Logging online can be daunting. From tough news cycles to mind-numbing, hyper-critical social media platforms, simply being online can be draining and depressing. But one website is attempting to produce the opposite effect.
Jordan Dworkin is an associate program officer in the Abundance and Growth Fund at Coefficient Giving, a philanthropic fund dedicated to accelerating technological progress, expanding economic growth and reducing the cost of living.
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He created a website last month showcasing the technological advancements the world has seen since its inception. At its core, Dworkin says, the site “is a tour through past perspectives on our modern amenities.”
But what many are finding is it’s a beautiful way to show off what we, as humans and Americans, should be grateful for — and a means of highlighting what some may take for granted.
The Ordinary Abundance website
Log into your computer, type OrdinaryAbundance.com into a search bar, and you’re met with something rather simple: A cartoon drawing of what looks to be a rather minimalistic apartment. It features a sitting room, a kitchen and a “back room.”
But what’s in those rooms is meant to be the focus. Scroll through the site, and each item is highlighted, pointing out that those items were considered basic necessities. Rather, they were a major innovation and advancement.
“Edward Bellamy once imagined that music on demand would be ‘the limit of human felicity,’” the site reads. “A modern apartment is full of things that once drew the same kind of awe.”
From the lamp on a shelf in the living room to the medications in the bathroom vanity, nearly every item in the apartment was once beyond most people’s imagination.
Each item is paired with a quote meant to show the innovation’s impact and importance.
When highlighting the spices in the kitchen, Dworkin quoted the medieval French writer Jean de Joinville: “It is said that these things come from the earthly paradise; for the wind blows down the trees in paradise, just as the wind blows down the dry wood in the forests of our own land.”
And the pain medications? “Before whom, in all time, surgery was agony; by whom pain in surgery was averted and annulled; since whom, science has controlled pain.” It’s the epitaph of W.T.G. Morton, a 19th-century American dentist who introduced ether for anesthesia.
The site even highlights things as simple as running water and a paperback book, as technologically advanced as a cellphone and refrigeration.
A positive impact and response
The website went live in July. Then, on Friday, a CBS News employee posted about it on X, and things took off.
“Ordinary Abundance. This is the greatest thing I’ve read in weeks. No kidding,” Mike Pesca, editorial director for news and politics podcasts at CBS, wrote on X. “This should win a Pulitzer in a category not yet invented.”
Since then, his post has been viewed more than 1.4 million times, with more than 1,000 reposts and thousands of likes.
Professionals across the country and even Canada have shared it, praising the site and what it stands for.
“We truly don’t realize our good fortune that we live in ordinary abundance,” one user wrote.
“Tired of doomerism?” another user wrote. “You’re not alone. This is the best thing you’ll read all week, if not all year. It deserves to be widely shared.”
So if you’re looking for some history, positivity and a chance to feel grateful, give Ordinary Abundance a try.
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