28th
Satisfaction vs. Stimulation
Last month, I wrote a short post on being a producer rather than a consumer.
Listen. In fifty years no one is going to care whether or not you liked country music, screamo, or hyphy. No one will remember what shoes you wore or what beer you drank.But if you make something really good, or even just something really big, they’ll remember that, and they’ll remember you.
Think about that. Be a producer, not a consumer.
It doesn’t seem that profound now, but it had been running through my head for a few days, and I needed to get it out. Now I can see that it’s only part of a larger change that I need to make in my life.
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I’m easily addicted. Not to everything, but give me a good strong stimulant and I’m hooked. This carries over into my digital life too. About six months ago, after my wife caught me checking my Twitter feed and Google Reader for the fifth time in an hour, I joked that I was like a junkie looking for a fix of something (ANYTHING) new to distract me. Of course, I realized, that it wasn’t so much a simile as it was the truth.
Except that I started to realize how dissatisfied I was with everything, and how edgy I really was when I tried to sit quietly and think. I made a list of the things that satisfied me. Reading a book. Cooking a meal. Time with my wife. Playing with my daughter. Writing more than 140 characters. All things that can’t be rushed, and things that make me feel calm.
This isn’t a rant about the evils of Twitter or the online world at large. I love Twitter for the connection it gives me to distant friends, and for the chance to converse people I would never meet but greatly admire. I also love living in a world where I can filter the news to my liking, opening myself to views that would never find a voice in any newspaper. But sometimes what I get is music, and other times it’s just noise.
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I’m not making any big changes to my life. I work online, so it’s not like I can go cold turkey, nor would I if I could.
I’m leaving the iPhone and laptop on my desk more these days. Reading more history than news. Picking up a book in my few spare moments instead of loading up Google Reader.
It feels better.
