Today was a nice Sunday with my daugther. It wound down late in the afternoon by reading for a couple of hours. The current book of choice is “Think Again”, by Adam Grant. An amazing read.
After yesterday’s post, I was going to let the “quotes” thread/thoughts go. Then…
… on page 196, “… they gave their mini-TED talk about the problems with TED talks, pointing out the risks of reinforcing short attention spans and privileging superficial polish over deep insight. Their presentation was so thoughtful and entertaining that I played it for the entire class. ‘If you have the courage to stand up to the trend towards glib, seamless answers,’ they deadpanned as we laughed, ‘then stop watching this video right now, and do some real research, like we did.’”
This parallels yesterday’s post. Quick dopamine hits through “just do it” slogans. TED talks were not in the original equation. They are now. We are trying to watch as much as possible. We have been conditioned to get the information as quickly and easily as possible (even longform Netflix shows are dropped all at once… we just can’t wait week to week. Articles online have times on them letting you know it will only take 2 minutes to read).
Cal Newport had an ad on his podcast for Blinkist (Blinkist: Big ideas in small packages). It’s an app for getting whole books in 5-15 minutes. It builds upon the you-don’t-have-time-but-you-need-to-get-as-much-as-possible-as-quickly-as-possible moment we are in. It did not fit with Cal’s message, in my opinion. Then, he saved it by saying, “listen to a quick hit of a book and see if you want to read the whole book” (good save and not a horrible way to approach it).
We have lost the longform. So much so, that inspirational quotes that use to be cute on a poster are now grouped with the damage of TED talks and Blinkist, and YouTube Videos and TikTok and… and… and.
We need to get back to long form…. Everything. Our patience is taken from us. Our ability to wait and pause is taken from us. Seconds. Minutes. Moments. All stolen. Pieces we will never get back. I’ll just check Facebook for a minute. An hour lost one post at a time.
We beep and we bloop our ways through life. We get phantom vibrations in our pockets from phones. There are articles written about keeping your phone in the backseat, not to be safe, but so you don’t forget your kid (Preventing Tragedy: Tips to protect yourself against ever leaving your child in a hot car | WCIV (abcnews4.com)) That’s just one story. Google it.
Often, we do not think of things as “bad”. Until they are. TED talks do not get it done. Quippy quotes do not get it done. All this from “inspirational quotes?” you ask. What we consume matters. They form. They influence. Little nuggets of “wisdom” pulls away the layers of what is really needed to accomplish something. To reach an end goal. To read a book, not the Cliff’s Notes version. You may read less books, but you’ll get more from each one.
Longform. Be intentional with you time. Reclaim your mind.
Posted. Not Perfect.
A Vegan Father, navigating a non-vegan world.
A Better Father 