It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.
- Tyler Durden, Fight Club
Tyler Durden
Last week, I thought my desktop was finally going to die. I built her (her name is Angelina) my senior year in high school, so she had a good run. At this point, it would randomly reboot every 10 minutes. I blame it on an improperly installed processor (I had no idea what I was doing, but saved myself $1500 with the DIY-attitude.)
The prospect of losing everything on my computer, compounded with not bringing a laptop to Argentina, makes it about time for another lesson in minimalism(!) (brought to you by the letter “P”): If tomorrow everything was wiped out, what would I save? Thinking about the answer made the prospect of my computer crashing much less frightening:
- The first thing I’d save are all my documents. I can’t count the number of hours I put into my stories, essays, and notes in the last six months, never mind few years. I can’t even reproduce the same thought patterns that led to the words on the page, as I’m a different person from six months, 1 year, 2 years ago. How could I reproduce the same material? Those documents are priceless.
- Next, I’d save my photographs. About 75 percent I wouldn’t be able to recover if lost, but the rest I might be able to get. I’d have to spend serious leg work to hunt them down, but it could done.
- Finally, music – I’m referring strictly to songs my friends wrote and performed, raw instrumental tracks I love from my cousin’s band, and live recordings. As opposed to everything else, many of these songs I wouldn’t be able to find again. Besides, my iPod Mini already has the 3 gigs of music I listen to 90 percent of the time, so the most important songs are backed up.
These three things take up approximately five to six gigs on my 80 gig hard drive. I could lose the other 70 gigs: all the music, movies, videos (the only exception would be home videos, which I don’t have) and I realized it wouldn’t make a difference. I could lose DreamWeaver, Photoshop, Rosetta Stone, and Illustrator (hundreds of dollars worth of software) and I’d probably get over it in two minutes.
With this in mind, it was much simpler to spend the 20 minutes to back-up the essentials, and accept the possibility everything else may as well go to hell.
This mentaility is a rarity as more and more people depend on constant connectivity. Everywhere we go, people lug laptops, impulsively Twitter, and bury their noses into iPhones or ITouch’s. Maybe I missed the memo, but I really need to ask, do these “conveniences” really make your life easier? Do they add value to your everyday lives?
October 2, 2008 at 3:43 am |
the pervasiveness of technological gadgets sometimes actually makes me sad. it is possible to coast through life, not engaging at all, by popping the earbuds of your iPod into your ears. or be so involved with business on the phone that you pass up conversations with live people. used beyond the bounds of necessary communication, cell phones/laptops can do much more harm than people have begun to admit. having seen firsthand the havoc wreaked upon a family by these excessive “escapist” tendencies, i am now (and plan to always be) an advocate of technological minimalism.
in a culture where silence is practically an antediluvian art form, i find it refreshing to find that i forgot to charge my iPod the night before and can remove myself from the hundreds of people on campus who have a constant stream of others’ thoughts/words going through their brains…(that is, after i have gotten over the fact that i will also be cycling for 40 minutes without a “pump-up” soundtrack).
no, i do not think these conveniences make life easier; rather, they make it easier to live life on a superficial and detached level.
and they absolutely do not add any qualitative value to my life – that would be giving them far too much credit. they are distractions, at best.
October 3, 2008 at 5:10 pm |
You can bury your nose into an iPod? Did Apple invent the iSmell (go ahead make the joke…you done… yes you may laugh at your own joke…brilliant) a device that allows you to store your olfactory memories and release them at a moments notice, taking you instantly to days of old?
Anywho, how you been? How’s Argentina?
October 5, 2008 at 9:45 pm |
lindsay – i think i´m pretty good with most aspects of removing myself from technology, though I must admit I still usually need an iPod if I´m working out. On that note, I did go on a run today through San Telmo in Argentina (my first workout since arriving) without an iPod. instead, I had the friendly conversation of a Dutchman named Juanito chatting away to help time pass. It was extremely pleasant, and the exact opposite from normal escapist tendencies.
October 5, 2008 at 9:48 pm |
brandon – speaking of the iSmell, have you seen the iRack mad tv skit? If not, I highly recommend checking it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw2nkoGLhrE (And yes, I made my own joke, I did laught at it, and I always considered myself brilliant.)
life is good brother, doing my thing here: living life, finding adventures everyday, and still finding a opportunities for a wonderful siesta. life is good.
how things been with you?