I've been on the edge of reluctant to post this, but obviously decided to post.
From Mr. Snowball's April commentary, portfolio section:
---sub section, So what should you do?, item 3:
3. Reduce the clutter, in your life and portfolio both. We don’t have an infinite ability to pay attention to things, much less to enjoy them. If you discover six nearly-identical funds in your portfolio, simplify. If you’re glancing at Facebook and Twitter more than at the faces of your family, simplify. If you’ve structured your day so that you have time neither to learn nor wonder, simplify. (I’m struck by the fact that we’re so sure that even though Gates and Buffett and Musk have lifelong commitments to learning and thinking, such activities don’t warrant our own time.)
>>>Trying to sort the meaning of these words from Mr. Snowball: "I’m struck by the fact that we’re so sure that even though Gates and Buffett and Musk have lifelong commitments to learning and thinking, such activities don’t warrant our own time."
What am I missing with this? I left this write in draft mode, displayed upon the pc screen, grabbed hot coffee number 2 and took a walk outside in our not-yet-spring weather (20 degrees) to slap my brain cells. Nope, upon returning to the pc screen; I still don't understand the statement.
Knowing that I have been curious for as far backwards as I can recall, I also understand for me, that this is a form and/or portion of "thinking". So, I suppose this is why I don't grasp, " lifelong commitments to learning and thinking, such activities don’t warrant our own time."
Perhaps I'm nearing the end time and do not yet know I am arriving. Kinda like a "deja vu" moment. Did I only think I had the moment, or did it really happen?
Sometimes, some written word meanings may be more difficult to define; regarding the sender and the receiver.
Are y'all able to help me with this?
Thank you in advance.
Catch
Comments
(I'll chalk it up to pressure of getting out a masterful newsletter every month.)
I think he means "them all -- but not us, natch -- consider such activities don't warrant their precious time."
I do think MFO boards serve as a good forum for exercising wonder and curiosity.
I've gotten more curious about the world as I've aged up.
Like Stephen Hawking wanting to experience the weightlessness of space for himself.
I've been reading about what distinguishes truly remarkable folks (Buffett, Gates, Musk and others) from ... well, me. The writing about them seems to keep coming back to the same point: they're less "connected" than most folks are. They spend more time without the background din of electronic devices, and more time reading and reflecting. In particular, they're reported to read challenging stuff that's not immediately relevant to their jobs.
That's been on my mind lately as I've delivered a series of lectures of the effects of new communication technologies, one of the most troubling is called Continuous Partial Attention. A simple version of the argument is that we do things for which we are rewarded, the more we feel rewarded, the more we do them, and the more we do them, the harder it becomes to ever stop doing them. (Insert "interesting stuff on neuroplasticity and structural changes in the brain" about here. The fact that we can be constantly connected to a hundred people and a million places leads us constantly check for those connections; my students whip out their phones in every class break and stare silently at them, my friends whip them out at every lull in conversation to scan Facebook. One effect is that they don't wonder about things so much, they just Google "the answer."
People sent 900,000,000,000 texts a month, roughly double what they did four years ago. (Yes, I counted the zeros to be sure I was right.) Why the doubling? Either communication that otherwise would have occurred face-to-face is migrating to text or people feel compelled to communicate through text in ways they otherwise would not have communicated at all. The rule seems to be, "when you receive a text, regardless of content, you must reach back to the texter within 30 seconds or you're mistreating them." And so my son becomes tethered to his phone in an endless loop of sentence fragments.
The fact that we're pinned down, eyes to the screen, limits us. We are, on whole, less able to focus (search "get my attention back" or "learn to focus" for leads to that discussion) and less able to speculate. Folks like Gates seem to get an advantage from acting differently.
All of which is hard to say in one paragraph, as evidenced by the fact that I seem to have botched the job.
Oh, well ... there's always this evening. I'll try to clean it up.
https://huntthedevil.wordpress.com/2015/05/08/what-do-you-mean-we-white-man/
Personally, I'm not on Facebook, not on Twitter. I own a smart phone without service solely for use when traveling abroad (for travel problem notifications) and to read the NYTimes locally at Starbucks.
If people want to get hold of me, they can leave me a message on my land line, or send me email that I'll deal with at my leisure.
Light Phone 2 is running an Indiegogo campaign.
Limited functions: Yes, No, Maybe, listed near bottom of page. Participants get to offer opinions on what they want on the phone; will be surveyed at intervals by developers.
"https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/light-phone-2-smartphone-design#/">https://indiegogo.com/projects/light-phone-2-smartphone-design#/
(end of thread drift)