The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

August 28High-Quality Leisure

Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergoes continual changes; it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is christianized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For every thing that is given, something is taken.

Ralph Waldo Emerson—Self-Reliance (1841)

Few would argue that advances in communications and technology have given us the ability to do things that our parents and grandparents could have only dreamed of. But at what cost?

No, the technology is not to blame; it's our use of technology that is perhaps to blame for diverting our freedom and with it our happiness.

We've allowed our use of technology to marginalize activities such as solitude, conversation, reflection, mindfulness, and deep thought.

Consider this warning from Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism:

It's now possible to completely banish solitude from your life. Thoreau and Storr worried about people enjoying less solitude. We must now wonder if people might forget this state of being altogether.

But as with any addiction, there is a detox.

Step one is to consider what void we are filling with the constant need for technological stimulation. What's missing? What needs deadening?

The key to changing any habit or addiction once you discover its source is to fill up the space with something else entirely.

We've lost control of the joy in life by giving it away to time spent on junk. Newport suggests we can ...