changed 5 years ago 515 views

20200604_1056 - going “off the grid”


saw this tweet the other day:

https://twitter.com/markallanbovair/status/1267288494734544897

I was without cell service for 16 hours this weekend and it made me accutely aware of how much the tech distracts from deep work and deep thinking. Going off grid more often is a priority going forward.

yeah some tech is evil designed to hijack(1) your(2) attention(3) and we all could use a bit of waldenponding(4) every once in a while (actually, my whole retirement plan orbits around this premise). but tapping into the “Global Social Computer in the Cloud / GSCITC(5)” has its own merits

reminds me of the idea of “tracking” Boyd Varty talks about in his conversation with Patrick O’Shaughnessy(6)

when you’re out in the wild, you need to listen to all signals. you need to stay alert, adapt, and navigate.

you disconnect you die. // heh, like me when driving. I turn off Google Maps (crutch?), I get lost

and not only to navigate. but to outsource parts of your brain

or what is known these days as: “building your second brain”

but I’m also wondering… is our second brain hurting us now with the intensifying amount of (mis|dis)information happening in 2020 so far?

perhaps now is a good time to tip the scale towards staying off-grid and pull the plug on the hivemind? where is the line?

“It’s not information overload; it’s filter failure.” - Clay Shirky


after thoughts #1: what can I take from this?

  1. schedule off-the-grid periods / social media fast / info fasting / downtime. protect your sanity. let the mind go into diffused mode, play, shitpost.
  2. develop the filter to tell signal from noise so I don’t get distracted so easily by the “tech” or any other shiny objects. clarity of direction.
  3. keep nurturing that second brain

after thoughts #2: there’s another leg I can observe to this idea of going “off the grid”: to escape from all pressure to perform roles in society. the responsibilities and expectations. that’s a topic for another day.