Author Archives: Steve Mays

Busyness is a kind of debt

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“Having zero clutter is an entirely different experience than having a little clutter. The psychological effect of reducing any type of mess to zero is profound. It feels like a noisy fan has shut off. Now I love the feeling of being at zero, and I never want to be far from it. Every neglected possession, unanswered email or open browser tab is like a little hook in your brain. There isn’t a huge difference in how it feels to have six of these hooks in your brain versus having eighty, but there is a vast difference between having some and having zero.”

David Cain expands on this at Raptitude

Audio-Visual Day

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Technology provides the hash marks to our lives. When I was in the 4th grade (1957) we did the thing where fathers came to school to talk about their jobs. My mom worked just as hard as my pop but this was the 50s, so…

My old man brought a reel-to-reel tape recorder and everyone got to record — and listen to — themselves saying their name or something. Very cool. I’m guessing it was the first time many of my classmates had heard a recording of their voices.

VHS video recorder/players didn’t hit the consumer market until the early 70s. So when a teacher was too hung over or depressed to teach a class they rolled in the audio-video gear which, in my youth, was a film-strip projector. And I guess we thought that was cool technology.

How long before the hologram teacher instructs the class to strap on their VR goggles cause we’re touring the International Space Station this morning.

The story we keep repeating

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“(We) are impressions left by something that used to be here. We have been created, molded, formed by a bewildering matrix of contingencies that have preceded us. From the patterning of the DNA derived from our parents to the firing of the hundred billion neurons in our brains to the cultural and historical conditioning of the twentieth century to the education and upbringing given us to all the experiences we have ever had and choices we have ever made: these have conspired to configure the unique trajectory that culminates in this present moment. What is here now is the unrepeatable impression left by all of this, which we call “me.” […] What are we but the story we keep repeating, editing, censoring, and embellishing in our heads?”

— Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor