Think deeply and quietly

Quite a few people have written about the need for solitude and deep thought in modern society. Cal Newport writes frequently on the topic. Stoicism is making it’s way back through whack jobs like Tim Ferris and less absurd people like Ryan Holiday.

My current read is Farsighted, by Steven Johnson. He focuses throughout the book on the value of putting proven processes and models into practice when trying to make better long term decisions. One of the revelations that is most counter-intuitive, and yet relevant, to modern life is the idea that our brains are actually more active during “rest” than when we’re actively trying to use them.

In other words, when we are left to our own mental devices, the mind drifts into a state where it swirls together memories and projections, mulls problems, and concocts strategies for the future…There is a simpler — and less revelatory — way of describing these discoveries: human beings daydream. We didn’t need an fMRI scanner to find this out about ourselves. What the technology did reveal was just how much energy daydreaming required. What feels like the mind drifting off into reverie is actually, on the level of neural activity, a full workout. And the brain regions involved in the workout happen to be the ones that are uniquely human.

Steven Johnson, Farsighted, pp. 79-80

We daydream, primarily about the future, when we have the chance to think. We don’t daydream, or experience any inner quiet, when we’re scrolling down another stupid app on our phones. We don’t use the most vital and human part of our brain watching another idiotic video, liking another meaningless post, or sharing the latest organic food propaganda.

What we need is to be human. What we don’t need is constant connectivity or the addiction of social media. We need the best thinkers, and they aren’t a friend, connection, or follower. They’re the computer scientist who has never had a social media account, the actor/director that quit the internet, the writer who decided to protect his time and delete Twitter, and a myriad of others who aren’t as well known yet.

Check out the article this quote is from over on Medium. It’s by Colin Horgan and posted in their OneZero publication.

Despite the companies’ best efforts to convince us otherwise, we don’t need social media for all the things we’re told we need it for. We don’t need social media to make friends or build relationships. We don’t need it to become active or engaged in politics. We don’t need it to explore our cities or find new things to do. We don’t need it to hail a cab or catch a bus or fly on a plane. We don’t need it to hear new music or read new books. We don’t need it to do our shopping. We don’t need it to develop or discover subcultures or like-minded groups or to appreciate good design. We don’t need it to plan our lives. And we don’t need it to understand the world.

Colin Horgan, We Don’t Need Social Media

Do something different. Do something that’s difficult. Do something that takes mental intensity and focus. Do something that is analog. Do something other than staring at the device in your hand or the screen in your living room. Read a book, go for a jog, subscribe to the local newspaper (and read it), learn a new skill.

Do something.