It is a terrific experience reading all your thoughts. To me, it appears that most people, when talking about slowing down, are just referring to removing clutter from their lives. It doesn't mean they are actually slowing down. Indeed, in some respects they might be working harder on a few aspects of their life than ever before! Of course, there is a good chance I'm mistaken in this assumption. For what it's worth, I too am slowing down in my own way. 2012 was the last time we had TV at home. And this year, I'm planning to cut down significantly on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. There is a dynamic tension to this, because I depend on social media to distribute my work and listen to others. So I will still use these - but not on my mobile phone. For me, this is equivalent to slowing down. I've just been reading Deep Work by Cal Newport, the Georgetown Uni Computer Science Professor. And he is in praise of some radical retooling of our calendars and priorities.
On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 12:16 AM, Venkatesh Hariharan ven...@gmail.com wrote: John, thanks for your hones answers. It's been enlightening to read all the answers. Charles, I hope to be as disciplined as you, one day. One of the biggest tensions in my life has been between the activist in me, who wants to change the world, and the recluse in me, who wants to run away from the world. Currently, I work with a non profit working on financial inclusion (www.ispirt.in & www.productnation.in). I have other consulting gigs but the iSPIRT one has been most intense and has pretty much taken over my calendar. I like the fact that this work contributes to a good cause, but there are moments when I crave intense solitude. I never liked multi-tasking and doing too many things at the same time. I stopped watching TV many, many years ago... try not to spend too much time on Twitter and Facebook... and thoroughly hate the always-on online lifestyle. With age, I have realized that time is not money. Time is precious and we choose to exchange it for those things that we value the most, whether that be taking care of our health, a walk in the park, meeting loved ones, or reading a book. I find that there is great joy in doing things slowly, meditatively... However, my working life has all been about cramming as much as possible into every minute available, and doing a hundred things at once... not complaining, but just making an observation... after all, it is those jobs that gave me a degree of financial independence. For a change, I want my life to be not always about efficiency, but also about beauty and the joy of each moment. Let's see how this works out :-) Venky On Mon, Jan 23, 2017 at 10:32 PM, Radhika, Y. <radhik...@gmail.com> wrote: > Thank you so much for your honesty John. Other accounts for slowing down > always sound like they come from wherever lotuses grow (supposedly that is > where Vancouverites live!). > > best wishes. > Radhika > H R VenkateshTow-Knight Fellow 2016, New YorkCo-ordinator, Hacks/Hackers New Delhi Ph: +1 646-874-9924Twitter: @hrvenkatesh
