Digitally disembodied
You are reading this on the Internet, so you have probably developed some level of digitally-enabled “ambient awareness” – a constantly-updated sense of what’s happening near and far. The Internet can extend our senses around the world, even if it’s just getting the latest snaps from family and friends.
In an excellent article in the New York Times, Clive Thompson talked about the cumulative effect of social media updates: “the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends’ and family members’ lives.”
That’s the upside. The downside is that constantly looking at screens can cut you off from your other senses.
Afer the death of Zakir Hussein, I have been casting my gaze apprehensively over other “stars” who have illuminated my musical firmament all these decades
Back in the day, there was a fashion for pen friends. There was a sort of matchmaking service in one of the weekly magazines I had as a kid. I signed up when I was about 10 or so. My first pen friend was a girl in Ålesund, Norway.
Recently I came across an article about mindfulness and meditation in The Times. In the comments section, there were the predictable remarks about “woo” and “fad” and how mindfulness is just another meaningless buzzword to con people.
Transparency and being a bit vulnerable are the thing now. So how about trying the following approach the next time you make a presentation or speak at a meeting? It should sound familiar …
Your audience is spoiled rotten. Whenever it may be, whoever your audience might be – any audience – they’re pretty much certain to be spoiled. Pretty much certain to be infinitely distractible, to have short attention spans, to be twitchy and fickle.
In the early Noughties, when I lived near Amsterdam, I used to take part in a coaching group. I didn’t much like the guy who ran it, and I wasn’t crazy about the other people either. But I had a sense it was worth the trouble, so I regularly made the half-hour drive.
I’m a sucker for honesty and authenticity and integrity and congruence and being true to yourself and all that good stuff. I’ve even said in public that I have a life-long aversion to bullshit, including my own. That seems to resonate with people.
You are reading this on the Internet, so you have probably developed some level of digitally-enabled “ambient awareness”.
What do you have in common with a highly-skilled ninja-type assassin? A lot more than you may think.
Walking into an upscale restaurant in rural France on a Bank Holiday break, I was on my way towards our table and nodded politely to the couple at the next table. After a brief hesitation, the lady of the couple reacted.
