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Routine maintenance: Embracing habit in an automated world
- anarbadalov 5y ago"This is the quiet miracle of repetition: its ability to not only make actions easier over time, but also change one’s desires, bringing the cravings of the flesh in line with the aspirations of the spirit (or as James puts it, making “our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy”). It is a miracle well known to the religious convert who comes to look forward to the once-dreaded rite of confession, or the new parent who becomes acclimated to a lack of sleep, or the Twitter addict who realizes a few months after deleting the app that he can no longer recall the enthralling drama of the feed." Extraordinary essay on habits and routines. Hat tip to The Browser (https://thebrowser.com/ https://thebrowser.com/) for alerting me to it.
- drewcoo 5y agoStrangely, it claims we are moderns and then the article applies postmodernism, deconstructing habits as if that makes sense. It's Harper's so am I missing the joke? (Maybe, as "repetition" repeats in the piece . . .)
- coldtea 5y agoTo be postmodern you must also be modern. Post-modern is a cultural thing (in the area of culture, ideas, media, etc.), but our environment, cities, technology, and structure of society is still the one modernity created.