I, Pencil: An Ingenious Vintage Allegory for the Invisible Hand and How Everything Is Connected | Brain Pickings
▻http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/06/03/i-pencil-leonard-read
http://www.brainpickings.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/pencil_wendymacnaughton.jpg 
http://www.brainpickings.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/pencil2.jpg I, Pencil: An Ingenious Vintage Allegory for the Invisible Hand and How Everything Is Connected
by Maria Popova
“If you can become aware of the miraculousness which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing.”
For an object this seemingly simple, the pencil is not only an artifact with a remarkably fascinating history but also an enduring staple of creative culture — from John Steinbeck, who kept exactly twelve sharpened pencils on his desk at all times, to David Byrne, who captured the human condition in pencil diagrams. But although it is one of humanity’s humble masterpieces of design and ingenuity, we continue to underappreciate the pencil’s genius.