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Category: Life

  • Sea of Clickbait  vs Keepers (the Last Lecture Concept)

    Sea of Clickbait  vs Keepers (the Last Lecture Concept)

    I stumbled upon a lecture that was recorded as part of Stanfords “Last Lecture” series and, not surprisingly it was quite inspirational (because that was the goal of the whole series!). I wasn’t looking for something like this, specifically. But, the Youtube algorithm has been tuned well, and this particular message connected.

    I got lucky, because there’s so much click-bait chum out there that it’s gotten very easy to block out and ignore the hype, yet this one link broke through. And for me, at that moment, it was a keeper. 

    But, as the volume of content overall goes up, I know I’m missing some good and useful stuff,  the ideas and inspirational takes and information that might be helpful to me.  We’re overwhelmed with stuff to click on, with ideas to put in our face, courses to take, stuff to subscribe to. 

    Like many, i’m “dropping out” in some ways. I’m just not taking the bait when I see the provocative headlines, because I don’t want to provide positive reinforcement  to someone just trying to get my click. 

    And, I’ve realized I’m just sort of assuming more and more articles and essays and posts are machine generated and won’t hold any real value for me. Low quality content steals my time and attention. I’m afraid I’m losing faith in the internet. 

    The “Last Lecture” concept from Stanford got me thinking about where and how to find the “good stuff.” We can’t trust the algorithms anymore because they are core to a business model. There are fewer and fewer actual curators (not to be confused with the traffic chasing instagram influencers who aspire to being “curators”) of great or interesting stories. 

    This was a problem from, literally, day one of the internet, but it feels more urgent now for some reason. In the early days of the commercial internet, there was strong representation from the small army of librarians who were organizing what we being generated, making it findable and useful.  I wish there was a library and directory of the timeless, high quality work that was been generated and distributed across the web over the years. 

  • Stick Together: Staying Balanced When Everything is Up in the Air

    If you spend a lot of time online, (or at least paying attention to the news) you’re probably feeling overwhelmed. On one hand, the news is terrible: Ecological nightmares happening in slow motion, wars across the globe, economy in turmoil, inflation, infowars, 30% of the population in the US duped into thinking the election was stolen, your neighbors fighting over science and vaccines, etc. On the other hand, your Instagram feed is a steady stream of gauzy filters, happy overload, best lives, extreme positivity, hope, hustle, ambition.

    Yet, we’re stuck in the middle trying to get through the day, and figure out post-pandemic norms. We’re languishing.

    American culture seems to be driven by extrinsic validation. We like nice cars (because they signal success), expensive clothes (because they signal taste, style), big job titles, the right zip code, the vacations, the right causes, etc. We love likes, so we perform online to get the validation.

    But, when the world is going nuts, when chaos seems right around the corner, when your planned path isn’t an option anymore, how do we stay balanced, centered, tethered, steady?

    I’m struggling with this right now. I don’t have good answers, but i’m compulsively clicking on the links in twitter hoping to find an article to help me. I’m getting distracted by alerts from the folks barking for my attention. This guru wants me to take a class. That other one wants me to go to their seminar. No app will ever really help me get clear, despite what the ads say.

    There are days when I feel like a Kurtz, who went up the river, leaving with optimism, now stuck in the wild, overwhelmed at what the Internet has done to us all. The horror. What has replaced all that hope?

    So, I’m working at staying upright. A little yoga, a little meditation. More exercise, better sleep. You know its bad when i’m taking advice from Radiohead: 

    Fitter happier
    More productive
    Comfortable
    Not drinking too much

    I’m one of those guys that always put their head down and tried hard to do the work. I was never the smartest, I have been lazy, but i thought i could endure more work than others.

    That approach is making this period of languishing worse, this acedia harder.

    I want to be centered, I want to be still. But, my reptile brain is winning and I’m pretty sure my dopamine receptors are burned out.

    I think the answer is pretty obvious, but hard for me to see sometimes: Stick together. Find your people, listen carefully, be of service, offer support, ideas and generosity. Be useful. Seek ways to help move something forward. Find ways to connect, even over zoom.

    I was listening to the Ezra Klein podcast and the guest was talking about the way profound loneliness – feeling apart, being isolated emotionally, not necessarily just being physically apart – drives people crazy and makes them susceptible to crazy ideas (like QAnon, the Big Lie, conspiracy theories about vaccines, etc). This recalls the book Vivek Murthy wrote a couple years ago, where he made the argument there’s an epidemic of loneliness. Of course we’re all lonely. It’s part of what’s making us nuts.

    So, let’s try to stick together. Let’s help each other get out of this bog of ennui and listlessness. Let’s help each other find a sense of balance in a destabilizing world. Let’s hang onto each other when everything seems up in the air.

  • Time is of the Essence

    Tempus fugit. Every knows that in their head, but for some of us it creates a distinct, deep feeling. It’s January 1, 2022. Another year. Another clean slate, in a lot of ways. I can feel it in my body and in my gut that I’m not getting younger, that time is slipping away. I’m proud of what i’ve done with the time I’ve been given, but I want to make sure I make the most of the time I have left.

    2021 was a shitshow in a lot of ways. People I love who died way too early, people i know and admire dealing with significant mental health issues, planetary crisis, democracy in peril, etc. I don’t have to list it out. We all experienced it.

    I’ve got no new insight into time, but I do have a newfound sense of urgency, a new mindfulness about potential distractions.

    Resolution #1 for 2021: Avoid distractions that take my time away from me.