Virginia Postrel
Virginia Postrel
Virginia Inman Postrelis an American political and cultural writer of broadly libertarian, or classical liberal, views...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth14 January 1960
CountryUnited States of America
became life radically ubiquitous urban
Before it became a ubiquitous part of urban life, Starbucks was, in most American cities, a radically new idea.
cuts human including indeed
Habituation is indeed a fact of human psychology. That's one reason we like novelty, including different cuts of jeans.
children freaks less tube
Like the 'test tube babies' born of in vitro fertilization, cloned children need not be identifiable, much less freaks or outcasts.
makers policy science scientists studying worried
Even before Sputnik, scientists and policy makers worried that not enough Americans were studying science.
central depends drives gather knowledge progress sort surprise
Surprise drives progress because innovation depends on the sort of knowledge no one can gather in a central place.
discovery civilization competition
How we feel about the evolving future tells us who we are as individuals and as a civilization: Do we search for stasis-a regulated, engineered world? Or do we embrace dynamism-a world of constant creation, discovery, and competition?
curves people tails
On the Internet, people on the tails of the bell curve can find one another.
coffee mean cutting
Abundant choice doesn't force us to look for the absolute best of everything. It allows us to find the extremes in those things we really care about, whether that means great coffee, jeans cut wide across the hips, or a spouse who shares your zeal for mountaineering, Zen meditation, and science fiction.
blue wife comedian
Kidney disease is a low-profile, unglamorous problem, a disease that disproportionately strikes minorities and the poor. Its celebrity spokesman is blue-collar comedian George Lopez, who received a kidney from his wife.
responsibility individual-choice people
In a dynamic, decentralized system of individual choice and responsibility, people do not have to trust any authority but their own.
errors progress trials
Progress through trial and error depends not only on making trials, but on recognizing errors.
doctors attention want
Medicare is immune from the competitive pressures that force private insurers to pay attention to what patients and doctors want.
stamps impulse hard
The impulse for personal adornment is hard to stamp out.
smart thinking skills
The SAT is not perfect. We all know smart, knowledgeable people who do badly on standardized tests. But neither is it useless. SAT scores do measure both specific knowledge and valuable thinking skills.