One day you'll suffer from burn out, like I did, and rethink what is important in your life.
So you're the first to know about something, so what?
So you know that someone left a comment on your Facebook wall, so what?
I find it really funny that when the telephone was the only way to communicate, all the cool kids opted to have their numbers unlisted, to be hard to find. Hell, giving out your number was considered something you do only when you really trusted someone. Now we scream from the bottom of our lungs about the multitudes of ways we can be reach.
Just opt out. Those notifications and sleepless nights are self inflicted because you think every bit of data you consume is of the utmost importance.
If I sound like a bitter old man, I'm not, I'm 23.
If I sound like a technical lagard, I'm not, I've worked in the PC industry since I was a young teenager and have been blogging professionally about the mobile phone space for over 2 years now.
I've been there MG. I know how much it blows.
Disconnect. Reevaluate what's truly worth your time. Then get back out there.
netspencer
· 1 month ago
I totally agree. I, like MG have opted into many notifications. It's almost become addicting. However, I totally agree with you.
yeah. at some point I have this feeling that I'll just go somewhere for a year and check nothing.
Constantine
· 1 month ago
I have that exact same plan as well.
Daniel Brusilovsky
· 1 month ago
On the drumming side of things, we're starting a TechCrunch band, so you can come and play with us (I'll be playing the drums :) ).
MG Siegler
· 1 month ago
Okay, I'll play the jazz flute.
Daniel Brusilovsky
· 1 month ago
Stay classy MG Siegler :)
netspencer
· 1 month ago
Thank you for explaining a horrible problem that I have. :)
I like to think I'm good at multitasking, and, sometimes I am. But, for the most part, trying to multitask leads me to being very distracted.
Like right now, I should be doing homework!
Scott Yates
· 1 month ago
Tom Wolfe has talked about this regarding Thomas Jefferson, who replied with a written letter to every letter he ever received, even as president. Wolfe basically says that if email, let alone IM, had been around then we'd still be singing God Save the Queen because the Declaration of Independence never would have been written.
On another topic, while you may not be able to trust an assistant, there may be a robot that will be able to help you within Google Wave. Too bad that for now, Google Wave is struggling. More on that here: http://j.mp/4uBUnn
MG Siegler
· 1 month ago
that's an interesting thought. i wonder how much productivity is lost versus how much is gained with email/IM/etc. obviously wolfe feels it's much more loss, that might be true in the end. though i'd argue that more creativity might be lost as a result of the distractions, which may be worse.
nate bolt
· 1 month ago
Dude this is so true. The real gem here is that feeling of not wanting to miss something. I think that's at the heart of the distraction problem - I could theoretically turn off everything to get work done but I have a nagging sensation that I want to see what's going on, or not get too far behind on the six million streams of data I monitor.
But as a drummer for fourteen years, I have to tell you that mastering independence (limbs, mouth, hands doing different things) takes an incredible amount of singular focus, so I think that analogy doesn't quite fit. Now if you're trying to work on independence while thinking about absolutely anything else, it's a disaster. That's more like multitasking to me. And maybe why so much of my work during the day is a disaster. Oh I mean ummm...
MG Siegler
· 1 month ago
quite right nate, i never want to miss something. if i had to put my finger on what makes me wake up after only 5 or so hours of sleep (since i'm going to bed so late), it would be that, i really worry about what i missed while asleep.
re: drumming. clearly you know better than i. i wonder if there's a way to master independence while doing something like reading a blog post and responding to emails at the same time. we have two hands and two eyes... but yeah, my problem could very well be that when i was drumming, I was constantly thinking of something else which killed it for me.
Ethan Bauley
· 1 month ago
To Nate's point about the analogy itself: practicing drum kit/independence is different from "multitasking" because a lot of it is muscle memory (vs brain/attention/neurology). You're training your body to be able to execute musical ideas at some performance in the future.
I'm no Daniel Pink, but I can't imagine that there is a way to [proactively] train different parts of your brain to be able to process discrete bits of information in this way.
Or maybe the next major wave of innovation in social filtering/relevance needs to come via enhanced biology ;-) Why create bing.com/twitter when you could just pipe the firehose right into yer brain?
Great points MG. I finished my MFA in drumming in 2006 and now I'm a communications consultant so (like Nate, I think) I know exactly what you're talking about...
Niall Harbison
· 1 month ago
A friend of mine actually built an application for himself that measured exactly what he did online and the time he was spending using tools like Skype and IM and it shocked him into working more diligently. The problem is with people in our sort of jobs is that we convince ourselves that reading on Twitter is part of the job. The biggest distraction of the lot is Tweetdeck or similar services, there simply is too much noise and they demand too much of your attention. You are right that the only option sometimes is to turn the whole bloody lot off :)
All Comments
So you're the first to know about something, so what?
So you know that someone left a comment on your Facebook wall, so what?
I find it really funny that when the telephone was the only way to communicate, all the cool kids opted to have their numbers unlisted, to be hard to find. Hell, giving out your number was considered something you do only when you really trusted someone. Now we scream from the bottom of our lungs about the multitudes of ways we can be reach.
Just opt out. Those notifications and sleepless nights are self inflicted because you think every bit of data you consume is of the utmost importance.
If I sound like a bitter old man, I'm not, I'm 23.
If I sound like a technical lagard, I'm not, I've worked in the PC industry since I was a young teenager and have been blogging professionally about the mobile phone space for over 2 years now.
I've been there MG. I know how much it blows.
Disconnect. Reevaluate what's truly worth your time. Then get back out there.
I wrote about my experience out in nature for 2 weeks without any technology. http://netspencer.com/2009/08/we-live-inside-a-...
It's incredible the world we live in today.
I like to think I'm good at multitasking, and, sometimes I am. But, for the most part, trying to multitask leads me to being very distracted.
Like right now, I should be doing homework!
On another topic, while you may not be able to trust an assistant, there may be a robot that will be able to help you within Google Wave. Too bad that for now, Google Wave is struggling. More on that here: http://j.mp/4uBUnn
But as a drummer for fourteen years, I have to tell you that mastering independence (limbs, mouth, hands doing different things) takes an incredible amount of singular focus, so I think that analogy doesn't quite fit. Now if you're trying to work on independence while thinking about absolutely anything else, it's a disaster. That's more like multitasking to me. And maybe why so much of my work during the day is a disaster. Oh I mean ummm...
re: drumming. clearly you know better than i. i wonder if there's a way to master independence while doing something like reading a blog post and responding to emails at the same time. we have two hands and two eyes... but yeah, my problem could very well be that when i was drumming, I was constantly thinking of something else which killed it for me.
I'm no Daniel Pink, but I can't imagine that there is a way to [proactively] train different parts of your brain to be able to process discrete bits of information in this way.
Or maybe the next major wave of innovation in social filtering/relevance needs to come via enhanced biology ;-) Why create bing.com/twitter when you could just pipe the firehose right into yer brain?
Great points MG. I finished my MFA in drumming in 2006 and now I'm a communications consultant so (like Nate, I think) I know exactly what you're talking about...