Which relationship has taught you the most about yourself?
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My relationship to sensation.
PROMPT: Relationship
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Category Archives: Attention
PROMPT: Life Hacks
What are some life hacks that you practice?
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As far as I’ve seen of so-called “life hacks” they seem to mostly be inelegant solutions for problems that either: a.) already have more reliable and tested solutions, or b.) are needlessly complicated / exaggerated to suggest they need a solution when they really don’t. The whole “life hack” industry seems to be people sitting around trying to figure out how to go viral by creating the illusion of cleverness. It is not Wú Wéi.
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BOOK: “The Tao of Bill Murray” by Gavin Edwards
The Tao of Bill Murray: Real-Life Stories of Joy, Enlightenment, and Party Crashing by Gavin EdwardsMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher site – Penguin Random House
This book lays out Bill Murray’s philosophy of life as revealed by his quirky, daring, and spontaneous approach to living. Much has been made of the influence of the mystic philosopher G.I. Gurdjieff on Murray’s thinking. This background is discussed a little in Edwards’ book, but mostly this is a book that uses anecdotes from Bill Murray’s life to make a case for a philosophy of life that involves spontaneity, generosity, service, and connection. (Furthermore, it’s not clear to what degree Gurdjieff influenced Murray’s thinking, versus Gurdjieff’s ideas appealing to Murray because of the way the comedic actor already experienced the world.)
The author organizes the book around what he calls “The Ten Principles of Bill,” a set of ideas that Edwards argues can be seen cutting across Murray’s working and non-working life (and most of the stories are from his interactions with everyday people in everyday [but often unexpected] settings, and not from Murray’s acting work.)
I found this book to be highly readable and illuminating. The stories are funny but also offer a distinct approach to experiencing the world. I’d highly recommend this book for those interested in living a more spontaneous and rewarding life, or just those who like Bill Murray.
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BOOK: “The Attention Merchants” by Tim Wu
The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads by Tim WuMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Site — Penguin
This book explores the evolution of capturing attention for commercial purposes. It delves into the history of attention economics from the development of print ads to the pursuit of virality via the internet and social media. Wu outlines how different media (e.g. print, radio, television, cable tv, and the internet) learned different lessons about how to make advertising work given the unique nature of each platform. The book also offers insight into how advertising spawned a market for people’s personal consumer information as the internet era began to allow companies to target ads for maximum effect, rather than using the scattershot approach that was all that was available to radio and broadcast television.
I found this book to be informative and it’s a subject of which people should be aware. William James famously said, “…what we attend to is reality.” If James was right, our reality is being shaped by forces that often remain outside our awareness. If you are curious about the attention economy, this is a highly readable overview of the subject.
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PROMPT: 20 Years
Daily writing prompt
What’s a piece of technology you’re convinced will exist in 20 years?
I think cell phones will be replaced by cheap cyborg implants that fulfill the same myriad functions and more. Just as we were convinced that we were being given a great benefit with social media, when — in fact — we were just handing over our attention and data on the cheap. This time we’ll be signing away a great deal more — we’ll be meat puppets for the billionaires, carrying out consumption function programming as ignorantly blissful as Cypher from The Matrix. Welcome to the Cyber-Sheep economy. BAHaaaaah.
Proviso: People (me included) are shite at forecasting. We call broken clocks “genius” based on those two times a day they are right, but forecasting genius is just selection bias plus Mrs. Cleo pseudo-psychic tactics (be vague, sound specific.) Also, remember we are always one nuclear winter away from flint knapping being the prevailing mode of technology.
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PROMPT: Meme
I have meme-blindness. It’s like ad-blindness (which I also have) and is probably caused by the same state of mind. If you want my attention, pony up some dough or produce something worthwhile — vaguely clever regurgitation of pop culture references and cliched slang ain’t gonna cut it.
