I love Carey too! Have you listened to The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - I've listened 5-6 times now. Carey does a wonderful job and I'm looking for to watching Maestro, for many reasons but Carey is one of them.
I don't want to say good luck as although it's genuine it sounds disingenuous but I wish you success in this experiment, in this shift and hope whatever it might be that you get out of it is what you need 🫶🏻
yay Carey admiration society! I have read The Midnight Library but never listened to it - I didn't know that she narrated it! I shall have to download it, enjoy Maestro when you come to see it. I've just seen it's out on Netflix now.
I can hear her voice now, so distinctive! I love watching her in interview for this reason. In fact, I don't know if you like watching interviews too (maybe it's a bit niche?!) but I love this series on YouTube called Actors On Actors because the pairing is always so good and they really get into the details of making movies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bukpOGl8syU&t=821s
Wow, self restraint - impressive! It'll be worth it when the time comes 😊
Get out of my brain! 😂 I love Actors on Actors and yes I do watch a lot of interviews. I will in fact get completely side tracked from shows or movies because I will suddenly need to just watch interviews 😂 🫶🏻
I went down a similar route around the time I was diagnosed as well with Cal Newport's work, and I'm letting you know this stuff ahead of time, because I found a lot of his reasoning behind digital minimalism to be ineffective and ableist at worst. Most of his reasoning to get off social media is accurate but for the most part it's to get you to do more "busy work" around your life that is exceptionally draining and often useless. If anything it helped me burn out more frequently. Like time-blocking (which doesn't work), and quitting social media entirely and making week schedules by hand and other things. Really, it is source "toxic productivity" as Jesse J. Anderson puts it below:
it's interesting to hear your experience with Cal's work David. I'd be interested to understand why you think his reasoning behind digital minimalism is ableist at worst? I am genuinely curious as I didn't take that away upon reading his book. His books definitely don't cater for different people's experiences based on gender, race, or ability (whether visible or not) which I think is a big oversight but I didn't think his reasoning was per se ableist. Perhaps I missed a deeper issue though, I'd be really interested to hear your perspective. As for his recommendations like time blocking and quitting social media entirely and writing schedules by hand, for me this is working! Not to say it's always going to work, and I regularly pivot my approach a bit, and also maintain a lot of flexibility within the approach to cater for my challenges in day to day life - but taking elements of his ideas and implementing them has definitely been helping me personally. I think because we are all so diverse in our own challenges and ways of doing things there's no surprise that for some it will be of use and for others it won't.
So here goes, I’ll try and keep it short but this is definitely something I’ve felt for at least two years now and I haven’t really gotten the chance to sit down and put it down, so thanks for asking me to elaborate more. Generally speaking I’m only talking about it in this way out of genuine concern for your health because I know how it affected me and even though we’re individuals I’m just concerned for others like you and me who may fall down the productivity trap, as journalist Oliver Burkeman put it in his excellent book, 4000 Weeks which pretty much eviscerates all the productivity pundits of the modern moment. I strongly suggest you read the book especially as you come out of the self-care hyper focus.
What makes Cal Newport’s advice to be ineffective, ableist, and potentially harmful is a fundamental misunderstanding on his part on how much privilege allows him to be what he is. I think you’re pretty wise to that fact, but I think it’s especially true that his advice lives under the umbrella of privilege that protects neurotypicality, ableism, and productivity which is how Newport and others like him make their meat and potatoes. It's all a capitalism construct and Newport is more than happen to report from his pretty cushy and lofty position as a tenured college professor.
There’s a critical line in Jesse J. Anderson’s video that goes for Newport’s productivity predecessor David Allen’s Getting Things Done system—that these systems work for Allen because they were made by Allen to work for his life. And what Newport mostly does in his New Yorker articles is continually hit on the fact that Allen’s system doesn’t work anymore because work and life has fundamentally changed in the twenty years since Allen’s book came out.
The last time I looked you and me, we’re not Cal Newport. Our lives can’t be time-blocked and boiled down to a two minute action. I don’t mean to be simplistic, just concrete: we’re not neurotypical, Ivy League educated, white male, tenured college professors. We don’t have that life and Newport’s system is designed for himself and those like him. His advice boils down to these things: quit social media, time block your days, weekly plan your month, and be bad at email.
None of those things work in this neurodivergent’s life! I wouldn’t have encountered you without YouTube and Instagram and Substack is pretty much its own social network right now. It’s like Twitter, Tumblr, and Wordpress had a baby. It’s a blog platform not a newsletter service. I can say all these things because I’m about as close to being a Cal Newport from a demographic standpoint as a neurodivergent can get. I’m a heterosexual white male with young kids, I’m well educated but not Ivy League, and I was a college professor for five years. I can dismantle Newport’s entire argument as not working because at one point it did work long before I even knew who he was and knew I was autistic/adhd. But I think I will save it for a post and not a comment section. And just one last comment: Newport's new book, a kind of piggy back on Burkeman's 4000 Weeks, is called Slow Productivity which sounds like something ChatGPT wrote.
I like the look of that planner! For me, the million dollar question is: does it lie-flat? I've just moved into a spiral bound planner for 2024 because I've realised that I need to be able to leave the list for the week open and visible while I work (hello, object impermanence...)
I love Carey too! Have you listened to The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - I've listened 5-6 times now. Carey does a wonderful job and I'm looking for to watching Maestro, for many reasons but Carey is one of them.
I don't want to say good luck as although it's genuine it sounds disingenuous but I wish you success in this experiment, in this shift and hope whatever it might be that you get out of it is what you need 🫶🏻
yay Carey admiration society! I have read The Midnight Library but never listened to it - I didn't know that she narrated it! I shall have to download it, enjoy Maestro when you come to see it. I've just seen it's out on Netflix now.
Thank you 🫶🏻
Yes, on audible she brings Nora to life and I can listen endlessly. Highly recommend!
Yes it is! I'm saving it to watch with a friend although it's terribly hard to not watch it before!
(Enjoy Carey and the Library when you get to it 😊)
I can hear her voice now, so distinctive! I love watching her in interview for this reason. In fact, I don't know if you like watching interviews too (maybe it's a bit niche?!) but I love this series on YouTube called Actors On Actors because the pairing is always so good and they really get into the details of making movies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bukpOGl8syU&t=821s
Wow, self restraint - impressive! It'll be worth it when the time comes 😊
Get out of my brain! 😂 I love Actors on Actors and yes I do watch a lot of interviews. I will in fact get completely side tracked from shows or movies because I will suddenly need to just watch interviews 😂 🫶🏻
Yes!! It can be a bit of a wormhole 😅
Digital Minimalism is SO good! I also inhaled it. It’s essential reading. Good luck with your break 💕🙌
Following here and your YouTube with interest while I start to explore stepping away from fast forms of social media .
I went down a similar route around the time I was diagnosed as well with Cal Newport's work, and I'm letting you know this stuff ahead of time, because I found a lot of his reasoning behind digital minimalism to be ineffective and ableist at worst. Most of his reasoning to get off social media is accurate but for the most part it's to get you to do more "busy work" around your life that is exceptionally draining and often useless. If anything it helped me burn out more frequently. Like time-blocking (which doesn't work), and quitting social media entirely and making week schedules by hand and other things. Really, it is source "toxic productivity" as Jesse J. Anderson puts it below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsT3KPYJFl4&list=PL9B09S9i86DNmcCg3O6Oj7HO8bXLMytr9&index=8&t=907s&ab_channel=ADHDJesse
it's interesting to hear your experience with Cal's work David. I'd be interested to understand why you think his reasoning behind digital minimalism is ableist at worst? I am genuinely curious as I didn't take that away upon reading his book. His books definitely don't cater for different people's experiences based on gender, race, or ability (whether visible or not) which I think is a big oversight but I didn't think his reasoning was per se ableist. Perhaps I missed a deeper issue though, I'd be really interested to hear your perspective. As for his recommendations like time blocking and quitting social media entirely and writing schedules by hand, for me this is working! Not to say it's always going to work, and I regularly pivot my approach a bit, and also maintain a lot of flexibility within the approach to cater for my challenges in day to day life - but taking elements of his ideas and implementing them has definitely been helping me personally. I think because we are all so diverse in our own challenges and ways of doing things there's no surprise that for some it will be of use and for others it won't.
So here goes, I’ll try and keep it short but this is definitely something I’ve felt for at least two years now and I haven’t really gotten the chance to sit down and put it down, so thanks for asking me to elaborate more. Generally speaking I’m only talking about it in this way out of genuine concern for your health because I know how it affected me and even though we’re individuals I’m just concerned for others like you and me who may fall down the productivity trap, as journalist Oliver Burkeman put it in his excellent book, 4000 Weeks which pretty much eviscerates all the productivity pundits of the modern moment. I strongly suggest you read the book especially as you come out of the self-care hyper focus.
What makes Cal Newport’s advice to be ineffective, ableist, and potentially harmful is a fundamental misunderstanding on his part on how much privilege allows him to be what he is. I think you’re pretty wise to that fact, but I think it’s especially true that his advice lives under the umbrella of privilege that protects neurotypicality, ableism, and productivity which is how Newport and others like him make their meat and potatoes. It's all a capitalism construct and Newport is more than happen to report from his pretty cushy and lofty position as a tenured college professor.
There’s a critical line in Jesse J. Anderson’s video that goes for Newport’s productivity predecessor David Allen’s Getting Things Done system—that these systems work for Allen because they were made by Allen to work for his life. And what Newport mostly does in his New Yorker articles is continually hit on the fact that Allen’s system doesn’t work anymore because work and life has fundamentally changed in the twenty years since Allen’s book came out.
The last time I looked you and me, we’re not Cal Newport. Our lives can’t be time-blocked and boiled down to a two minute action. I don’t mean to be simplistic, just concrete: we’re not neurotypical, Ivy League educated, white male, tenured college professors. We don’t have that life and Newport’s system is designed for himself and those like him. His advice boils down to these things: quit social media, time block your days, weekly plan your month, and be bad at email.
None of those things work in this neurodivergent’s life! I wouldn’t have encountered you without YouTube and Instagram and Substack is pretty much its own social network right now. It’s like Twitter, Tumblr, and Wordpress had a baby. It’s a blog platform not a newsletter service. I can say all these things because I’m about as close to being a Cal Newport from a demographic standpoint as a neurodivergent can get. I’m a heterosexual white male with young kids, I’m well educated but not Ivy League, and I was a college professor for five years. I can dismantle Newport’s entire argument as not working because at one point it did work long before I even knew who he was and knew I was autistic/adhd. But I think I will save it for a post and not a comment section. And just one last comment: Newport's new book, a kind of piggy back on Burkeman's 4000 Weeks, is called Slow Productivity which sounds like something ChatGPT wrote.
I hope this helps!
I like the look of that planner! For me, the million dollar question is: does it lie-flat? I've just moved into a spiral bound planner for 2024 because I've realised that I need to be able to leave the list for the week open and visible while I work (hello, object impermanence...)