Bustr Bensn

Not resting, not doing.

On Louis CK’s Reddit IAMA, he said:

I killed my facebook page years ago because time clicking around is just dead time. Your brain isn’t resting and it isn’t doing. I think people have to get their heads around this thing. All this unmitigated input is hurting folks.

In Michael Lewis’ profile of Obama, he asked the President: “Assume that in 30 minutes you will stop being president. I will take your place. Prepare me. Teach me how to be president.” As part of his answer, Obama said:

“You need to focus your decision-making energy. You need to routinize yourself. You can’t be going through the day distracted by trivia.”

I’m going to remove Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr from my life for 30 days to see exactly what I miss when I don’t have it.

I think there are more than just two states of resting and doing for the brain. There is that ambiguous one of passive absorbing/gathering/processing, and I think Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc (even TV sometimes, depending on the content) are more synonymous with the background-processing states of walking or taking a shower. You’re not doing something directly, other than letting your subconscious crunch information and every once in a while it sends something back up the pipes. That’s been my experience anyway.