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The Joy of an Empty Brain
- robg 3y agohttps://archive.is/71DpL https://archive.is/71DpL
- uejfiweun 3y agoSounds like this author has independently arrived at the same conclusion that Cal Newport did in Digital Minimalism. I’d expect this movement to continue to pick up steam as people slowly wake up from the digital wool that has been pulled over their eyes.
- andai 3y agohttps://tim.blog/2007/04/19/mastering-the-low-information-diet-and-pre-order-crisis/amp/ https://tim.blog/2007/04/19/mastering-the-low-information-di...
- uejfiweun 3y agoHaha, not surprising to see this. I guess the simple art of isolating yourself from distractions and focusing is something that humanity will have to rediscover time and time again.
- oumua_don17 3y agoRelated to the same topic is Stolen Focus and has been mentioned many times on HN. https://stolenfocusbook.com/ https://stolenfocusbook.com/
- badpun 3y agoYou think so? Before Internet, people were watching TV for hours and hours every day. I think we just love completely effortless, passive entertainment, even if it's ultimately low value.
- kahrl 3y ago[flagged]
- ben_w 3y agoBack in the days when TV was still popular, I remember some headline saying that researchers had monitored brain energy use while watching TV and while literally watching paint dry, and determined that people's brains were more switched off when watching TV. I wonder if that study was ever replicated…
- the-printer 3y agoChill, man.
- knallfrosch 3y agoYou're right. It gets worse over time. People now carry their TV to the toilet, read digital news on the bus and respond to texts on their phone even when "out" with someone else.
- wpietri 3y agoI mostly agree, but I don't think we actually love it exactly. I think, like alcohol, overconsumption is a response to stress and trauma.
- rr808 3y agoYou had smaller low quality screens, fewer channels and no ability to record. Even if some people watched TV a lot, it was much easier to ignore.
- ray__ 3y agoI think the difference is that the digital wool fools us into thinking, at least at some level, that we're being productive. It's much easier to pull yourself away from the TV to "do" something because watching TV genuinely feels passive. Consumption of content on the internet/smartphones blends the passive entertainment with a feeling of productivity so well that you feel like it's actually worth it to just check this or that app, or to just scroll for a little bit longer to see if you happen across something that actually has value. It's harder to break away from.
- INeedMoreRam 3y ago[dead]
- MengerSponge 3y agoManoush Zomorodi's "Bored and Brilliant" addressed this really well back in 2015: https://www.wnyc.org/series/bored-and-brilliant https://www.wnyc.org/series/bored-and-brilliant
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- wslh 3y agoRant: beyond the topic of animal violence and/or domestication I always wonder if and which animals are happier than humans beyond the smartness factor [1]. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7379717/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7379717/
- tiedieconderoga 3y agoPersonally, I'd be surprised if most mammals weren't generally happier than people. Cats, dogs, and sea mammals seem to have it all figured out. Apes and monkeys, less so - chimpanzees are brutal. Tiger got to hunt. Bird got to fly. Man got to sit and wonder why, why, why? Tiger got to sleep. Bird got to land. Man got to tell himself he understand. - Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle Or as Blaise Pascal put it in Pensées: >When I have occasionally set myself to consider the different distractions of men, the pains and perils to which they expose themselves at court or in war, whence arise so many quarrels, passions, bold and often bad ventures, etc., I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.
- CoastalCoder 3y agoYou comment wins today's draws-from-the-most-disparate-sources award. I'd totally forgotten about Pensées. I really need to re-read it.
- wslh 3y agoGreat comment. There was a full thread about this Pascal saying a few years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25482927 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25482927 BTW, it is enjoyable that HN conversations are vastly and noticeable superior to ChatGPT ;-)
- lakeshastina 3y agoThe fundamental difference is animals are mostly controlled by nature. Humans have the ability to use their intellect to override their natural urges when prudent. Second, animals are rarely at the top of the food chain, so they are structured for self-protection first and foremost. This means group dynamics rule over any individual needs. Each animal is expected to do its role in the group, no question of what’s “fair”. Third, inability to communicate and find treatment when sick. When hurt or sick, they mostly just lay down and slowly fade away. How difficult would it be for us to face death in that way?
- zw123456 3y agoI call it a me day. I take a day off and do NOTHING. Not all the time, every once in a while. No plan, just do whatever I feel. So many times, it resulted in something interesting, I write something or invent something or just nothing but joy. Sort of Zen like but sometimes we all need a break from everything. Just me and a sketch book at the park, or just laying around staring off into space. Try it.
- ALittleLight 3y agoI was taking a day off work once when the power coincidentally went out. I spent the day sitting in the dark with my laptop plugged in to my backup battery trying somewhat successfully to edit save game files from an old video game. It was extremely different from my usual Google-heavy workout. Having to work through things without a network connection was a fun change of pace.
- binwiederhier 3y agoI envy people without kids sometimes. A "me day" is just not in the realm of possibly when you have kids. A "me hour" maybe, or when your kids go to daycare even a "me 3 hours", but not a day. Eventually I hear you get some of that freedom back. But boy it's a long road. Good for you for being able to enjoy life like that. Hello from the other side.
- WalterBright 3y ago"An open mind is an empty mind."
- trentnix 3y agoMy dad used to have a poster on the wall of his office way back in the 80s (he was a coach) that captures the idea quite well. It had a gorilla sitting with his hand under his chin and the caption read “Sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits.” When I was a kid I thought it was humorous self-deprecation. Now that I’m older I see it is a recipe for contentment.
- alluro2 3y agoThank you for sharing, that was nice. Evoked a flurry of sentiments for me - from the 80s nostalgia, childhood and flashback of my dad's office, to a realization of time passed by, growing older and supposedly more wise (but am I).
- totetsu 3y agoThere is a common experience that people have of sleeping on a problem, and having the subconscious brain keep working on it in the background and waking up with some insight. In my experience, when your brain doesn’t have any pressing problems from daily life to solve, when you just have nothing to do and nothing in mind, this is when the subconscious starts working on the really big problems and starts to deliver all kinds of insights.
- kater006 3y agoLearning how to learn by Barbara Oakley describes precisely that
- jarjoura 3y agoLove that effect! I do this in small doses when I take my dog for a walk. After I get back I usually have the answer I was searching for without actively thinking about it.
- yencabulator 3y agoAlso known as "shower thoughts". I usually solve my hardest programming problems in the shower.
- swexbe 3y agoThat's usually when I get really depressed :(
- yencabulator 3y agoI've always found I'm most productive at hard problems when I "try to solve it" for max 3 days in a row, and then let my mind wander before trying again.
- atleastoptimal 3y ago"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"
- hourago 3y ago> Technology just gets better, as those airport bookstores get smaller. I’m wary of our artificial-intelligence future, and the notion that we will lean on bots to think for us, writing code, speeches and even poetry. There is a big incentive for this future as it will be the high point of advertisement. Every AI search, every AI written book, every AI produced TV show will have the incentive to sell you something. Without other sources of information people critical thinking will be impossible, anything that the AI generated content says is true. We can avoid this future, but I do not see any of the big companies caring about it, if anything they are salivating on future profits. Your brain will not be empty but full of whatever the highest bidder wants you to believe.
- chii 3y ago> Without other sources of information people critical thinking will be impossible so you're just describing propaganda and "grooming"/"conditioning". I think the threat is overblown, unless one single entity ends up controlling all information. I highly doubt this is possible in the west - there's too much competition. But i guess if it does happen where one entity obtains a monopoly on information production and distribution, then yes, this might happen.
- kzrdude 3y agoThere isn't too much competition, it's been a steady trend of companies merging into bigger and bigger entities.
- diginova 3y agoI was just about to overthink on what is the best comment I can write on this post. But then I realized... I stopped thinking
- eldritch_4ier 3y ago“The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race…”