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June 03, 2005
Paralyzing Choices
In the past month or so I had been making a point of consistently posting twice weekly. This was at times very easy to do while at others I found as though I had to literally force myself to come up with something interesting. This, I understand, is what is referred to as writers block: an anomaly that exists only when the equally powerful and opposing forces of a creative (but lazy) consciousness and immovable deadline collide demanding that something relevant is produced, whether or not it was fully and spontaneously inspired prior to its creation.
I had been doing rather well in making these imaginary, self-imposed deadlines until this past week when other, more important things demanded my attention. For the most part I cannot elaborate in great detail on what those 'important things' actually are but they are the types of decisions and opportunities that, once acted upon, will result in me sharing the results of those choices with either a triumphant full-disclosure of success or with those bitterly vague and cryptic references that communicate the acceptably shared details of my failure while simultaneously masking the pertinent bits of information that truly display its gravity.
Speaking of choices, I found something terrific for you all to listen to. In the past month I have discovered ITConversations; one of the many content producers that have sprung up recently due to the podcast craze. The site primarily provides speeches, interviews and presentations having to do with information technology. It's entirely free entertainment for those of you who relish lectures, talk radio, documentaries and lengthy essays into the sort of subject matter that the masses would deem 'boring', 'nerdy', 'over-intellectual' and 'self important'. Naturally I'm an absolute addict.
The particular audio presentation I wanted to draw all of your attention to is one by Barry Schwartz, a Psychology professor at Swarthmore College, entitled Less is More. It's a little under an hour long but I assure you that it is well worth your time. The thrust of his thesis is that, 'We can't have it all, and worse yet the desire to have it all and the illusion that we can is one of the principal sources of torture of modern affluent free and autonomous thinkers.' His thoughts on the subject are very exciting; it's the kind of freewheeling insight that spans the spectrum of adroit observation to unfounded utopian theorizing that runs rampant on college campuses across the country. I would be excited to go into greater detail on my reactions to the subject but only if you are all interested in that. If you take the time to actually listen to this please leave a comment or drop me an e-mail and we can geek out over its multifaceted implications. It's the sort of thing that is best ingested while driving or on a walk with headphones so go ahead and burn a CD or transfer it to whatever device suits your fancy.
Now for more entertaining fare: As all of you know I am utterly enthralled by religion and belief in other powers. So much so in fact that I am constantly analyzing my own beliefs and how they relevantly relate to my behavior. What do I base my belief set on? Can this really be truth? Is God simply a construct to fill in the inconsistencies in my own life? Is faith just an emotional coping mechanism? As a believer in Christ I both envy the fanatics for their steely, unwavering resolve and critically analyze their intentions. At other times I just sit back and admire the spectacle. I'm not sure what is the source for my complete dismissal of any integrity for what I just linked to; perhaps it's the little green singing man or maybe it's the creators basing their proclamations on the fabled 'lost books of the Bible'. In all honesty I think that if both God and alien technology where to team up to form a sort of Super-Christianity that they would have allotted more resources to production costs.
I've also made three new pieces of clothing so when I am back home and within reach of my digital camera I will promptly post more pictures.
Posted by Jon at June 3, 2005 04:09 PM