Tag: focus

Kanamits and the Economy of the Mind

Posted on December 31, 2020 by - Practical Philosophy

economy of the mind

“The cycle of going from dust to dessert. The metamorphosis from being the ruler of a planet to an ingredient in someone’s soup.”

During a treadmill run before the pandemic started I watched an old Twilight Zone episode featuring the above voiceover, which has stayed with me.

The episode is To Serve Man. Aliens, called Kanamits, visit Earth proclaiming good intentions, and after some initial skepticism humans embrace their assistance. Soon war, hunger, and all doubts about Kanamit intentions disappear.

A Kanamit book was left at U.N. headquarters and a crypto team attempts to decipher it. They quickly discover the book’s title is “To Serve Man,” but the rest of the book is more difficult to decipher. In the meanwhile, Kanamits generously announce they’ll provide humans with free vacations to the Kanamit home world.

The twist comes as the protagonist climbs aboard a Kanamit ship just as his coworker on the deciphering team (and love interest) shouts from behind a fence that she finished deciphering the book, and that it’s a cookbook for humans. Unable to leave the ship the protagonist ends up on the Kanamit homeworld, where we watch him at first refuse, and then give in, to Kanamit attempts to fatten him up.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that the story has more relevance than dark sci fi humor.

There’s an economy of our minds that translates into success or failure; we can get sucked into poor investments of time via appealing servings of mental stimulation just as readily as we can with poor investments of money. I call these traps “Kanamits of the mind.”

I’m as guilty of these as anyone. I’ve watched shows I wasn’t interested in just to have a cultural connection, for example The Walking Dead. Despite it being immensely popular I quickly became frustrated by its dependency on an episodic cliffhanger formula: instead of catharsis/resolution the viewer became hooked for the next episode.

Compare this to The Mandalorian, which while pursuing a broader storyline successfully surfaces and resolves “side quests” within each episode while still making tangible progress towards a successful resolution overall.

I’d love an entire movie, Shrek-style, with Mando and Baby Yoda

Ironically, the show about zombies became something of a zombie itself as it kept going long after its popularity waned (did other people notice this annoying formula and stop watching too?). Bring forth the illustrative meme:

Katanas are cool, but why? So many questions.

I have the same frustration with certain video games. I bought Overwatch[1] and enjoyed it…for a while. After three months I’d log in Monday night, play ‘Arcade’ games until I unlocked all the free loot boxes for that week, and then sign off until the next Monday night.[2] After a few months of this I realized the game was a chore, not a game, and I never logged on again.

As I look back on time spent watching shows that I couldn’t stand, for which I was more relieved there was an end than how it ended, or playing games that served up only more chores, I wish I’d invested that time elsewhere.

Recently I preordered Cyberpunk 2077, planning to take time off of work to play the day it was released. But I instead decided to cancel the preorder and instead spent that time designing and building my own Mandalorian nativity scene.[3]

Could I have kept the preorder and also built the nativity scene? Probably. It’s all about balance, right? Good things like stress reduction and making friends can come from playing video games or watching TV; a psychology journal just published research saying that video games “are now more important than ever for socialization, feeling autonomy and control during an uncertain time, and just de-stressing.”

These days I still play games and watch TV (in much smaller amounts than before), but I’ve recognized a need for other forms of fulfillment; the happiness of dusting cobwebs from my creative side, and the satisfaction of working with my hands. So if you feel unfulfilled by games and TV, try mixing things up for a while and see how that affects you.

Be careful of Kanamits of the mind. They claim to serve you, and that they will do; but they might instead serve you to their advertisers and shareholders, and sell you short of your full potential, without you realizing it.

[1] When Overwatch came out I was probably above their target age demographic. My interest in the game was the result of my browsing reddit and imgur and being inundated with memes from the game, as well as funny videos on YouTube. No, the irony of purchasing a video game because of my time spent viewing memes and funny videos is not lost on me either.

[2] Most of this was due to the toxicity of players, even in Quick Play. I hated playing Ranked games since I was afraid to cost my teammates SR, which would have further increased the toxicity. I was also afraid of using voice chat since the only time I could play was shortly after putting our kids to bed and I didn’t want to wake them up.

[3] A note on balance: you should absolutely relax and take breaks, and not go all out on self improvement or home improvement projects all the time. Just be thoughtful about it. Don’t let the pendulum swing too far the other way!

The One Thing: Book Review

Posted on May 19, 2020 by - Book Reviews, Business

A solid reminder to focus and prioritize, but avoids important nuance which might limit its usefulness.

I heard about this book from Tim Ferriss’ 5 Bullet Friday email a while ago and was able to pick it up at the library before COVID-19 closed my local library, woot!

As I’ve grabbed time to read it through I’ve taken notes (below) and thought how to apply it.

Overall, the most important lesson I learned was that few things are actually important, and we should find what those things really are; and if you think it will be an easy process, you’re probably wrong 🙂

Note that if you want to read the book but are out of luck given your library being closed due to COVID-19, then you can read most of The One Thing here (use the “Next Post” buttons at the bottom to go through the subsequent chapters).

Here are my takes on the book, both good and bad:

Key Takeaways

  • Focus on fewer things; find what you need/require for success and then remove all distractions
  • Not everything matters equally. Figure out priorities and stick with them; see Pareto’s Law aka the 20% rule
  • Multitasking doesn’t work. Focus!
  • Discipline has to be limited to the areas that are critical for success; develop one habit at a time for 66 days each (I don’t set New Year’s Resolutions so I thought this was interesting). Also, be accountable for your goals. If not, nothing will get done.
  • Willpower is a limited illusion. Use your mind less and you’re more likely to stick with your better options.
  • Do the important thing when it works for you; the book suggests “early” as in morning but adjust as needed. Literally block out time on your calendar, planner, whiteboard, whatever.
  • Just get started; break down complex things into small tasks.
  • Demand more from life. A poem by JB Rittenhouse called “My Wage” really hits home. Also, don’t let others demand more from you. Failure is certain when you try to please everyone.
  • Think about the focus of your life overall, and the focus of your life right now. What should you do now to get to the overall goal? What about 5 years from now, a year from now, a month, etc?
  • The Begging Bowl story. The moral is that happiness doesn’t come from wanting more; the metaphorical bowl will become a bottomless pit of human desire and greed. I thought this was a clever way for the author to say “expect less and you’ll be happier” which is true in many cases.

Things I Didn’t Like

  • Overall, the book was too “rah rah rah” for me, like a cheerleader who’s gotten stuck on the same chant and tries to break out of it by smiling harder and yelling louder. Some pep is good, but too much makes the experience feel cheap.
  • Many concepts were repeated multiple times, almost to the point of redundant redundancy. I understand that repetition helps readers remember, but it annoyed more than helped me focus on the concepts. Why not instead set up the book with the top goal and then break it down into the pieces, like he suggests we do with our life goals?
  • I really hate the printed-in underlines on the pithy statements. Let ME mark up the book if I so choose! (Though I would never do it, because I don’t buy books- I use the library!)
  • “Balance is a lie.” I greatly disagree! The author claims “counter-balance” is a better approach, but his description of counterbalancing just sounds like “finding balance with extra steps.” I argue finding the right ratio in everything is what’s needed; while the title of the book is The One Thing, we all know there is no such thing as One Thing in life- there will always be many things to do, competing choices, and many trade offs. Searching for a healthy ratio among Those Things helps keep people on keel, and trying to argue that “balance doesn’t exist so you should juggle via counterbalance” is counter-intuitive, confusing, and misleading.
  • “Big is Bad is a Lie.” Was the author really serious when the chapter ended with “And see just how big you can blow up your life”?
  • Retelling A Christmas Carol to give a pithy reason for why our purpose determines who we are felt…weird. While I agree that purpose is important, I felt there are much better stories out there people can relate to than an 1800’s Christmas story.

So overall, it’s a great book that has helped a lot of people–and can help you–find success in life, but I’d consider some of the caveats called out above as you read and apply it. Good luck!