Do the Opposite - Alive vs Dead Time, Self-Reliance and Resonance

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On Books
I am currently reading David Goggins' book called "Can't Hurt Me". I've seen it around enough (on Twitter, in the bookstore, etc.) that I thought it was a sign it's time to buy it. When I got it (I bought e-book after midnight), I spent 2 hours with it, just because I couldn't stop reading. Highly recommend it if you are interested in mental toughness and beating inner resistance.

Video: On The Other Side Of Suffering Is Greatness - Interview with David Goggins
[DISCLAIMER: Profanity. If you find swearing disturbing, don't watch this - there is a lot of it! ] I am usually not into this kind of 'motivational' videos, but this one has stood out to me. First of all, it resonates with the ethos of Do the Opposite - converting negative things into positives. Here, David teaches us to 'own' our reality, to see things for what they are and how they can be changed. How to choose an active life filled with experiences and accomplishments over a comfortable, but empty life, full of 'what would have been's.

Alive Time Vs Dead Time
What I am most interested in not in just the book above, but in general, in life, is how to live more 'alive, online' time over the 'dead, offline' time. Alive time is when I am connected to what I want to do in life, my plans and dreams; when I am enjoying an experience, fully living it - think of fast bicycle ride, or focused when programming: basically, being in a flow state, and fully present.

Dead time is when I procrastinate: watching average quality TV series, or worse: spend 20-30 minutes trying to find something 'watchable' on Netflix. When I go for donuts or cookies, not really wanting to eat them, but just because. When I am switching between opening and scrolling Twitter and Instagram on my phone. That time feels different, it feels 'negative', like there is a pull towards doing something worthwhile which I am silencing down by all of the distractions above. And because if I was clear with myself, I would realize that it's all a huge waste of time and potential, and do something about it - my mind keeps that discomfort in a haze: it's not at all the same as the reality experienced during "alive time". It's like watching a TV channel with lots of static in it.

The more I succeed in increasing the ratio of alive to dead time, the happier and more fulfilled will be in life. A lot of the experiments and reading that I do is in pursuit of changing that ratio.

On Self-Reliance
I've first read the essay "Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 2010. [Read it in this nice format] It had a huge impact on me and the whole text resonated with me. Since then I often come back and reread it to realign my priorities and adjust course. It's a bit on the longer side, but I don't ask you to invest too much time into it: try it out. Read the first couple of pages and see if it is for you or not. I must say, though, that if you have been reading Do the Opposite for a bit and you enjoy what I talk about here, definitely give reading this essay a try and it will not disappoint.

Resonance is the word I use often (maybe too often? :) ) but I think that's such a precise term for how I determine if something is worth my time. It (book, article, movie) might be good but if it doesn't resonate with me, I accept that. It's like a litmus test that I use, and over time I've learnt to trust it. That's how I've decided on reading the book "Can't Hurt Me" from the section above, for example. I've learnt to trust my gut instinct from Emerson's "Self-Reliance" essay, and that's another reason I recommend it so often.

Sometimes you meet a person or start reading a book and you feel like your whole being is vibrating - that's the highest level of resonance that can be experienced. I've never talked about this on paper yet, so I might be rambling all over the place, but with time, I think, I will formulate it a bit better in a form of a blog post. :)

Articles:
1) "18-Minute Minimalist Exercises" by Joshua Fields Millburn
The story that Joshua (one half of "The Minimalists", famous from the documentary about minimalism) shares resonated with me a lot. I am also interested in getting in shape - and have not been great at it for all my life. I'm just generally not in the best shape - and I find his advice on doing the exercises he enjoys doing instead of the ones he's supposed to do to be very helpful! Also, setting a time constraint on an exercise sessions is a good idea. This year I am working on getting into better shape - I will share more about this as I go about it and as I experiment.

2) "Watch the oldest surviving film of a total solar eclipse"
This is truly a fascinating find - a video of solar eclipse that was recorded almost 120 years ago - in 1900(!). Maskelyne, who took the video, made a special telescope adapter to his camera to be able to capture the eclipse without ruining the equipment he had. Gives me chills to think about how many things, terrible and great have happened between the moment the video was taken and now.

3) "The Collapsing Crime Rates of the ’90s Might Have Been Driven by Cellphones" by Alexis C. Madrigal
I like that the title of the articles doesn't try to be 'clickbait-y'. There's a connection between the spread of cellphones and the decrease in violent crimes. The reason for that is that previously gangs would clash violently for control of the territory, the 'turf', the corners. If they controlled the corners they would be able to sell more and with higher markup (since there is no one else nearby who would sell for less). With the spread of mobile phones, people could make deals using the phones (via text, calls etc.) without the need to go 'to a corner', to a physical place. Due to the decrease in the desire of the gangs to control territory there had been a 19-29% decline in homicides in the 10 years between 1990 and 2000. It's curious to see mobile phones making a positive impact - as the author points out in the article - we tend to associate mobile phones only with negative things like distractions and such, so here is a positive aspect :)

Tweet That Resonated With Me

Ethos:

Quote:
"As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live."
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Faust", Part I
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Keep doing the opposite,
Alexander Kallaway
Website: dotheoppo.site
Twitter: twitter.com/ka11away