{"id":4308,"date":"2018-05-19T11:57:35","date_gmt":"2018-05-19T09:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/?p=4308"},"modified":"2018-05-19T11:57:35","modified_gmt":"2018-05-19T09:57:35","slug":"digging-your-own-rabbit-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/2018\/05\/19\/digging-your-own-rabbit-hole\/","title":{"rendered":"Digging your own rabbit hole"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Kottke newsletter<\/a> this week Tim Carmody highlights<\/a> Dan Nosowitz’s article in NYMag “I Don\u2019t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore”<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The other day, I found myself looking at a blinking cursor in a blank address bar in a new tab of my web browser. I was bored. I didn\u2019t really feel like doing work, but I felt some distant compulsion to sit at my computer in a kind of work-simulacrum, so that at least at the end of the day I would feel gross and tired in the manner of someone who had worked. What I really wanted to do was waste some time.<\/p>\n

But \u2026 I didn\u2019t know how. I did not know what to type into the address bar of my browser. I stared at the cursor. Eventually, I typed \u201cnytimes.com\u201d and hit enter. Like a freaking dad. The entire world of the internet, one that used to boast so many ways to waste time, and here I was, reading the news. It was even worse than working.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As the kids (youngsters in their thirties) say these days (probably not any more): “It me”.<\/p>\n

Very recently I downloaded Brent Simmons’s<\/a> Evergreen RSS reader<\/a>, which came pre-populated with an interesting selection of blog feeds he follows, and that I probably would never have come across myself. That was nice. Likewise, I’ve been dipping my toes in the water of Manton Reece’s<\/a> micro.blog<\/a>, and reading new things I find there. Sometimes it’s thoughts about how people respond to expectations<\/a>, sometimes it’s a picture of someone’s back yard<\/a>. It’s good stuff.<\/p>\n

Tim Carmody calls it “digging your own rabbit hole”:<\/p>\n

So what does this mean? Paradoxically, wasting time is now more work. You can certainly do it \u2014 the web is as full of nonsense as it ever was \u2014 but you have to look a little bit harder. You have to learn some new things<\/a>. You have to find your own corners charting unmonetizable enthusiasms<\/a>. It\u2019s not just going to happen to you. You have to dig your own rabbit holes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Curiously, this brings back a feeling of peeking into private spaces, even though these sites are openly available on the internet. But they’re not part of the mainstream: Twitter, Medium, Tumblr. If you want to be read<\/em> these days, and you don’t already have an audience, you publish on one of the social outlets. Writing on your own site (the “indie web”<\/a>) has different connotations: a certain resistance to the mainstream. I dig it.<\/p>\n

One of Tim’s links there was to Austin Kleon’s article “What do you want to learn?”<\/a>. This reminded me of a piece I wrote myself on Everything2 in 2001, “What can you do this month that you couldn’t do last month?”<\/a>. Here’s the whole thing:<\/p>\n

Earlier today, my wife and I were talking about the baby<\/a> we have due in six weeks’ time. (We talk about this a lot.) We were considering how quickly babies grow, and how quickly they learn. A whole new individual takes form, its body, its personality, it’s whole being<\/i> evolving on a daily basis. From one week to another it picks up new skills: holding a cup, grasping a spoon, crawling, walking, talking.<\/p>\n

We never learn so much, so quickly, as when we are children.<\/p>\n

Is the converse true? If we keep learning, and keep acquiring new skills, do we stay young?<\/p>\n

For a child, a completely new thing is utterly fascinating. As we grow older, there are fewer new things to discover, and come to think that every day is like any other. We’ve seen and done it all before. And because we don’t experience it as often, we forget just how much fun<\/a><\/i> the thrill of discovery is! Find that thrill, and you’ll find your inner child<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of my goals in life is to have as much fun<\/a> as possible. And learning new things is one of life’s greatest pleasures. So I owe it to myself to consider the following question on a regular basis:<\/p>\n

What can I do this month that I couldn’t do last month?<\/b><\/p>\n

If I can’t answer this with something new, interesting and fascinating, then I must be doing something wrong. This month, for instance, I have learned how to play hi-hat<\/a> ostinatos on my drum kit. Very soon, I’ll be learning how to change nappies<\/a>.<\/p>\n