Did you see that video with the cat doing the thing with the food? Or how about that waterskier who crash landed? Or what about that snow monkey in Japan who stole the phone and took it in the thermal spring with them? Or how about the life hack for growing your own cactus? Or that interview where someone got owned?
The online world is increasingly saturated with bite-sized nuggets of attention-grabbing triviality. And if that trough is the basis for our intellectual diet, it doesn’t seem to bode well for the things I value most – deep thought, detailed work, and nuance.
So, I’ve stopped feeding from the trough and, I have to say, it’s taken a while, but my brain is changing back: my attention is more focussed, I can read longer, think more deeply, and most importantly, the art I’m making is feeling more and more like me. No regrets.