Welcome back! It's good to see you again. Please note that I am now publishing all new material at my hub site: In Context Blog
Fresh Focus on Productivity has an interesting take on journaling for posterity, with tips and instructions for using your computer or storing the info in the cloud. Read about The Completion Journal
As we go through life, we complete many things in many different contexts and areas of our life. It’s impossible to remember all of what we’ve accomplished. But I think it’s really important to chronicle those things in life. And not just for ourselves, but for our relatives that come after us.
This is an approach similar to that of the Book of Days that I posted on back in December. I will be modifying my own use of this tool, adding weekly milestones to the Monthly Review pages.
The first reaction that most people will have is that of doom and gloom. In some ways, that’s accurate. In other ways, it could be considered an opportunity. I know that people reading this may have now just rolled their eyes and assumed I am crazy. But, as is my nature, I tend to look on the brighter side of things, even in the face of massive adversity.
If Bud is pulling back from radio advertising, where are they going to spend that money?
Josh Waitzkin, one of the world’s most recognizable chess personalities, gained popular fame as the subject of his father’s book turned movie “Searching for Bobby Fischer”. Josh stepped back from chess at 22, to explore his interest in Eastern Philosophy and Tai Chi Chuan. In 2004, Waitzkin became a world champion in Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands Competition. He holds a combined 21 National titles and is training in a new discipline, Brazilian Ju Jitsu.
Here Waitzkin has an essay on the effects of multitasking and lack of discipline in modern classrooms. I wrote a little note on this last year, about doing one thing at a time. After you read Waitzkin’s article, please come back and share your ideas about how we, as a culture or a community, can teach people to stop living in a state of continuous partial attention.
I see myself in the eyes of so many kids today. Too many primary, elementary, and high schoolers are being boxed into the mold of conformity required by big classes, competition for grades, tests with multiple choice questions. The first grader who leaps to his feet when he figures out the math problem is diagnosed as ADHD and medicated to sit quietly with the class. Young learners have immense pressure to perform, to get good grades, but no one is listening to the nuance of their minds. They feel suppressed, they are suppressed, and by the time students get to college, they have become disconnected from the love of learning.
Read the whole thing!
(BTW - Here is the key quote from the link for “continuous partial attention”:
Continuous partial attention is a post-multitasking adaptive behaviour. Being connected makes us feel alive. ADD is a dysfunctional variant of continuous partial attention. Continuous partial attention isn’t motivated by productivity, it’s motivated by being connected. MySpace, Friendster, where quantity of connections desirable may make us feel connected, but lack of meaning underscores how promiscuous and how empty this way of life made us feel. Dan Gould: “I quit every social network I was on so I could have dinner with people.”
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July 12th, 2008 by Stephen
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