Wool & Words

In my blog-surfing, I came across a post on Creating Passionate Users (great place to muse on things technological) that made me turn off the T.V. and blog--but only for a moment.

The Asymptotic Twitter Curve

A quote:

We're evolving much, much, much too slowly... Brain 2.0 isn't coming anytime soon. And we're all feeling the enormous weight of not being able to keep up. We can't keep up with work. We can't keep up with our social life. We can't keep up with the industry, our hobbies, our families. We can't keep up with current events. We'll never read a fraction of those books on our list. And we are hurting.

Worst of all, this onslaught is keeping us from doing the one thing that makes most of us the happiest... being in flow. Flow requires a depth of thinking and a focus of attention that all that context-switching prevents. Flow requires a challenging use of our knowledge and skills, and that's quite different from mindless tasks we can multitask (eating and watching tv, etc.) Flow means we need a certain amount of time to load our knowledge and skills into our brain RAM. And the more big or small interruptions we have, the less likely we are to ever get there.

Reading this was like reading my mind today. I've been turning over my daily routines, considering the things that I do that keep me from doing. Like email. I have 4 email accounts that I check regularly. 4. FOUR. Note the "regularly." That means that there are others that I check irregularly. What the heck is that all about?

And books? I get to read them periodically, and I long for a good book. I have a copy of Anne of Green Gables in my office. I've read exactly 1 chapter in 3 weeks because I only read it when I need something to accompany me on my walk to the library to grab lunch. What I ought to do is sit down in the cafe area at the library and enjoy the book WHILE I eat my lunch, but instead I go back to the office, put the book on the shelf, and check my email. No wonder I have 3 bottles of Tums in various locations.

When I am immersed, I'm always happy. I enjoy reading student papers, when I am immersed in them, because I'm thinking along with someone else and helping them puzzle out the best way to say something. Focusing on my own work is exhilarating, but it's so easy to give in to the songs of the Sirens Email, Cell Phone, and Internet. In a world where appearance matters so much, where the surface is everything, looking like you're busy trumps actually being busy, which can look like you're doing nothing because it's all happening under the surface.

If this were a class lecture, this is the point where I look at the students and say "Did that make sense?" They usually nod their heads and say "yes," but deep down I'm convinced that they're doing a surface assent so that I'll move on to the next thing, so that they can get back to the text message they're sending or the video game running on the laptop--wired doodling.

Enough. Go immerse yourself in something worthwhile. Become an expert in something, even if it's just watching ants travel back and forth. I'm going to read something good.