimony galore
Innumerable antecedents
Wood
Logs in the Pacific Northwest.
Saws, trucks, gear. (Steel.) Rope (hemp).
Railcars, railways. Kilns, bleach, electricity, oil.
Factory owners invested instead of consuming.
Wood
Graphite
Graphite in Sri Lanka.
Miners: tools, food, paper sacks, string, lighthouse keepers.
Cargo ships, airlines.
Clay from Mississippi.
Who directs all these people to work together?
Graphite
Lacquer
What is lacquer? What is it made of?
Lacquer
Brass
Miners.
Black nickel: What is it and where do you get it?
Brass
Eraser
Factice: Ever heard of it? Where do you get it and how do you make it?
Eraser
No one knows
Knowledge
Does anyone know how to make a pencil?
Knowledge
Millions
Each contributes an infinitesimal bit.
All are necessary.
Millions
Why?
Don't want pencils.
May have never seen a pencil.
Instead, self-interest.
Why?
No master mind
Invisible Hand.
Millions of tiny know-hows; human desire.
Why wouldn't this work for, e.g. delivering the mail?
No master mind
Testimony galore
Other items.
Four lb. of oil from Persian Gulf to Eastern Seaboard for less than price of a stamp.
Read: "Leave all creative energies uninhibited."
Testimony galore
Conclusion
No central office, no police enforcement, no democratic decision-making.
Different lands, languages, religions--but they cooperate anyway.
Conclusion
Questions
1. What is the point of telling this story?
2. If pencils are this complicated, what about other objects?