I wonder how many people in crypto remember dialing out on a phone, or waiting for a dial tone. Do people still "dial-a-pizza"?
Over coffee at work today, we were talking about going grey and I was saying how getting old is strange, because even though the aches and pains are increasing, I don't consider myself old. In fact, I kind of feel young in many ways, until I look in the mirror and see my father staring back at me. The memory doesn't help keeping track of time, as I clearly remember making calls on phones with dials and it doesn't seem that long ago that I got my first mobile phone and I can still feel the weight of it in my hand, though that was 26 years ago.
It feels like a long time since my Hive account value has dipped below 100K, but it also doesn't feel like it was that long ago that it was below 20K. Humans aren't very good at keeping track of time with feelings and because we live mostly in the moments and a little either side, we tend to get lost in time as we become quickly accustomed to the current conditions, assuming that this the way it always was.
While I don't think I have changed much, I wonder if I was to run into a high school girlfriend, would she recognize me - would I recognize her? The other interesting thing of this scenario would be, what would our assumptions be about the person who we haven't seen for 30 years?
In general, we tend to think of people the way we last saw them, even though we know that in the time between meetings, we ourselves have gone through a whole range of experiences that have made us different to the person we were decades ago. In the last thirty years, a high school girlfriend is likely to have had several jobs, been in several relationships, been married, had kids, got divorced, been unemployed, lost people close to her - the list goes on. It would be strange for me to assume that she is the same kind of person I remember, but that is what I would do, because I have no other information to go on.
Yet, even when we live our lives and have information, we tend to still get stuck with time, discounting areas of importance of the past, inflating non-importance of today more than it should be. We overvalue our immediate experience because of availability bias, as it is right there for us to focus on and commands our attention, even if it is of little personal value.
We see the stickiness of the moment in the news cycles, where we are drawn to headlines that have no bearing on our lives, yet seem so important, even while we are ignoring what is actually important. One of my friends was saying how sucked into Twitter he has become, but knows that it really brings no practical value to his life and he would be better off doing something else. Yet, we are made to feel that keeping up with current events are important for us to make it through life and those that do not know about the latest occurrences must be idiots. It is a conditioning that means there is going to be both a market to sell information into, as well as a channel to train that market on what they should buy.
We spend our momentary time on content that brings us nothing, so as not to face the actual conditions of our lives and the things we have some control over. We can know what is happening with our sport of choice, we can know the relationship dramas of the celebrities, we can know about the latest act of violence - yet, we don't know how to improve our finances when we are struggling, we don't know how to fix our failing relationships, we don't know how to take care of our bodies so we are healthy - or at least, we don't know enough to actually do something to improve our quality of life.
A large part of why I write the way I do and about what I do, is because these are things that are actually important to me in my daily life and, are therefore potentially important in some ways to other people too. Most of us are far more similar than we are different and we face many of the same human conditions of life - and all of the same emotions.
Writing helps me deal with aspects of my life by breaking my attention away from the current moments that scream for attention and gives me the time and space to become reflective on things that are within my control, I have some influence over or, I can accept as being outside of my control completely. Considering these things allows me to better focus my energy and hopefully, it helps other people break their own conditioning a little also, even if only for a short time each day as they spend time reading someone else's thoughts about life.
It is a meditation of sorts, a medication of a kind - because when we are acting on conditioned habits, we become blind to ourselves, but when we get to look through the eyes of someone else's experience, we can find so much familiar, but also points of difference that we might have not noticed earlier, or have forgotten we have noticed earlier.
With the speed of information flow and the mass of volume we are "expected" to keep up with, there is precious little time left for self-reflection unless we actively make it. However, with a little creative consumption, it is possible to use the content of our lives to provide micro opportunities to pay attention and see how we fit into this world that is moving so quickly, that we feel like childhood was just yesterday. If we do not take these moments, life passes us by while we continually chase the constantly changing tails of the moment, even though we will not remember them tomorrow.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
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I do agree though... I guess it really depends on the things that we are really paying attention to. I think we're a similar age but I also feel about the same as I did when I was 24... but also occasionally see my Dad in the mirror.
Writing posts really is a good way to track the passing of time... I know I recall things a lot better when I've written about them, obviously, but there have been so many times when I've gone back over older posts to try and remember or work out the timing of something.
Writing is a gift many are seemingly giving up on these days.
I think it will be interesting to look back on a decade from now and see what was important and, how many of these things are still important. I am looking forward to my daughter spending time trawling through, discovering moments of our lives together and perhaps seeing a perspective of herself reflected that she wouldn't have otherwise. This blog is a photo album of my life in words and perhaps she will appreciate the time capsule effect of it.
Lols!!
I still remember cranking a phone and asking the switchboard operater to put me through to a number hahaha.
It was the days when the switchboard operaters knew everyones private business and affairs.
Talking about dialling this is my favorite table where I sit to read.
All that I can say about the new speed of life is that you are correct, as we are losing ourselves in the information overflow stream.
Switchboards are a "bit" before my time, but I am from a small town, so everyone knew everyone's business! :D
Interestingly, our house doesn't even have a landline coming into it anymore. I don't know when I last saw a private landline and most businesses are all mobile too.
Looks like a great snack btw :)
Hahaha, I know exactly what you mean and even in this modern day it hasn't stopped. Just became much more dirtier.
Yeah, landlines are a thing of the past and I built our carport roof with the wooden poles that they used for the landlines.
Lemon bread (cake) with strawberry jam (jelly?) and fresh cream.
It is good to repurpose.
Jam in my lingo
I remember watching my dad using a rotary dial and then inserting the handset into the acoustic coupler.
Something like this
I remember upgrading from a 2400 baud modem to a 4800 baud and then, in 1993, to a cutting edge 14,400 modem. At the time, I could tell what speed I connected at by listening to connection noises.
(Rinse and Repeat)
I've often thought about the technological advances my parents and grandparents have experienced, but rarely do I ever sit back and think about how much has changed since the 1970's. It can be a little mind blowing.
I did think about it the other day, when I was walking the dogs, answering a Teams call on my watch, then talking through my bluetooth connected earbuds.
It makes me wonder how quickly the blockchain is going to evolve and what it will become.
I think the changes now have been in some way less dramatic, but far more influential on our daily lives. Perhaps what makes the new technology so dangerous.
I don't want to have any more access to Teams than I already do :D
I suspect it will be very fast looking back, but for us now - it seems painfully slow. Everyone is told "SOON" without realizing that "soon, there will only be cars on the roads and no horses" took several decades.
Great post. I agree with you about writing, when I get into blog mode on here, it feels like a great way to reorganize my own thoughts that I have jumbled up in there. I know what I have rolling around in my mind is important to me and my life, and maybe others could find uses, which is why writing them down is extremely cathartic in that sense.
!LUV
The examples of life don't need to be identical to be valuable and I find that often, the comments I get inspire new thoughts and considerations that bring new perspectives to potentially old issues :)
Sometimes, when I have to explain to someone about crypto compared to Fiat and why it is a superior form of money, I tell them to imagine themselves 40 years ago and to imagine they still have one of those dial phones hanging in the wall. The phone breaks and they call the company to come and fix it. Then the technician comes to find out about the problem and he tells us he needs to take the phone to the workshop to fix it but he will temporarily lend us a new phone he uses, and hands out a smartphone.
Next week he comes back with the dial phone fixed, sets it in the wall again, and requests us for the smartphone he gave us the week before, Would we give it back after using it and discovering all the amazing capabilities it has compared to the dial one?
People do not realize Crypto is not a stock, it is a protocol, a superior technology that is way better than the medium of exchange we have been using in the past decades. First, because it is fast reliable, and programmable, and second because it is decentralized.
One of the definitions of "legitimate" is:
conforming to recognized principles or accepted rules and standards
It provides a known quantity and quality, with changes agreed to by the group of users themselves. Powerful in regards to a currency.
I remember dial phones! I used to love playing with them XD
And then in what felt like not long even at the time we went to button phones.
Also remember the little brick that my first mobile was XD
And this is why adults exasperate kids with the "my how you've grown!" thing XD
I sometimes (okay often) feel like there's a wilful ignorance going on here. Because if you did know, then you would have to act because you know better, and that's way too hard and requires too much effort, ignorance is bliss XD
And I have also known people who know full well but don't because "too hard" and "better things to do" (and then I tell them in turn to not complain if they're not going to do antyhing).
Nice :)
You know I only "recently" (which has expanded from last few months to last few years, that's a sign of getting old right x_x) realised that this is actually a problem for normal people (despite watching numerous friends struggle with processing the sheer volume of information availablet hese days). One of my brain glitches makes me almost automatically ignore things the more they scream for attention/try to tell me what I should be doing/feeling about something.
Also sounds like a conspiracy theory :D (I did actually read something about keeping people in a permanent state of crisis so they didn't have time to think and reflect but do you think I can find it now)
Everyone had the same Telstra phone at one point
Mine had a fancy pull-out antenna!
<I sometimes (okay often) feel like there's a willful ignorance going on here. Because if you did know, then you would have to act because you know better, and that's way too hard and requires too much effort, ignorance is bliss
Yes, I agree. People avoid having to take responsibility for themselves.
Exactly. It is like a desperate person at a bar - they are going home alone
It does, doesn't it? ;D I suspect that intentional or not, the incentives of media and entertainment is to have people not think what is best for them.
There's hardcore conspiracy theorists that will tell you in no uncertain terms that it is absolutely intentional and everyone is in on it.
I'm a bit more simplistic and am pretty sure entertainment companies just want people to continue endlessly watching crap because they make more money that way.
You wrote great. Time management is getting harder day by day. We no longer have time for anything. I feel like everything will be incomplete. There is constant anxiety. It flows faster as time goes on. It's like days go on for 20 hours now 😀
@tarazkp, you were given LUV from @amphlux. About: https://peakd.com/@luvshares https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmUptF5k64xBvsQ9B6MjZo1dc2JwvXTWjWJAnyMCtWZxqM