In an Age of Speed, Patience is Key
The idea of speed I'm taught about is rather trivial.
speed = distance/time.
Formulaically, it does seem clear. Yes, I can cover x km in an hour. But speed really is something far more encompassing than I think we give it credit.
What's the speed at which you're supplied reels, your speed of consumptions, how do you quantify that?
I'm shocked at how easily I can consume 50+ reels in a matter of minutes, absorb irrelevant information that can't even be used to socialize and yet fail to regurgitate it when needed. A slot machine never operates itself, ya know?
But still we power through, not out of choice but compulsion. I keep wondering, do we really have a say in it?
I tried to put my phone down, but it followed me to the toilet. I tried to forget it for a dinner out, but it sticks to my pants! Alas, I can't get rid of it, no matter how hard I try.
But a detrimental effect has been the lack of patience.
And I don't mean patience in the conventional sense.
Patience, in my interpretation could easily mistaken for boredom, however, unlike boredom, patience is intentional. To be patient is to entertain your own thoughts. With boredom, thoughts are sporadic. Your aim is to do nothing. However, with patience, you are at work.
You're finishing up that article, debugging code. Your waiting for your friend to finish his sentence. That's patience.
You might call it 'focus' or 'attention' but that carries baggage. Focus demands an act of conscious, voluntary decision-making to engage in a cognitively demanding task.
Patience is the ability to finish that game of cricket, or banter with your friends without scrolling. It doesn't need to devour your brain, all you need to is to stick through a task.
The idiot box has rendered us incapable of wait. It admonishes us if we try to simmer in our cauldron of thoughts and urges us to stir the broth for no reason.
How do we find a way out of here? We must only be patient to figure that out.