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Brains, need brains.
A couple things have coincided and I want to ramble on a bit about brains.
This month's Asimov's had part two of James Patrick Kelly's article on brains. I don't often read Jim's Net articles because the way he writes them feels disjointed and weblike. I read Asimov's to get away from disjointed and weblike, so I usually skip them, despite the fact that Jim is a good writer. But luckily, I got started on this one and things started to click for me almost from the start. You can read it here and I encourage you to do so. If you don't much of this post won't make sense.
I have seen the effects that Kelly's article describes on my own brain. I've notice how difficult it is for me to focus and not flit away to another window when I'm working on a project, post, or email. I used to work for hours on end without pause, to the point that my bladder ached. Now it's much harder to focus and get into that concentrated mode or the deep thought mode. I had assumed it was a failing either of body or will, but perhaps I've just been training myself to behave inappropriately. Perhaps my ability to focus has been slowly eroded as I have inadvertently trained myself into being a magpie.
I still read novels. I still try to stick to sentences, paragraphs, and conventional prose when I write. So I'm teaching my brain to react two different ways and to a certain degree failing at both.
There are people at my work with who will be in mid sentence, look down at their blackberry, press some keys, go completely silent while they believe they are effectively multitasking, finish deciding how to deal with whatever message just came in, look up and have no idea where they just left off. Not only is that very rude, it makes them look phenomenally ineffective and stupid. This is admittedly an extreme example, but it's just one of many examples. There is a reason that TL;DR is a common acronym on the web.
Most of the people I interact with today can't understand a complicated concept. It's not because they aren't intelligent. It's not because they don't have a sufficient vocabulary. It's not even because they can't parse a complicated sentence. But if the concept requires more than two sentences they won't, really can't, make it through the explanation. Even when their jobs depend on it, they just can't read past the second line.
On a personal level, I'm going to try to prevent the erosion of concentration in my brain with intentional and distinct steps. Programs that pop-up helpful interruptions will be banished (with the exception of my appointment calendar at work, because that would not be a good move). The miles of screen real estate that I have enjoyed will no longer have layers of differnt windows. When I'm working on something, that window will be up and when I'm done with it, it will be minimized. The exception to this, of course, is if I'm doing something comparative or a similar task that requires two windows. I will make an effort to finish a thought, a task, a project before switching to another. It's not necessary to look at email every time a mail comes in. It's not necessary to check the same website more than once a day when you know it only gets updated about once a day.
Kelly's article had a good lesson. Your brain can be changed, for good or bad. There is still time to rewire your brain and it doesn't take that long. I intend to get my brain back to where I believe it should be.
Back in the intro, I said there were a couple of things that coincided. Jim Kelly's article was the first. The second was that I realized I'm prejudiced. While I was thinking about writing and reading, I realized I discriminate. I discriminate based on writing.
I've recent met a new, as yet virtual, friend. I immediately perceived this person as intelligent and interesting. Why? Because they write in paragraphs! It's fun to read what they write. I was clearly prejudiced in their favor. This phenomena isn't new for me, I've consistently behaved this way for years. I realize the inverse is also true: I will discount someone's intelligence and will tend to be disinterested based on more casual writing style.
I realize writing style isn't really a measure of intelligence. However, I view how someone writes as an indicator of how they embrace, or don't embrace, current society. It may not be universally true, but my experience is that people who tweet, text, and have their ears glued to the cellphone don't write in well formed paragraphs of sentences with varied structures. I like to sit down and have long chats. I like to talk about the characters and plot points of books. I like to spend as long tearing apart the flaws in a movie as I did watching it. I want to be tired in the morning because I spent too long talking over some obscure idea with someone, not because I was updating my facebook profile. There are a million shades of grey in between, but I distinctly favor one side of the spectrum.
If you've got to this point, you obviously have a great deal of patience and concentration. Congratulations, you made it all the way to the end.
This month's Asimov's had part two of James Patrick Kelly's article on brains. I don't often read Jim's Net articles because the way he writes them feels disjointed and weblike. I read Asimov's to get away from disjointed and weblike, so I usually skip them, despite the fact that Jim is a good writer. But luckily, I got started on this one and things started to click for me almost from the start. You can read it here and I encourage you to do so. If you don't much of this post won't make sense.
I have seen the effects that Kelly's article describes on my own brain. I've notice how difficult it is for me to focus and not flit away to another window when I'm working on a project, post, or email. I used to work for hours on end without pause, to the point that my bladder ached. Now it's much harder to focus and get into that concentrated mode or the deep thought mode. I had assumed it was a failing either of body or will, but perhaps I've just been training myself to behave inappropriately. Perhaps my ability to focus has been slowly eroded as I have inadvertently trained myself into being a magpie.
I still read novels. I still try to stick to sentences, paragraphs, and conventional prose when I write. So I'm teaching my brain to react two different ways and to a certain degree failing at both.
There are people at my work with who will be in mid sentence, look down at their blackberry, press some keys, go completely silent while they believe they are effectively multitasking, finish deciding how to deal with whatever message just came in, look up and have no idea where they just left off. Not only is that very rude, it makes them look phenomenally ineffective and stupid. This is admittedly an extreme example, but it's just one of many examples. There is a reason that TL;DR is a common acronym on the web.
Most of the people I interact with today can't understand a complicated concept. It's not because they aren't intelligent. It's not because they don't have a sufficient vocabulary. It's not even because they can't parse a complicated sentence. But if the concept requires more than two sentences they won't, really can't, make it through the explanation. Even when their jobs depend on it, they just can't read past the second line.
On a personal level, I'm going to try to prevent the erosion of concentration in my brain with intentional and distinct steps. Programs that pop-up helpful interruptions will be banished (with the exception of my appointment calendar at work, because that would not be a good move). The miles of screen real estate that I have enjoyed will no longer have layers of differnt windows. When I'm working on something, that window will be up and when I'm done with it, it will be minimized. The exception to this, of course, is if I'm doing something comparative or a similar task that requires two windows. I will make an effort to finish a thought, a task, a project before switching to another. It's not necessary to look at email every time a mail comes in. It's not necessary to check the same website more than once a day when you know it only gets updated about once a day.
Kelly's article had a good lesson. Your brain can be changed, for good or bad. There is still time to rewire your brain and it doesn't take that long. I intend to get my brain back to where I believe it should be.
Back in the intro, I said there were a couple of things that coincided. Jim Kelly's article was the first. The second was that I realized I'm prejudiced. While I was thinking about writing and reading, I realized I discriminate. I discriminate based on writing.
I've recent met a new, as yet virtual, friend. I immediately perceived this person as intelligent and interesting. Why? Because they write in paragraphs! It's fun to read what they write. I was clearly prejudiced in their favor. This phenomena isn't new for me, I've consistently behaved this way for years. I realize the inverse is also true: I will discount someone's intelligence and will tend to be disinterested based on more casual writing style.
I realize writing style isn't really a measure of intelligence. However, I view how someone writes as an indicator of how they embrace, or don't embrace, current society. It may not be universally true, but my experience is that people who tweet, text, and have their ears glued to the cellphone don't write in well formed paragraphs of sentences with varied structures. I like to sit down and have long chats. I like to talk about the characters and plot points of books. I like to spend as long tearing apart the flaws in a movie as I did watching it. I want to be tired in the morning because I spent too long talking over some obscure idea with someone, not because I was updating my facebook profile. There are a million shades of grey in between, but I distinctly favor one side of the spectrum.
If you've got to this point, you obviously have a great deal of patience and concentration. Congratulations, you made it all the way to the end.