Day 9 – I, Pencil

The Foundation for Economic Education released the 50th Anniversary Edition of I, Pencil in late 2008. Written by Leonard E. Read in 1958, I, Pencil illustrates the importance of markets and dispersed knowledge and shows why centralized economic planning cannot work.

In the afterword, Milton Friedman writes:

Leonard E. Read’s delightful story, “I, Pencil,” has become a classic, and deservedly so. I know of no other piece of literature that so succinctly, persuasively, and effectively illustrates the meaning of both Adam Smith’s invisible hand — the possibility of cooperation without coercion — and Friedrich Hayek’s emphasis on the importance of dispersed knowledge and the role of the price system in communicating information that “will make the individuals do the desirable things without anyone having to tell them what to do.”

If you have not read it, you should. It is short, but powerful.

Download the 50th Anniversary Edition of I, Pencil (PDF).

Today was a great day. It started out a little rough with going to work at the high school at 7 a.m. and confronting Radius wireless issues, both server- and client-side, but after lots of headaches in Joe, Sean, Mr. Strohm, Gary, and me, those were finally taken care of.

I attended Sean Nelson‘s web design class at AJH in the afternoon to see how things were going. It looks to me like he is teaching his students quality tips on web design and he is doing a great job at it. He explains what he is doing in words, shows how to write the code, then shows the final result all while explaining how and why what he is doing works. He teaches very valuable lessons. Great job, Sean!

Later in the evening, Amanda went to dinner with my parents and me, then we came back home and watched a movie then finished one she started previously but never had the time to finish. It was nice to spend time with her. When I drove her home, the roads were terrible! The roads had at least two inches of snow on them and they had not been cleared. Luckily I drove my parents’ Suburban which has four-wheel drive. While other people were sliding all over the road, I had no issues. Overall, I had a wonderful day today.