I waste a lot of time.
I play video games, read trashy sci-fi novels, spend precious hours on the internet looking at bike pants.
When I die (if I die….) will I look back on my life and think “what a waste…” ?
Probably not.
It’s important to have downtime. Here’s what Scott Adams (Creator of Dilbert) said
“Experts say our brains need boredom so we can process thoughts and be creative. I think they’re right. I’ve noticed that my best ideas always bubble up when the outside world fails in its primary job of frightening, wounding or entertaining me,” Adams wrote.
“My period of greatest creative output was during my corporate years,” he continued, “when every meeting felt like a play date with coma patients.”
WSJ 2011
In my line of work, I get to make a lot of wacky decisions. Things like “hey, what if we open a new office this year?”, “what’s our health care insurance going to cover?”, “who do we sacrifice to Nyarlathotep so that we pass from the gaze the dread being Azathoth for a few more millenia?!
DAMN!
You need spend some serious time for things to marinate on these matters. You can’t just multi-task your way into these decisions, and moreover, the will it takes for someone to STOP and THINK is a lost discipline….
When was the last time YOU stopped and thought? Literally, stopped everything and focused your mind on ONE topic. The last time I did that was in third grade, when I tried to pass math class and long division was killing my mind.
Having something mindless, pointless, and stupid going on acts as a form of meditation. You play a mind-numbing video game, you’re practically going through the motions. Working-out is probably the most boring thing I’ve ever done/do/will do. But those things free my mind and let me ruminate on the bigger issues. When you need to think of the big-picture, you gotta let the brain un-wind and de-stress.
So play some SC2 and meditate. It’s probably going to be as institutionalized as Buddhism koans are by this time next century.
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