Or in simple terms, if what you say makes me think, processing it may naturally cause me to look away. To think “independently.” To sift through your information or idea, match it to my own perspectives or mental models, and then re-engage.
I, too, see a crisis brewing, among not only people my age but among the peers of my teenage children and the college students I teach. Pushed further into isolation by the pandemic, we’re all losing the ability to engage in what I view as the pinnacle of human interaction: sitting around with friends and talking shit.
Dozens of companies (in the UK) took part in the world’s largest trial of the four-day workweek — and a majority of supervisors and employees liked it so much they’ve decided to keep the arrangement. In fact, 15 percent of the employees who participated said “no amount of money” would convince them to go back to working five days a week.
How will these smaller groups of happier people be monetized? This is a tough question for the billionaires. Happy people, the kind who eat sandwiches together, are boring. They don’t buy much. Their smartphones are six versions behind and have badly cracked screens. They fix bicycles, then they talk about fixing bicycles, then they show their friend, who just came over for no reason, how they fixed their bicycle, and their friend says, “Wow, good job,” and they make tea. That doesn’t seem like enough to build a town square on.
I’m increasingly convinced that a much more relaxed approach to knowledge consumption – one that involves putting way less pressure on yourself to retain what you read, listen to, or watch – isn’t only more enjoyable, but better for your creative output, too. The first reason for this is that forgetting is a filter.