Re-assembling my fragmented mind, part 3

[elfs]

What can we do about this? Well, first thing: turn off the Internet if you don't need it. Use one of those programs that limits what you can do during your coding or writing hours. Assemble your materials ahead of time for any project, and then leave only that folder open. Meditate. Find time for solitude, as that seems to be the number one tool creative people need to recharge and let themselves work. The philosopher Alain du Botton suggests information fasts, periods of days where we just go off-line, leave even our books behind, and in our solitude do consciously, and for longer stretches what our mind does every night: sort out the intellectual wheat from the chaff. (I was unplugged for 48 hours when all of the Fragmented series came to mind. The plural of anecdote is not data. But I believe that anecdotes should not be so easily dismissed. See for further discussion of this point.)

Most importantly, be mindful that you are engaged in a project to recover your attention span, your capacity for introspection and deep thinking. The mark of a truly mature person is their ability to handle solitude, even tedium. Honor your adulthood, your maturity, and your uniqueness from the rest of the animal kingdom, don't dismiss it (as Clay Shirky does) as some kind of aberration. You and me baby are more than just mammals (although sometimes I still like to do it like they do on the Discovery Channel), and we're more than adolescents. Zimbardo's research, and Carr's book, show a culture where youth is not only desired and admired over age and maturity, but one where tools meant to empower us tend insteand to make us more hedonistic, more present tense (without being mindfully present in the Buddhist sense).

I'm a naturalist: everything we are is generated by the organized systems of biochemical electrified meat in our heads. Willpower is one of those things, and like everything in our use, it become stronger with practice. Be mindful that you are in that practice. Keep a journal of how well you do.

Good luck.

Footnote: I have been terrible while writing this. I linked to dozens of articles, shattering your attention on what I was saying with temptations to go read something else that I found compelling. So be it. That's what the Internet is. Putting my "references" in a bibliography-in-the-back would be as ridiculous as asking a blacksmith to replace my automobile's tires. I'm not against the Internet; I'm for making peace with what it means to us as human beings. As Linda Stone said, we've gone from collecting data, to generating information, to collating knowledge, to reaching understanding. The next step, after understanding, is wisdom: not merely anticipating possibility, but choosing with reflection of the consequences. We will not get there if we cannot think deeply. I hope we we all get there, and sooner rather than later.

Comments

Hmm

[ideaphile.livejournal.com]

I specialize-- professionally-- in deep thinking. I use the Internet to help me. I may spend the first 15 minutes on some task sitting quietly (or as some have said, apparently napping), but that's usually just to put previous thoughts, which often came to me in brief flashes while doing other things, in good order for further research-- not to do new thinking. After that, I'm on the Internet to dig into these thoughts and find the underlying structure. Assembling a unified whole from old and new bits and pieces isn't any more difficult than shallow thinking or Internet-free deep thinking. It just takes the will to do it, conditions that allow it, and practice. Like anything else. Like playing the violin, or being good at video games.

Many people-- including, too often, me-- have jobs and hobbies that pull them in many directions at once. Most of these pulls aren't distractions, per se; they're fundamental elements of the work, but they still keep us from deep thinking. It's necessary (and possible) to learn how to work through the small things and get back to the big ideas.

And some people have jobs and hobbies that give them a natural opportunity for deep thinking. You're obviously like that when you're in programming mode and writing mode. You see subtle connections, you achieve non-trivial results.

Political analysis, maybe not so much, but I'll just let it go at that, for now. :-)

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[solarbird]

Small typo: "hope we we all get there," last line.