Mini-Detachment Experiment 1 - Stop reading tech news
As an inquisitive human being, I am highly inclined to read tech news, whenever I can get my fingers on the keyboard. With the iPhone in my pocket, my hands tend to itch a lot, and there’s always the impulse to whip it out, check Reddit, Google News, or Hacker News.
Many people are suffering from the same “programming” issue : our brains are just too inclined to be set on autopilot, mindlessly consuming the news. Is it worth consuming? Do we need to know the next hot selfie-based social network by Justin Bieber? Do we need to make use of this cool new HTML5 Javascript library? What if Samsung launches a brand new smartphone? What if Bitcoin hits $1000? How does all that affect what we do?
All of the above are worries constructed by our minds, to prevent ourselves from doing real work. The Germans have this term “eingebildete Krankheit” (means self-made-up sickness, or Hypochondrie) which clearly represents this mode of new-age A.D.D. affecting tech people.
By avoiding the news, I can achieve two things:
- I can start doing things that make a difference for customers, friends and family .
- I can unclog the mind, and use the extra resources to create. I can think of the next project, the next game, or the next blog post to write.
The world needs more creators, and less consumers.
What if I miss something gravely important? The chances are extremely tiny to non-existent, that any of the thousands of tech news feeds streaming in real-time, will deeply impact my life, and the people I care about. After all, this is tech news, and we’re not exactly building the next rocketship to Mars.
I’m going on a 7 day tech-news “cleanse”. If it turns out I am happier, and feel more creative after 7 days, I’ll run the next experiment, doubling the number of days.
Life
