Week of Feb 9th: Productivity? More like Noductivity

HBon mot(s) of the week:

“It’s not about whether a job makes you feel valuable, but does it align with and respect the value you inherently have.”

and

“Depression lies, but not as much as capitalism.”

I spent some time this week thinking about capitalism, the word. (That sounds like an action movie – Coming This Summer CAPITALISM: THE WORD! In a world…). It holds a special magic whereas just in its utterance, a kind of defensive aura is conjured up to counteract the impending Marxist onslaught. I feel like I should have more to say on this, but right now, I don’t. It fascinates me how acknowledging a structure is comparable to attempting to tear down that structure. What other structures do we not mention in the hopes of forgetting its there?

Shhh, I’m hyperfocusing

I don’t know why I felt compelled to write about my ADHD on Facebook this week, but I think I had a big thought and wanted to see if it resonated with my ADHD friends: The thing about ADHD and attention is that our hold on attention is delicate. It’s not that we can’t pay attention, often we are Fry begging for someone/something to take our attention. It’s not just that we can flip from one focus to another – much to the detriment of our retention skills. It’s just that when our focused, deep attention, is broken (torn asunder, if you will) it’s not only mentally jarring and emotionally painful (hence the disregulated emotional reactions) but it is damn near impossible to get back into that state. It’s why Pomodoros don’t work for us as intended and a lengthened modified version is better. But it’s also why sometimes we do our best work when everyone else is asleep, because the part of our brain that is always alert for interruptions can relax and let us be.

I’m a “guy” who “gets it”

I posted a comment in r/productivity and the original post was deleted by the moderators. Perhaps because of the negative tone of the post, but I was surprised. I’m glad my comment was popular and is still available, but I hope the OP is doing alright.

Love, American Style

As I waited for my grocery order yesterday, I watched so many men walk out of the store with their last-minute Valentines Day card, flowers, and balloons. In one way it looked sweet, like they all needed a way to show love, and did the best they could. In another way, it was an afterthought, the bare minimum.

Links of the past week:

  • Don’t Believe Him | The Ezra Klein Show | “Look closely at the first two weeks of Donald Trump’s second term and you’ll see something very different than what he wants you to see.” I used to listen to Klein’s podcast regularly but found myself drifting after his move to the NYTimes. Perhaps I’ll reconsider.
  • I made my world-famous macaroni and cheese with Carbe Diem elbow pasta this week, and I would highly recommend (if you don’t have issues with gluten). The price stops me from making it a regular choice, but it’s a nice alternative once in a while.

Choose Democracy – big and small ways you can help.

Image by Olya Adamovich from Pixabay

Have a comment? @ me =>