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technology overload?

Last night I had trouble with my computer and became extremely panicked when I couldn't work, couldn't check my email, couldn't surf the net... I couldn't even call my parents because I don't have their phone number memorized.

I started to feel like I've gone on technology overload. I mean, I buy this nice computer, then I spend all this time trying to find the perfect apps for it or the perfect wallpaper or how to make it distraction free-- and what does it add up to? Me dependant on something and not really getting much work done.

Even the lo-fi forum seems to fall into the perfection trap-- the perfect moleskine, the perfect fountain pen. Is it all just a waste of time.

I mean, Cormac McCarthy wrote one of the best books I read last year (The Road) on a portable manual typewriter.

Do you ever feel trapped like I do?

And how do I get out?

randellt's picture

As a few others have...

As a few others have written here, perfectionism for me is thinly veiled procrastination. If I find the "right" software or the "right" pen, I'll be more productive. If the "right" circumstances arise, I'll find the time to work out. It goes on and on and on. The mind can be a cruel torture implement. I'm at the point now, where I am fed up with all that "could" talk in my head and am plotting out how I will get out of this set of tunnels I dug over the years.

The key is focusing on action and results. For me, the ah-hah moment (which I need regular doeses of) is to ask myself the question, "Who gives a flying frak what technology I use or anyone else uses?! It's what works for me and allows me to move forward that matters." Hi-Fi. Lo-Fi. Mid-Fi. It all boils down to you emptying your head into a system that you habitually use. It is not easy building that system, so gather every drop of information you feel necessary and start building.

 
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