Knowing what is essential. Pico Iyert on the “Joy of Quiet.”
In barely one generation we’ve moved from exulting in the time-saving devices that have so expanded our lives to trying to get away from them — often in order to make more time. The more ways we have to connect, the more many of us seem desperate to unplug. Like teenagers, we appear to have gone from knowing nothing about the world to knowing too much all but overnight.
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“Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries,” the French philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in the 17th century, “and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.” He also famously remarked that all of man’s problems come from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
Action implies time.
The thoughts of Iyert resonated so much with me that I thought I have to mentioned it here. And in parts it is about Economics (sort of); how you allocate and manage yourself, your attention, energy and so on. Your values. What means you use to attain chosen ends. Believes and meaning of your action and interaction with other individuals.
The one thing you can’t get back, is your time. The sand that is falling down from top to bottom in the hourglass. My and your time is scarce, so we have to economize.
So, what is essential for you?
