tools are a means to an end

“how do you keep up with these tools/apps and use exactly the right one for each purpose?” today someone said this to me for the fourth time since 2016 started.

in some ways, this verifies my early adopter status. i’ve always known i fit the profile of an early adopter. this year i’d like to explore how to use that for good. it’s a valuable character trait… i think.

but deeper than that, i have a strong desire to be as effective as possible in as many ways as possible. this drive goes back as far as i can remember. one of my earliest memories from elementary school is getting in trouble for walking on the grass. but the sidewalks in my school were only perpendicular and sometimes the shortest path was on a diagonal… (i.e. across the grass).

these tools and apps are all just a means to an end: how can i make the most of the time i have left here on this planet? some people call this self-mastery. i don’t know if that resonates with me, but that’s what i’ll call that ‘drive’ for now.

methodology: how i work

i died once. so time matters a lot to me. how i use it and how i don’t.

so i combine a lot of tools to make sure that if i die again (which i will), i won’t regret my time. and so that i will have genuinely felt like i accomplished something with my lifeforce.

constrained creativity

listening to this podcast on dark matter and physics (this i think). creativity isn’t possible without constraints. reminded me of the video where a popcorn kernel popping was the analogy to the creative process. it takes ingredients in a container with applied pressure to make it work. 

so this is my microblog. everyday. fewer than 200 words. 10 minutes or less (including editing, not including research). whatever is on my mind. public. (mostly) not fact checked. 

go.

#Entry 2

#Entry 2

6 Jan 2015

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lesson learned from day of reflection: one day isn’t enough. i think i also need to go away to do it properly.

if i make it to 2016, i want to take a two-day weekend or block out one full day from sunup to sundown. i was also too easily distracted during the day and was too able to find things i needed to do to prepare for diving back into the stream of life.

it’d be nice to go somewhere on friday night, probably solo, sleep there, wake up, review 2015 calendar, think about life and meaning, plan for 2016, sleep, return home the following morning.

#Entry 1

note: i originally wrote this post (and the next one) in markdown. i won't be reformatting. 

also, i wrote this post before i really started constrained creativity in its current form. therefore, these posts don’t really follow the conventions or voice of the rest of the posts. sorry not sorry.

#Entry 1

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i hate to say i’m searching for a theme for this year, but i guess i am.

it’s the beginning of my first calendar year without any school ahead of me and i want to start off in the right direction (whatever that means). just to say it again: this is the first year of my entire life in which i haven’t either been IN school or had more schooling to look forward to at some point in the future.

and so i’m taking the time today to do three things:

1. review 2014 in depth

2. think about my priorities in life

3. creating a plan for 2015 based on 1. and 2.

one thing that’s on my brain right now as far as a theme goes is based on a song my roommate, ben golder, reminded me just a few days ago. it’s the song ‘do you realize?’ by the flaming lips (truth be told, i’m listening to it right now). the line that’s really resonating with me and making me feel like it could be the theme for this year is

> “do you realize that everyone you know someday will die?”

i’ve been thinking a lot about how the american desire to not deal with death affects our lives and my conclusion so far is that it makes us do lots of really stupid things. and so i want to focus this year on framing my life by that reality: everyone i know right now and everyone i will ever meet (including myself) will die someday. the reality of that could be terrifying and crippling, but it could also be freeing and joyful. i’m choosing to live like it’s the latter. so maybe the theme for this year is 'do you realize…?’

the other thing i’ve been thinking about lately is the intersection (or conflict or disconnect or something…) between technologies and things that matter.

i think humans have an innate desire to create and we often try to create things that will make life 'easier’ for us. and some of the promise of new technologies (and it has almost always been this way) is that by reducing the amount of time we need to spend doing things we don’t like, we would have more time to spend doing the things we really care about. but along the way (and this, too, has almost always been true), the technologies have captured our attention more than the things they were supposed to free us up to do [(see juliet schor’s work on the overworked american and overspent)](http://www.julietschor.org/academics/juliets-books/).

for me, the things that matter have always been the same and may also have been the same for almost all of time:

1. relationships

2. being well (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, all of the things)

3. love and loving (which, for me, looks like doing things to make life better)

and so i want to be very clear in my decision-making this year: technology exists to give me more time and a better ability to focus on the things that matter. if a technology (and i mean technology in the most open sense) isn’t serving that purpose, it’s out. i hope this will have the affect of removing things from my life that appear to have that affect, but really don’t.

for example, i think facebook no longer helps people be social in the way that it used to. facebook doesn’t help me actually connect with people. and so despite its framing as 'the social network,’ i want to be intentional about developing my social network outside of it.

so those are the two things i’m taking into 2015: 'do you realize?’ and attention to the distinction between technologies and things that matter. i don’t know how this is going to work out, but i’m excited.

here we go.