Burkeman 7-9 (p.160). PRESENTATIONS DAILEN, FLYNN
- Have you found Hofstadter's Law to be true?
- What is worry, at its core? 116 Are you, or were you ever, a worrier? How did you, or will you, get over it?
- What do we mean when we say we have time? How does that bear on the way we think about the future? 117-8
- Do you struggle for certainty? Do you acknowledge the futility of that? If you stop, will you be liberated from anxiety? 119, 123
- Do you find de Beauvoir's reflections on chance "soothing"? 120-21
- How important is it to you to make specific plans for your days, weeks, year, lifetime? Does it disturb you when your plans are foiled? Do you think it should?
- To what extent do you "live mentally in the future" (126), either your own or that of your (actual or prospective) children, or of humanity in general? Can it ever be a good thing to do that? Do you agree with WJ that "The really vital question for us all is, What is this world going to be? What is life eventually to make of itself?"
- Is it "insane" to live from project to project? Is Alan Watts right about the "hoax" of education? 127-8
- Does the deliberate attempt to optimize a child's development in some way devalue childhood? 129-32 Have you spent time with a zero-year old? Do you look forward to doing so? To what end?
- Could we de-instrumentalize our relation to capitalism and turn life into less of a "slog" simply by rethinking our relation to time? Was Keynes right about "purposive man"? 133-6
- Do you have a hard time "being here now" and pleasantly, un-self-consciously absorbing yourself in mundane activities ? 137-9
- Does society or higher education overemphasize "justifying life in terms of the economy"? 142 Should you feel guilty for "enjoying leisure (whether in Aristotle's sense -144- or some other) for its own sake" rather than for its contribution to your potential productivity?
- Do you or anyone you know suffer "idleness aversion"? Are you/they "attempting to avoid confronting difficult emotions"? Such as...? 148-9 Is John Gray right about the present age? 154
- Does the Protestant Work Ethic make any sense at all?
- Is modern fitness a form of self-flagellation? 150
- Is Thomas Wolfe right? 151
- Should we re-institute a real (if secular) Sabbath? 152
- What are your favorite atelic activities? 156 Did Schopenhauer overlook the possible gratifications of this dimension of life? 158
- Does Rod Stewart have the right approach to hobbies, and Richard Branson a wrong one? 159
- Chapter 7: We Never Really Have Time
ReplyDelete- Planning, anxiety, and worry as grappling with an uncertain and uncontrolleable future; using valuable faculties such as time and energy to do so, wasting them on futuristic expectations and hopes rather than on the present moment.
- “I don’t mind what happens” -Christian Muhrty “without the inner demand to know that the future will confrom to your desires for it” “we’ll be liberated from anxiety in the only moment that it ever actually is, which is this one”
***DQ: What is something you’ve been planning on or working towards? Is it truly something that will or has lead to a more valuable present, or have you found yourself spending these resources of time and energy on an inconcievable sense of the future?
> Treating my body like it’s a work in progress. Buying clothes that “will” fit whenever I inevitably get as skinny as social sanctions have led me to believe were necessary for enjoying life as a human. Opting out of certain experiences or opportunities that I’m convinced would be better enjoyed in a thinner body.
- Chapter 8: You Are Here
- time as an instrument or tool; the things we do with time as an instrument for some desired future
- living in the future, each present moment a ladder rung instead of LIFE and PRESENCE. Having a meta understanding of everything you do as you do it, having the misconception that these steps will concieve some desireable notion of the future
- time used is only valuable if it somehow positions yourself better for the future, or lays that groundwork
- “He was sheer presence: participating unconditionally in the moment in which he found himself”
- Capitalism as instrumentalist; our adoption of time as a commodity; productivity tied to profit or power; activities as means
- fisherman businessman story— drinking wine and playing music with your friends NOT dependent on professional prerequisites
- making best use of time by demanding enriching present moments keeps you from existing in those moments—using those moments, to feel in control of time “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”
***DQ: Name a time where you were so determined to create a satisfying memory out of a moment, and conequentially lost its potential to be such. Why was it so important to you that it resulted in such an intentional approach to it?
> Almost every birthday celebration I have I experience with the lens of how I will have considered these celerations in the future. Was it special? Did I feel special? Did I feel different? Or older? Did I make the most of this annual event? Did I laugh enough? Did I cry? Did the magnitude of the past twenty-hoewever many years catch up to me in some supreme moment of reflection and introspection? Did I discover any secrets of the universe yet? All the while going through the actual motions of my day as a ghost, experiencing my birthday, something that hasn’t yet happened or is happening, as something already lived— as the book says in chapter 9, wanting to add it to my “mental storehouse of memories” more than wanting to just live it.
cont.
ReplyDelete- Chapter 9: Rediscovering Rest
- Using time as meaningfully as possible, leisure in a “productive” way… relax you’ll be more productive… leisure as its usefulness for other things or in other (more ‘productive’) realms of one’s life
- “Could fall victim to…to add to your mental storehouse of experiences, in the hope that you’ll feel later on, that you’ve used your life well” THIS THIS THIS, perceiving an opportunity for a moment that could be satisfying, fulfilling, or aligning with the way I perceive myself or HOW I want to be able to perceive myself
- it was the end to which everything worth doing was a means… work was a deviation from the highest human calling.. leisure as default state— became productivity centered as a society structured around gain, economical ascension, and hyper-independence
- anything that doesn’t create some form of value for the future is idleness.. rest that has no instrumental value feels wasteful——— but idleness is an obligation
- the idea of predestination: wouldn’t someone who already was saved gravitate towards a higher virtue or whatever? the idea to prove value and entitlement bc you never want to find out that you already were damned by behaving less than so. Guilt/ regret at having used your time wrong, for the wrong things, to justify your existence—— not wanting to LEARN that you’ve spent your time wrong, trying to make every right decision to prove that we had control over our time and future the whole time, not wanting to be proven wrong
- That your days arent progressing toward a future state of perfectly invulnerable happiness
- atelic activity: its value is not derived from its payoff or gain “socially sanctioned outcome”
***DQ: Name something you’re bad at, but really enjoy. Or, name something you realy enjoy, that has been marred by its commodification opportunity or personal, conditioned standards of value.
> I honestly don’t think I have a hobby completely untouched by commodifiable potential. Everything I do, even poorly, I approach with the understanding that I could get really good at, if I really wanted to, or needed to. However, given its socially sanctioned cringiness, I find playing the ukulele somewhat freeing. I’m absolute shit at it, and hold no desire to perform for anyone but myself due to its derogatory preconceptions, and can sing even worse than I can play, but it’s fun. If I find myself home alone for a moment, I will fiddle with the same four chords and singular strumming pattern I’m familiar with just for kicks.
Outline for class discussion, not final blog post inspired by today's topics! I apologize for the weird format, wrote this on another platform.
"What is worry, at its core? Are you, or were you ever, a worrier? How did you, or will you, get over it?"
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that a worry is a will to change something. It's silly, as worrying will not change anything. However, it's a sign of attention and care towards something that you could think about it and wish for the best outcome so fervently. I am absolutely a worrier. I try my best to live in the moment, or live by "what will be will be", but it can be ridiculously hard to do so. I want to help and change so many things and so many things are out of my control. I don't think I'll ever stop being a worrier, to be honest. In some ways, it's how I care about some things.
How important is it to you to make specific plans for your days, weeks, year, lifetime? Does it disturb you when your plans are foiled? Do you think it should?
ReplyDeleteMore and more, I find myself less and less concerned with a strict schedule for my day. It is more freeing to be fluid in my day to day life, but I'm not sure if I apply the same mentality to my entire life. I try to, but the idea of my entire life being more fluid sounds wrong. Could we then distinguish our mentalities between everyday life and the overarching life we live? Some would say the two are linked, if not fully then partially, but I find myself struggling to hold the same mindset for both simultaneously. If they must be linked, do I then even truly hold either mindest since neither align in my life? In all honesty, I don't know.
What is worry, at its core? 116 Are you, or were you ever, a worrier? How did you, or will you, get over it?
ReplyDeleteWorry is when we attempt to grasp some certainty about the future without ever grasping that certainty and never can change the potential for an unfavorable outcome. I definitely am a worrier when it comes to places I have to be in an unfamiliar area where I don't know if parking is accessible or traffic will be bad. I tend to leave places earlier to avoid this but it can still be nerve racking when set plans do not work out like they are supposed to.
For especially important things like interviews, the worry about not being good enough to fit the description of the candidate they are looking for by not giving the best responses tends to be a worry of mine that comes to light. I think by practicing more I could ease some of this worry.
Do you find de Beauvoir's reflections on chance "soothing"? 120-21
ReplyDeleteI find it comforting in that Beauvoir's analysis will force you to look at the bigger picture and understand that what has gone "wrong" is a small comparison to the chance of even experiencing that moment. It gives me the idea that one should go with the flow in these unfavorable moments because we never had control of our presence on Earth. Circumstances that are uncontrollable are uncomfortable to the being but are some of the most vital parts to learn from.
Do you have a hard time "being here now" and pleasantly, un-self-consciously absorbing yourself in mundane activities ? 137-9
ReplyDeleteSometimes I do. Mainly at my internship when we are doing rather mundane activities. It is a lot easier to let my brain go on auto pilot for the day to get through the day and "make the time go faster." Yesterday when we were decorating for Christmas, I found myself calling myself back to the moment to just notice how I was feeling in that moment. I am trying to make progress because of this class and the emphasis of the value of the way we spend our time. Going on auto pilot is not a valuable way to spend that time. So thanks Dr. Oliver for teaching this class to gain a new perspective!
You're welcome!
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