Seth Godin’s daily blog posts (you can sign up here) are pure magic. They never fail to provoke, challenge and/or inspire. Two recent ones really hit home for me. Here’s Seth’s post from January 25th:
Awareness vs. experience
We are more aware than ever before. More aware of victims of violence, or a natural disaster. More aware of insane wealth or grinding poverty. It gets beamed to us, regularly.
We’re even more often exposed to social hijinks, sports stars or business moguls.
We’re aware that people run a marathon, or fast for a week. That they start a business or meditate every day. They know how to code, or to take pictures.
But there’s a difference between hearing about it and experiencing it.
There’s no excuse for being uninformed. But when it matters, there’s also no good reason for being inexperienced.
There’s often a piece of glass between us and the world as it’s delivered to us. That glass magnifies awareness, but it doesn’t have the same impact as experience does. It can’t.
Our awareness has been stretched wider than ever in history, but often at the cost of taking away a lifetime of experiences.
So true! Let’s repeat that last sentence, shall we?
Our awareness has been stretched wider than ever in history, but often at the cost of taking away a lifetime of experiences.
And now for the Seth Godin double shot, a post from yesterday, Feb. 3rd:
Something’s more interesting than this
And now, that’s always true.
Whatever you’re doing.
No matter who you’re with.
Something, somewhere, is more interesting than this.
And it’s in your pocket.
All the time. As long as the battery lasts.
There’s an alert, a status update, breaking news. There’s a vibration or a text, just waiting. Something. Right now.
Until infinity.
Unless we choose to redefine whatever we’re doing as the thing we’ve chosen to do, right here and right now.
Ignore the distractions and the coming attractions. Don’t take the clickbait. Focus on what YOU want to accomplish, not the dopamine hit that some AI algorithm is pushing.
Our school started an “Away for the Day” phone policy this year. It’s bliss.
I wish every school would adopt that policy, Andi. We’d all be a lot better off.