Kill Your iPad
I've been a pretty vocal advocate for the iPad -- on the site and especially on the podcast -- so it's surprising how much I agree with Paul Graham, who writes an excellent blog, here. In this post, he talks about wealth, and how to keep it. And he also talks about another kind of wealth, time wealth, and how we sometimes waste it in ways that we don't even notice:
A few days ago I realized something surprising: the situation with time is much the same as with money. The most dangerous way to lose time is not to spend it having fun, but to spend it doing fake work. When you spend time having fun, you know you're being self-indulgent. Alarms start to go off fairly quickly....
...If I spent a whole day watching TV I'd feel like I was descending into perdition. But the same alarms don't go off on the days when I get nothing done, because I'm doing stuff that seems, superficially, like real work. Dealing with email, for example. You do it sitting at a desk. It's not fun. So it must be work.
Over at Harvard Business Review, Peter Bregman tells us why he returned his iPad:
The brilliance of the iPad is that it's the anytime-anywhere computer. On the subway. In the hall waiting for the elevator. In a car on the way to the airport. Any free moment becomes a potential iPad moment.
So why is this a problem? It sounds like I was super-productive. Every extra minute, I was either producing or consuming.
But something...is lost in the busyness. Something too valuable to lose.
Boredom.
Being bored is a precious thing, a state of mind we should pursue. Once boredom sets in, our minds begin to wander, looking for something exciting, something interesting to land on. And that's where creativity arises.
Of course, I'm way too weak to return the iPad. I'm way too into gadgets and doodads. But everything Graham and Bregman say rings true for me. And I wonder, especially, for someone like me who is basically self-employed -- a screenwriter has a very basic business model: if I don't write it, they don't pay me -- if all of this busyness is hurting my business.
- Comment (15)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (2)
Comments :
Re: Kill Your iPad
As you know, Rob, I sigh with homesickness whenever I hear a fellow countryman say what to us is perfectly obvious: time is a form of wealth. I cannot convince anyone in Turkey to believe this or act as if they believe it. But you've got me a bit worried, because I'm now wondering if time spent on Ricochet might not count as fake work.
May '10
Re: Kill Your iPad
So this is the thanks I get for giving Ricochet half my day today.
Re: Kill Your iPad
No, no, no -- you misunderstand me. Ricochet isn't part of this --- no, Ricochet is a special, separate-type situation we've got going here. Ricochet's about connecting and conversing with smart, funny, civil people across the country. Nothing wrong with that.
Re: Kill Your iPad
Oh, for GOD's sake. Boredom is boring, if you'll allow the tautology. You could make the same argument against book; reading keeps you from staring at the wall and inventing new paradigms. Or you could say this about compulsive web-surfing:
Being resentful of an iPad because it cut down on your boredom time is like being angry at a hammer because it compelled you to go the hardware store and buy a hundred nails.
Re: Kill Your iPad
The year before his death, the brilliant Russian poet and dissident Joseph Brodsky delivered a commencement address at Dartmouth College, my alma mater, in defense of boredom. It's a truly remarkable speech, and I encourage everyone to read the whole thing. Here's an excerpt:
Edited on Jul 14, 2010 at 7:43pmMay '10
Re: Kill Your iPad
Boredom is the wrong word here. We all need to carve out some time to let our minds wander from time to time. We can't be on guard all the time (trust me, I've tried). A nice interval of undirected, uninterrupted thought (or lack thereof) is a great way to recharge the batteries.
Re: Kill Your iPad
All I needed to know about insignificance and futility I learned from depression. For some these are not tools to better one's self, but enemies of mental equilibrium. I know it's all ashes in the end, but that's hardly an argument for not trying to start a fire when it's cold.
Yes, I get his point, but if you don't share the Slavic temperament, it doesn't jibe with Yank can-do. Or should-do. Or ought-do.
Jun '10
Re: Kill Your iPad
I think maybe, one of the oldest human instincts--the instinct that makes me want to follow fresh deer tracks that I see in the snow, in November--has been transferred (psychologically) to doing "fake work" surfing the web. It never feels fake, when you're doing it. It feels like you might be putting some food on the table. On the web, the tracks are from a hundred thousand different "animals," they go everywhere, and I always feel like I have to pick one trail, and follow it. Sometimes you find the deer, but you left your bow and arrow at home. Oh well, next time.
May '10
Re: Kill Your iPad
James Lileks: Oh, for GOD's sake. Boredom is boring, if you'll allow the tautology. You could make the same argument against book; reading keeps you from staring at the wall and inventing new paradigms...
Being resentful of an iPad because it cut down on your boredom time is like being angry at a hammer because it compelled you to go the hardware store and buy a hundred nails.
That is too funny not to agree with! Life is about balance. Just don't over-do any one thing and you're fine. I think we all have a meter in our head that tells us when we need to put the iPad down and stack blocks with our toddler or move the laundry around, whatever. (That tells you what I do with my day). It's lack of self-discipline that causes us to continue playing with the iPad at the expense of other things. Just balance it appropriately with the rest of life and relationships and you're fine. But, that means you have to examine your life once in a while to make sure you're on track...Socrates gave good advice. So does James Lileks.
Re: Kill Your iPad
Sigh. Here it is 2 a.m. in CT and I can't sleep. Worried that I'm spending too much time staring at my computer and not enough time interacting w/ my kids. Worried, actually, that one of my kids will toddle out the door and into the street while I'm frantically trying to find and include links for a Ricochet post. And, truth be told, reading Bing, Bunny 2x a day, or playing blocks, is mind-numbingly booorrrriiinggg even though it's the stuff that good parenting is made of. So anyway, I creep down the stairs so as not to wake the children I'm ignoring during the day so that I can finally respond to the emails piling up from friends and relatives who have genuine problems that I must inquire about. I try to convince myself not to "surf the web" before I do the emails because I'll get following those deer tracks that etoiledunord notes. And ... here I am on Ricochet with a number of posts I'd like to respond to. Thank goodness I don't have an iPad. Not sure my family could survive it.
May '10
Re: Kill Your iPad
Ursula, what is it about us chicks and our kidlets? I was desperate to have children, so desperate that we became foster parents and adopted through that path. And now that I have my brood, I can't seem to find enough ways to get away from them and escape into... escapism. I'm told by those older and wiser who've walked this road before me that it's just a phase. Soon, there will be a turnaround when those kidlets don't want to have anything to do with me. (Sigh) The push and pull of it all.
Re: Kill Your iPad
Ricochet member PEG is waiting for the next one:
Re: Kill Your iPad
Glad you understand, Felicia. This last point you made, however, is something I think about all the time (I see glimmers of it with my oldest) and it only adds to the GUILT feelings which just add to my desire to escape. Very bad cycle, indeed.
Re: Kill Your iPad
I agree that being bored can be a good thing. Sort of. I grew up in the 1960s and 70s in South Florida. Weekends were often spent driving all over that great big flat state looking at property with my father. Weekdays were less exciting. Books became my escape. I spent years reading a book a day. A big Friday afternoon was a trip to the Fort Lauderdale public library to stock up for another dull week. So while I'm grateful for all that I managed to learn and all that, I'm with James: boredom just isn't much fun.
I think I need to post an iPad counterpoint.
Re: Kill Your iPad
Okay, I'm bored.