Dispatch from the Digital Detox: Use an analogue watch

Hot tip: Don’t use your phone, tablet or computer as a glanceable timepiece. Well, maybe your computer taskbar/menubar is allowable while you’re working. But don’t be getting your phone out of your pocket to ‘check the time’… you’ll never be knowing where the time went after you’re done ‘just checking’. ‘Okay, but couldn’t I try … More Dispatch from the Digital Detox: Use an analogue watch

The Digital Era: Distributed vs. Fragmented Cognition

The promise of digital technologies is the ultimate kind of ‘distributed cognition’ – the ability to use different digital environments in order to help our thinking be streamlined – focused on one thing or another: on writing a report, or planning a project, or communicating with co-workers or loved ones. The fact is, though, that … More The Digital Era: Distributed vs. Fragmented Cognition

Joseph Conrad exemplifying the rule ‘show don’t tell’

Great writers show, don’t tell, and Conrad is one of the great writers. Take just the Author’s Note that prefaces The Rescue, in which he recounts coming back to finish the book after a 20 year pause: ‘The years passed and the pages grew in number, and the long reveries of which they were the … More Joseph Conrad exemplifying the rule ‘show don’t tell’

Tomorrow

Some days I have to remind myself, ‘There’s always tomorrow.’ Those days when I’m cranky and sleepy and worn ragged and I just have to slow down and not take myself too seriously; I just have to make a list and do the essential things, enjoy the little things, chill out, give thanks, read a … More Tomorrow

The Grand Scheme of Things (a poem)

The Grand Scheme of Things.The Grand Scheme of Things!Everybody talks aboutThe Grand Scheme of Things.As if they’ve read it through and scannedit page by page to understandthe content and the message ofThe Grand Scheme of Things. ‘Everything is fine,’ they say,Or ‘It’ll turn out right,’ they say,‘It doesn’t matter,’ – so blasé –‘in The Grand … More The Grand Scheme of Things (a poem)

Show, Don’t Tell

I’ve been running into a mantra that emerges from the forest leaves of my everyday experience like an exotic bird, a flash of colour that then darts again out of view, only to reappear once more later on in a clearing, and again in the fronds of a bush, then again flashing across the sky … More Show, Don’t Tell

The way of wisdom

Back in July, just after I’d finished reading Flow by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, I wrote this in my journal: ‘Read more fiction and ancient wisdom, and less critical theory. Theory emerges from post-scientific-revolution enlightenment rationalism, aiming to distill life to purely scientific concepts. Ancient wisdom writers and artists know that knowledge is best absorbed like nutrients … More The way of wisdom