Happy New Year
In lieu of the typical resolutions thread and our normal routine that often results in us setting lofty goals and falling short of them. I think a different way of looking at the new year is in order. For the last two years people have felt disconnected or otherwise a more somber tone on life and its taken a large toll. It does not need to be this way. It also doesnt need to swing to the opposite extreme or towards any extreme for that matter.
Let us start with something we all already possess instead of new goals. Work with what is existing and make it better; i.e what a farmer does in winter (tends to his equipment for the next seasons planting).
That quality we posses is “mindfulness” which by definition is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. Mindfulness is a quality that every human being already possesses, it’s not something you have to conjure up, you just have to learn how to practice it and tap into it. It will be quite important in the coming decade which greatly concerns myself as well as the rest of us.
There are three sort of fundamental ways I do this. Meditation at beginning and end of the day; I take short pauses in my everyday life even if it means the schedule slips (an often worthy sacrifice in favor of awareness) and finally sports/hobbies. Activities that take your mind off the current path its on and allows it to explore another. (keeping your mind flexible of sorts)
Now here comes the long part of this post that when you have the time read and ponder.
Why do I hope you will be mindful?
The coming decades are going to see LOTS of technological flux, marvels etc and thus society is going to have to change and adapt; ebb and flow (hopefully not violently) to deal with the changes that come far more rapidly than in prior times. (the nature of technology).
A better 2022 or to an extension better year than prior years comes from how you treat the internet and by extension social media etc. (which also includes this forum). Being mindful and aware of what you are doing can often stop you from going down paths that are net negative. I.e scrolling Instagram, snap chat and the like. Now im not saying do not use these platforms there is a lot of good that can come of them but its what you make of them. Now if you go down the path of spending 30+ minutes doing nothing productive but scrolling and look at is how good other people look how good their holidays or how good they’re singing voice is or man look at all these couples and i’m single… You are going to end up with that rush but also the hard fall. The reality is no one wants to share the things that they’re embarrassed about because humans are actually wired to seek social validation and status. They fundamentally need community no matter how unsocialized one can be. Thus 99% of what you see on social media is just really just “my life’s best of the best” highlight reel and not a reflection of reality.
Now here is where mindfulness plays in. For example you could take the above as a post against social media or you could take it “Wow thats awesome someone had the best time doing that maybe I should share what I really like and leave it at that”. The mindfulness comes into play with what you do with the information smacking your brain through your eyeballs. It doesn’t come from comparison. You will NOT win the war against comparing yourself to everyone’s best because nobody is the best all the time; if you were we would learn nothing. Mistakes are often a positive part of learning despite being perceived negatively.
Its important to practice this because the default knee jerk reaction to social media, internet forums and other communities is that you want to use it because for prior example: social media gives you a very short-term high from being able to vicariously experience the best parts of other people’s lives. That’s great but it has the consequence of doing so without being mindful is that you’re going to feel like something’s missing. Of course comes the other quite dangerous side of social media that gives us the ability to effectively (and falsely) rewrite our lives if we like. Often we edit our lives much like we edit the photo on the filtering part of an app to make it much more vibrant than it is. If you are mindful of this you can dull it out and make it more quasi-normal in your own brain thus leading you down a more balanced path.
I don’t want people to stop using the things they love. I rather want to see people take the path that balances it out and help them attain a goal. This reinvent yourself online behavior is nothing new. Before we had the internet there was a phrase coined by someone I do not remember. “Keeping up with the Jones’” We are living in the internet analogue of exactly that. With one of our fundamental problems being conspiracy theories and echo chambers.
The phenomenon called “echo chambers” put simply (AND NOT POLITICALLY) is that it’s not just the other users or people on social media that you have to worry about. You need to be mindful that the entire objective of the apps themselves is also not aligned with your own. It wont be. This isn’t intentionally malicious its the nature of algorithms and heuristics and the business. Our tendencies whether intentionally or unintentionally created a market for maximizing screen-time. Thus the primary goal of every single app or website you use is simple how do we keep you on for as long as possible because that’s how they extract the most value from you. If that’s amazon wanting you to buy more things or Facebook wanting you to scroll past as many ads as possible to see which ones you spent just that much more time on; retention time is key. What is the best way of getting someone to stay on your app you might ask? Think about it yourself for a second but realize that the answer lays in send you down a rabbit hole making absolutely sure that when you open amazon, for example, that you have the most personalized recommendations waiting for yourself and your shopping pleasure. Now this is amazon min maxing its profits (that’s what a good business does) but it is important for you to sit and think about what you are doing and be fully aware of it. Take a pause. Take a breath before a purchase. Don’t click on other web pages. Walk away from all the ads, Take a walk and maybe work on a hobby then come back and assess the need of what you are looking at. (Mindfulness). Other examples include when someone opens Instagram you have this beautifully tailored selection of the posts and stories that will keep you scrolling for days to come. You might even spend a weekend on it to keep that effervescent dopamine high.
Take a moment to realize that as we learn how the human brain works more and more and the exponential rate that apps are getting better and better at learning about their users and then using that information to deliver them similar content made for them ever faster and more unified. We have this feeling that in the short term this makes our lives easier it means that you can get content you want without needing to even search for anything. However the long term projection of this much like a heuristic algorithm leads you down a path from broad to narrow and eventually an echo chamber that you refute leaving because you have built your world upon an increasingly narrowing set of goals and decisions. This is how these technologies are changing you for better or worse, unintentionally or intentionally.
Your best weapon will be mindfulness. Reiterating ways to do it are meditation at beginning and end of the day; I take short pauses in my everyday life even if it means the schedule slips (an often worthy sacrifice in favor of awareness) and finally sports/hobbies. Activities that take your mind off the current path its on and allows it to explore another. (keeping your mind flexible of sorts).
Pause here take a breath. You read a lot. Let it sink in
Conspiracy theories, Unprovable ideas and Your valuable time.
Ahh our favorite things. Entertaining ourselves with what we often call truisms or alternative truths or whatever we say not to call it what it really is. How often are these politically charged in nature and absolutely a confirmation of our world view with no proof to them or their contrary? That is the definition after-all. They become increasingly virulent in times like which we have experience in the last two years. I recall @wendell on his drunk stream. I just want things to be sensible (when asked about his political views). Well I couldnt agree more. Sensibility and Mindfulness go hand in hand in fact they lead to one another. One of the principle problems when we go down the mind path of entertaining the ideas is that we are often a bit too preconditioned to them. We want something not well known to be truth because then we feel empowered with truth where others are not. A dangerous spot to be in because often its a fallacy.
Let me present a method on which I use to see through these and often (to even some of my closest friends dismay) disregard them as exactly what they are; Conspiracy theories and not anything of particular truth. Often it leads you down what can be extremely sound logical sets of theory based upon an idea and likely events on which this idea can be built upon. Theres nothing wrong with that in concept however here is the crux. If you take a step back after “searching” (be mindful of the word im using here) for the evidence that supports and checks out a theory that people have formed. Take a breath. Look back at how you searched for this proof? Did you use a search engine? or something that is designed to validate and find EXACTLY what you are looking for regardless if there is any truth to it? How did you get from point A to point B. Can you retrace those steps backwards and find any other possible path to a Point C or D? If in that moment you likely find the point C or Point D. Is it just as equally likely? If the answer is yes then point B is not your answer. None of them are particularly if there is no concrete proof validating or invalidating each path from point A to destination alphabet.
Youll find yourself spinning in a circle at this point and wonder how can this be; you may even get angry. This is the point at which you must be mindful. This is the point where you stop and take a breath. Work on something in your daily life and come back to the thought later. I can nearly guarantee with a 4 9’s definitive accuracy you will come back and realize wow I cant prove any of this. I wish I could but there is no way for me to do so. I also cant act upon any of those conclusions because at the heart of it. What if they are all wrong? What path would I then follow and what would I do about it and how does it lead me to my personal goals?
This is how you avoid that rabbit hole. Its how I have always avoided it myself. It often angers people when I dismiss it with the vocabulary: “Well thats not really definitive or I cant prove it or (their person hated favorite) thats a conspiracy theory”. Often it results at them foaming at the mouth about it or my personal internet favorite (a banhammer of some type because its crumbles the thought process down to the foundation of sand it was built on).
Am I discouraging you from entertaining these ideas. Absolutely not! have at all of them. I love free thought! just be mindful when you do, realizing that it is the mark of an intelligent mind to entertain an idea without actually accepting the idea. Its also the mark of intelligence to understand why an idea is good and why you may support it without calling for it to be forced or mandatory. The dual is that you may dislike an idea or be strongly against it without calling for its ban. As you get ever more embroiled in technology as long as your mindful people will not become dull in comparison however if you do notice this you can lean on or Circle back to this post and think. Put everything on pause and breathe the world and the tech will still be there when you are done.
In summation, it is with this mindfulness that I hope you all have an absolutely amazing 2022 and the decade to come. Stay safe, have fun and most of all keep attaining your goals. Your time is the most valuable thing you have. Try not to spend too much of it on goals other than yourself, your community, and your aspirations
you are free to discuss these points amongst each other down below. Maybe refute my idea. Lets have a conversation (not a win or lose argument); or just talk about your resolutions and goals.
