A Magical History of the PDF

We love books, especially physical books; the look of them, the feel of them, the smell of them. And most importantly, their inherent potential to make a life changing difference. However there is a phenomenon that we have interacted with over the years where a PDF file with instruction for some arcane pursuit will be passed around the internet and become somewhat legendary.

The first time this happened we talked about it but chose not to follow the instructions on this unremarkable page of text. Wouldn’t we look foolish if we gave such dedication to something totally unverifiable. On reflection after many years of seeking and training it turns out that original document was an impressively concise description of an empty force-centric qigong method. Our favourite divination system now has a nicely produced companion book however in the early days the card deck was just supported by a simple PDF and was no less effective for this. These files aren’t all black and white text only, the legendary ‘Psychonaut Field Manual’ is a visually inspiring document.

There may be a better file format, we don’t know enough about IT to comment, just a laypersons knowledge. There is something particularly special about these documents because they are so simple, so easy to produce, so utilitarian in their presentation. We’re not even sure what PDF is an acronym for. We could google it, but to quote Ross from friends when discussing the purpose for the little brushy attachment for the vacuum cleaner ‘nobody knows and you’re not supposed to ask’.

A lot of our learning material comes in this format, and unlike the CEO of a certain burger chain, we love to consume our own product!