I almost didn't write anything here because I had such a good session writing for a bigger project. But I started to think about Pressfield's idea of Resistance and I could only see my inability to write ten minutes more as a form of me resisting.
I went down a rabbit hole tonight about the Internet. I was thinking about the Marshall McLuhan quote "the message is the meaning" for some reason. It led me to Wikipedia where I found McLuhan explaining that a lightbulb can be a medium that creates an environment that wouldn't exist at nighttime. It lights the place up and creates a space. The technology changes the way we interact and extend into the world.
And that had me thinking about how I could reflect on the Internet and the Information Age, as they call it.
I didn't want to sound like an old, bitter Internet-hater so I'm trying to find a way to analyze the Internet as the medium of our time. It's honestly amazing what it has done to the way we live. And I could easily start talking about the troubles Facebook and the billions of users it has are having but that's not the idea.
I kept thinking about the Internet being too much for the single human brain. We didn't evolve to be able to do all the insane things the Internet can do for each of us. You barely need money, you just need access, and you can find porn and books and uber rides anywhere and online dating and free events in the city and Blue Apron meals to your door or anything else you want. That's just too much power for someone to walk through this life and make productive, deeper decisions.
And I feel like it might get even wilder with the oncoming integration of augmented reality. How can we live our lives then? What will the technology do?
I'm no expert and I can't predict it. I don't want to. I just want to think out loud, and, honestly, laugh at it.
I started listening to Carlin and Rogan to get some inspiration on how to close a bit. I didn't know how to write myself out of these Internet Age thoughts. And then I found myself wondering if I should really focus on making my writing funny. I really enjoy how Rogan's words and act itself can take me off-guard and make me laugh. It's so interesting and I hope I can do the same with this blog. Or something else in the future.
With that being said, I was inspired by a visit at the office from a former coworker today. He announced he would be leaving the company on my second day about four months ago. He left to explore South America with his girlfriend for four months, and he did! And that's possible! It sounded so amazing, and I hope I find the time and the energy and the woman to do that some time in my life.
Consider it another of the million tiny decisions we need to make with this internet world.
Not unrelated, I made the decision to try and learn some Javascript. Mostly for my job. It would help the job now and I'm sure it's not going anywhere, considering the words above again.
I read some stories this afternoon too. My mental capacity for office work fails at 4pm, without a doubt, so I started reading some articles I had saved and I found an interview with Brain Pickings author Maria Popova and her definition of content. She is turned off by the term. It pulls the soul out of the work. It sounds like it is machine-made.