Oliver Burkeman: Meditations for Mortals (2024) 📙

O

Meine Notizen

Day Five: Too much information — On the art of reading and not reading

Was man glaubte, als das Internet und damit der information overload aufkam: “The real trouble, according to the prominent techno-optimist Clay Shirky, wasn’t information overload but ‘filter failure’. All we really needed — and would presumably imminently get — were more sophisticated ways to filter the digital what from the chaff.” (S. 27)

Was stattdessen eingetreten ist: “The challenge isn’t to locate a few needles of relevance in a haystack of dross. The challenge, in the words of the technology critic Nicholas Carr, is figuring out how to deal, day in day out, with ‘haystack-sized piles of needles’.” (S. 28)

Zwei Tipps von Oliver Burkeman “for navigating a world of infinite information”:

(1) Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket

  • “That is to say: think of your backlog not as a container that gradually fills up, and that is your job to empty, but as a stream that flows past you, from which you get to pick a few choice items, here and there, without feeling guilty for letting all the others float by.” (S. 29)
  • “Clearly, the mere existence of something readable creates no obligation to read it […].” (S. 29)

(2) Resist the urge to stockpile knowledge

  • “At least where non-fiction sources are concerned, it’s easy to fall into the assumption that the point of reading or listening to things is to add to your storehouse of knowledge and insights, like a squirrel hoarding nuts, in preparation for a future when you’ll finally get to take advantage of it all.” (S. 29f)
  • “This attitude prompts some people to develop complicated systems for taking notes on everything they read, which turns reading into a chore, which then perversely leads to their not reading books they’d otherwise enjoy or benefit from, because they can’t face taking the notes.” (S. 30)
  • Erwischt! 😆

“Spending half an hour reading something interesting, moving, awe-inspiring ore merely amusing might be worth doing, not jus to improve who you become in the future — though it might do that too — but for the sake of that very half hour of being alive.” (S. 30)

Day Nine: Finishing things — On the magic of completion

“[Steve Chandler] suggests spending one day robotically completing as much unfinished business as you can: ‘Notice at the end of that day how much energy you’ve got. You’ll be amazed.’ “. (S. 53)

  • vgl. meine Idee des “Hygiene-Tages” aus 2013/14: An diesem Tag wird alles lĂ€ngst ĂŒberfĂ€llige erledigt. Alle Leichen werden aus dem Keller entfernt.
  • Erledigen, so gut wie notwendig // delegieren // löschen

Day Ten: Look for the life task — On what really matters

Oliver Burkeman schreibt ĂŒber das Konzept der Lebensaufgabe von C. G. Jung: Was will das Leben von mir?

“The question can be a startlingly powerful one, particularly when you find yourself torn between options, or between external pressures and your own ambitions, or unable, for any other reason, to figure out what to do next: What’s the life task here? Never mind what you want. What does life want?” (S. 56)

“By definition, a life task is something your life is asking from you; so while it might coincide with your parents’ expectations, or your society’s ideals, ist also very easily might not.” (S. 57)

Wie findet man seine Lebensaufgabe? — “That must always be a matter of intuition.” (S. 57)

Oliver Burkeman gibt aber “two signposts”, um seine Lebensaufgabe zu finden:

(1) “[…] a life task will be something you can do ‘only by effort and with difficulty’, as Jung puts it — and specifically with that feeling of ‘good difficulty’ that comes from pushing back against your long-established preference for comfort and security.” (S. 57)

  • Das wĂŒrde darauf hinweisen, dass meine Lebensaufgabe aktuell das “Unternehmer sein” ist: NĂŒtzlich sein, darĂŒber erzĂ€hlen, fĂŒr Umsatz sorgen etc.

(2) “The second signpost is that a true life task, though it might be difficult, will be something you can do.” (S. 58)

“This helps distinguish the idea of a life task from certain popular notions of ‘destiny’ or ‘calling’, which can leave people feeling as though there’s something they’re meant to be doing with their lives, but that their life circumstances make it impossible. That can’t be the case with a life task, which emerges, by definition, from whatever your life circumstances are. It’s what’s being asked of you, with your particular skills, resources and personality traits, in the place where you actually find yourself.” (S. 58)

Ich glaube, die Lebensaufgabe hat einiges gemein mit der Idee des “Guten Grund”.

Day Twenty-One: What’s an interruption, anyway? — On the importance of staying distractible

“And yet, objectively, all that’s occurring in the world is that certain things happen, then other things happen, then still more things happen. When we define some of these things as interruptions of, or distractions from, other ones, we’re adding a mental overlay to the situation […].” (S. 115)


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