When I feel good, I feel like taking the world and I fill my to-do list with a dozen items. When I feel bad, I feel like I’m stuck in a dead-end. More work in every direction. Work, study, hacking, IRC, mail, wikis, cooking, social life, love life, going out – at the end of the day I still need an hour or two for “hanging around doing nothing” – *leisure* time in the old classical sense. Do nothing to find some inspiration and new energies. Being bored. When I have something planned for every day of the week, it is just too much.
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True. All work and no play...
There *has* to be some chaos and unpredictable things, having structured playtime/studytime all the time kills me too.
Reminds me of how Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) laments about “not having enough time to do nothing”
– AadityaSood 2004-09-16 13:55 UTC
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I would say start drawing and painting. On the corners of pages (while you are taking notes), in the notebook (when you are stuck in a boring meeting)... in fact wherever you can. I have started keeping some small sketch pens with me all the time and I must say it helps me a lot. 😃
– V 2004-09-17 05:20 UTC
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I think it’s necessary for a good plan to succeed to give it enough slack. Those “free” moments are when our brain arranges things and recuperates. I’ve had experiences when I work on something for a while, get nowhere and then get the answers when I goof off. 😄
– NoufalIbrahim 2004-09-17 05:57 UTC
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Regarding V’s MindMap stuff, drawing, and creativity – I really should take a picture of some of the mindmaps I’ve drawn myself.
– Alex Schroeder 2004-09-17 13:11 UTC
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In the rare event that I make them, I call them “Can Do” lists.
– LionKimbro 2004-09-19 01:57 UTC
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Alex, you are scratching the surface of very deep issues. what is important? how to live?
regarding leisure, look at “The Importance Of Living” by Lin Yutang: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0688163521/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0688163521/
from the description: [the book is an] “antidote to the dizzying pace of the modern world. Lin Yutang’s prescription is the classic Chinese philosophy of life: Revere inaction as much as action...”
this is probably true of many or most people: the older i get, the list of what’s important gets shorter. probably on your death bed the list has just one item – “drawing another breath” or “shaking off this mortal coil”.
i will keep this short, since to quote from your “2004-09-19 Spirituality”:
“...I agree with Noufal – to write about spirituality is weird. He says:
A desire to see people approve of what one writes and an attempt to make ones self look intellectual or accomplished in a certain fashion.”
– GregScott 2004-10-27 20:23 UTC
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The book looks interesting. I think I will buy it. Thanks for the recommendation. 😄
– Alex Schroeder 2004-10-28 01:07 UTC