Mastery & Mimicry  

In 1930, Gandhi spent 8 months in the Yerawada Jail in western India. During that time, he invented a new spinning wheel that came to be known as the Yerawada charkha. The Yerawada charkha is one of the more beautiful pieces of technology I’ve seen; it’s elegant, easy-to-build, and efficient.

Gandhi made the spinning wheel a linchpin of his independence campaign. And it worked. By spinning their own cloth, poverty-stricken villagers gave themselves a source of income and spiritual sustenance. They freed themselves from their dependence on the British textile industry. And they spawned an ecosystem of trades and tools, from weaving to dying to washing to carpentry, that restored vibrancy to the villages.

This is a wonderful read about technology and psychology and the interdependence of the two. If you don’t like the format try the printable version instead