I’ve gotten in this really bad habit lately. I hope you don’t know what I’m talking about. I hope it hasn’t afflicted you. I’m going to describe it in detail, because I’m sure I’m the only one who has this habit. [Ed: Jeff, there is no sarcasm font. Also, you’re your own editor]
I have acquired this habit of getting on YouTube to watch a specific video (sometimes with a real purpose) and two hours later discover that I’m watching a hamster get flung from his running wheel? That was right after the video of a kid making awesome basketball shots from his skateboard. Over two hours watching video after worthless video! It’s an addiction I tell you. An addiction!
But once in a while, I stumble across something that’s really worthwhile. I’ve seen some really inspirational stuff on YouTube. Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill collaborating on How Great Thou Art is one. Take a second (ok, 312 seconds…but it’s worth it) and watch.
Anyway, back to my point (which is my whole point, that I can’t stick to a single point). I was spelunking through the internet today and I came across a site that’s like YouTube, but for the mind. I’m not joking. While this site has consumed hours of my time, it’s also gotten my brain spinning in all sorts of new and interesting ways. The site itself is BrainPickings.org. It does sound a bit weird, but honestly, it’s not about brain surgery. It’s about picking up bits and pieces of stuff that you never really thought about before.
The thing about this site, is that the links within the article actually make you think and want to learn more. My mind is whirling. I’ve got tabs open galore (one for each of the links in the article that I’m reading). And I’ve got more reading on my plate than I can complete today. Yet with each article I find more that I want to read.
So there I was, enough tabs opened in my browser that my computer was starting to slow down and I came across this article about the Usefulness of Useless Knowledge. Seriously, that’s the title. At the moment, it seemed really appropriate. Here I was, wandering about this new website with all sorts of interesting information, but I really couldn’t put my finger on why this stuff would ever be useful.
So I read the article. It had a link (of course) to the the PDF of the original article written in 1939 by Abraham Flexner. I’m still working my way through the article, but it’s fascinating. I had to keep forcing myself to quit opening new links and chasing those rabbit trails just so I could finish the main article.
His point, in a nutshell, is that we spend the majority of our time trying to achieve some sort of quantitative increase in our knowledge…targeting that knowledge acquisition towards a specific goal, often economic. Dense enough for you? Seriously, we spend so much of our time trying to do the right things so that we can achieve our goals that we sometimes forget to metaphorically smell the roses. If Steve Jobs is right, and “The Journey is the Reward”, shouldn’t we really embrace the fact that there’s a lot more to learn, experience, and enjoy than just the things on the most direct route from where we currently are to that mythical place that we want to be?
With that in mind, I’m going to try to stop another bad habit that I have and trade it in for a good habit. The bad habit is that I beat myself up all the time for my intellectual diversions. I get pissed at myself for the YouTube excursions. I get mad when I blow several hours watching Ted Talks about esoteric things like Natalie Merchant: Singing old poems to life and Erik Schlangen: A “self-healing” asphalt. I’m constantly berating myself later for wasting my time and not doing something useful.
I’m not just giving myself a pass. I’m going to recognize that this bad habit has some usefulness. I’m going to strive to learn something from every experience, video, and web page I visit. I’m going to work hard to incorporate the new information into my knowledgebase and use the information to solve new problems that I encounter.
I’m also going to work on making myself more productive when I need to be. In a way, I’m going to use my spelunking expeditions as a treat, the dessert if you will, to the meat and potatoes of my regular life. Desserts aren’t bad unless taken to excess. And that’s exactly how I’m going to treat my habit of finding new and weird information.
A couple Christmases ago I got a shirt that states “Fountain of Useless Information”. I’ve worn it a few times, but mostly when I’ve run out of other shirts (and if you know me, that doesn’t happen very often). But I’m going to start wearing it as a badge of honor. I know a lot of stuff that may appear useless on the surface, but coupled with the other information that I’ve gathered it’s made for a very eclectic, interesting, and (honestly) useful knowledgebase. I often come at problems from a very different angle than other people, and I like to believe that I help develop unique solutions that might not exist if not for my interesting knowledgebase.
So, at the end of the day, I’m working to convert one of my “bad” habits into something that really is a “good” habit. How about you, what bad habit do you have that you could re-engineer into something that is useful?
I need to get one of those shirts and after meandering around that site for too long I have also added it to my favourites, oops! Yup, I’m just as bad as you but your new outlook on our shared bad habit is a brilliant one! Thanks for linking up with #SundayStars x