The underlying message behind most modern technology – from personal devices and vehicles to next-day shipping and on-demand entertainment – is that our individual preferences are of utmost importance and that our will and desires are to always be trusted. I try to follow certain rules and disciplines to push back on that message. Here...

“While the government is 'studying' and funding and organizing its Big Thought, nothing is being done. But the citizen who is willing to Think Little, and, accepting the discipline of that, to go ahead on his own, is already solving the problem. A man who is trying to live as a neighbor to his neighbors will have a lively and practical...