idle

rest itself becomes an act of rebellion. If AI gives us near-limitless productive capacity, the truly radical act might be to not use it at all. By setting realistic targets for ourselves, and putting up boundaries, we can slow the erosion of our humanity.

Similarly, AI creates nigh-infinite consumption potential. OpenAI 's Sloptok can generate

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Unsettled is a good word to describe the weirdness of modern life, and I think one of the main reasons many of us feel unsettled is because no one feels like they’re getting much done. Which isn’t surprising when you consider that people are spending upwards of 6 hours per day consuming digital content.

Entertainment doesn’t give you any “free time” but rather takes it away. Mass-manufactured “leisure” activities turn you into a prisoner. The modern spirit boasts an oddly painful tendency to standardize even the most spontaneous human expressions. We globally agree to have “fun” based on the same rules, rhythm, and intensity. Technology only makes

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The faster things go, the more immersed we are in the flow, addicted to the speed, unwilling to grapple with the slowness of the real world around us, the more we forget to feed the part of ourselves that likes quiet, that can live in quiet. That deprivation makes itself felt in the body as a kind of dread.

More and more, I think my issues with conventional productivity advice – indeed, with the very notion of productivity – boil down to this: Spending your days trying to get through a list of things you feel you have to do is a fundamentally joyless and soul-destroying way to live; and most productivity problems, like distraction or procrastination... See more

As my buddy said to me, “I feel very congested. Too many things to watch, too many conversations to keep track of, too many pods, too many articles, too many things that can be done. 

“There’s a disconnect going on that’s kind of dragging my soul down a bit despite all the good that’s going on.”

He didn’t say it, but the problem that we’re all... See more

But busyness has a way of stealing creativity from you. Generative work, like art and writing, requires long periods of nothingness: it’s only in that wide empty space that ideas emerge. Long runs, hot showers, commutes that don’t involve harried Slack messages and listening to podcasts at 2x speed. Sitting at the edge of a dock, listening to the... See more

I grew up kind of broke. I was taught to hustle. [Now] I make a good salary and I don’t need to do things that I don’t want to do. Still, there’s something ravenous that I notice if I don’t do that [capitalistic] thing. It feels like it comes from a feeling of deprivation, a feeling of fear that I think we’re supposed to feel. I don’t mean we’re... See more