Glossary

This page is an index of terminology used or concepts frequently referenced on Handbuilt. One day, it may well host many different terminologies covering all of the things in the Handbuilt Multiverse, ranging from construction terminology to energy policy. But for now, the page currently has but one entry:

“A Place, Where Milk And Honey Flowed Freely In The Streets, When Times Were Good, Which Was Always.” This phrase is a parody– courtesy of my good friend Edward Gerard Woestman- of a line in Michael Moore’s acclaimed 2004 film Fahrenheit 9/11, in which he describes the country of Iraq in the most absurdly pollyanna terms that it almost undermines the entirety of the rest of the film. Moore’s point in this case is that the United States attacked a sovereign nation that had not actually threatened or attacked the United States, contrary to the later determination that “whoops, we actually lied about all of that stuff.” That point would be fine. But that’s not what he said. I use this term to describe any situation in which an extreme exaggeration of an idyllic, near-utopian milieu is intended.

Car Tax. The car tax is not a true tax, but refers instead to the de facto requirement that a worker must own a car in order to be competitive and mobile. This is a significant issue in parts of North America where public transit is chronically underfunded or nonexistent. It is tantamount to a tax because it represents money that workers must spend at private businesses to fill a gap that could be filled otherwise by public infrastructure. It also represents a gross inefficiency given that the average cost of car ownership in the United States is around $10,000 per year. Cars are becoming more and more expensive. This number represents 18.6% of the average gross wage of the American worker, or, just under ten weeks of gross wages. Imagine that a fifth of your labor contribution is working to maintain a rapidly depreciating asset that is only required because of a policy failure. That’s the car tax.

Ivy League Extended Universe. The Ivy League Extended Universe refers to a number of schools that grant diplomas that entitle the bearer to a sort of “golden ticket” status among prospective employers. This list includes the obvious Ivy League schools as well as the likes of Stanford University, Williams College, the University of California Berkeley and the University of Michigan, Kings College in London, Oxford and Cambridge, the London School of Economics, the Sorbonne, etc.

Zorach’s Law. Zorach’s Law states that “no matter what you study, no matter what your professional skill sets, and no matter your job description, a double-digit percentage of your workstream at any given point in time will involve formatting and reformatting documents in Microsoft Word.” This was Zorach’s Theorem until I developed a large enough sample size. Accompanying theory suggests that a double-digit percentage of these workstreams is, accordingly, generally bullshit. We can combat this by developing better interoperability between systems, ensuring things like uniform brand and design standards, fonts, and software (e.g. “all computers must have [x] version of MS Office), and by spending more time on content and product rather than on the rearrange-a-ment [sic] of deck chairs on the Titanic, kind of a thing.

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