20 Comments
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Eva's avatar

I love this sentence so much: You cannot tell people to stop consuming what other people have created, and expect them to consume what you create.

This has made me angry as well. Like how then are we going to interact with each other? It is like saying only you should ever speak, expecting everyone to listen to you and you will never listen to anybody else again.... loved this piece. Just came across your work and find it super helpful!

Yerlin's avatar

wow, you hit the nail on head! thank you for this

Craig Perry's avatar

Hope it helped you out! Thanks for reading :)

Станислав Соболев's avatar

Craig, I absolutely agree with the rest of the comments praising this work.

However, if you're accepting critique, I would recommend you proofreading your pieces, lest you get misunderstood, e.g.

>The centaur is always stronger than the machine alone.

Did you mean a cyborg? As a combination of man and machine? Or is this a reference to something?

>This is why you need to give yourself a daily project (one goal, 1-3 tasks daily to move toward it)

Are you clearing up your previous idea(choosing a project for 6 months) or introducing a new one?

I hope you get my point. Please, don't misjudge my intentions. I hold your work to the highest of regards, and that is exactly why I'm expressing my opinion about it. Your ideas are worthy of transcribing them in the highest of form!

Craig Perry's avatar

- The centaur model (human+tech will always beat either in isolation) I could have been clearer with this idea

- Pick one project, and give yourself 1-3 needle moving tasks to achieve it. It’s broad instructions, because context is important. This continues on from the previous idea :)

Thank you for this feedback. I’m working on trying to make my writing a little clearer, and as best as I can make it. So thank you for this!

Devii's avatar

This is so well put up and what makes it different from all other essays is that you did not try to force the change from phase 1 . Such well articulated essays are rare to see these days. Bravo!

Devii's avatar

This is so well put up and what makes it different from all other essays is that you did not try to force the change from phase 1 . Such well articulated essays are rare to see these days. Bravo!

jeri lee | جيري's avatar

“Real life is lived offline” yes!

The Signature Woman's avatar

This feels less like a productivity piece and more like a return to being human. Less input, more presence, more real thoughts and more life.

Fabiana's avatar

This is an absolute gem!

Bhumi's avatar

The best part was studying physics

Kyler's avatar

This is what I admired about this post.

Some poor, phoneless fool is probably sitting next to a waterfall somewhere totally unaware of how angry and scared he’s supposed to be.

This quote is amazing.

"I don’t like silence. What I like is the absence of noise."

Your lover really does get it. How do you find a woman like that?

"Sisyphus55

Jared Henderson

Mr. Koe

Man Carrying Thing"

I have never heard of these four creators until now, except Mr. Koe, of course. So thank you for the recommendation.

"The centaur is always stronger than the machine alone."

This idea hits for me, in the world of people being scared about AI taking jobs, I see infinite potential for signal to supersede.

"When something upsets you, write about it. Or better, mind map it."

Mind mapping is romantic; writing is putting the chaos of the mind into order. Mind mapping is the link between the opposites.

"Pay no attention to politics. The best way to change the world is to solve your own problems and help others with the solutions. You can only do that by thinking alone, by yourself, about things within your realm of control."

Man, this resonates. Politics is the world's slop. I am fascinated by how they managed to keep a whole entire nation divided with a self-sustaining system that barely requires maintenance.

"Anxiety is the signal that you are not making progress."

I also think that a lot of people will suppress their anxiety because they believe the lie that it's a bad thing. Anxiety is a guide; you should be at peace for sure. But real growth comes from the discomfort of becoming someone who you aren't quite sure exists.

Thank you for this post, Craig, well done.

Solomon Adams's avatar

I saved this post about a month ago, and I am just now getting around to reading it. I had no idea I would be tearing up in a coffee shop while reading this.

I graduated from university two years ago, and the first book I read post-grad was Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. This feels like an abbreviated yet more relevant version of that book. The most profound idea I extracted from the piece was to create. Periodically, I have committed to all of the other tools listed here, such as abandoning social media, consuming curated media, getting comfortable with boredom, talking to others, reading, screen-less sleep hygiene, etc. But somehow, I slowly got away from what I believe might be the most primordial tool: writing. I will need to sit with this thought longer because, as a (somewhat casual) writer, I feel irrationally biased in making this claim, but now I have something much more beautiful to think about in the shower today. Thank you for this!

Jasmine Cheung's avatar

reading this piece of work has been a meditation. i am a youtuber and i have found that this has profoundly shifted the way that i see my work and my channel. i am getting a substack account because of you. you found gained a brand new follower :)

Sam's avatar

I really like how the steps have been broken down into smaller tasks because that's how easily distractible we are nowadays.

Najaye's avatar

I needed this. Excellent read.

Usmalik Alexander's avatar

My mindset... I feel like a new person already.

Wow... just wow... .

"Direction is far more powerful than how hard you work."

This article might take me months to digest. Brilliant. Love your writing by the way.

Dwyndolia's avatar

I really did enjoy this read, the biggest part getting to me being “real life is lived offline. However it feels like you hit enter after every sentence. This on its own mimics short-form content. More paragraphs, please!

The claim of wanting to slow down and engage in deep thinking, and avoid doomscrolling but this single sentence format forces you into a scroll, the doomscroll you’re telling us you’re against. Short-form text is often optimized for shorter attention spans, are we not trying to get away from that? Format these into cohesive paragraphs and it’ll look a lot healthier and the flow will move easier, guaranteed. :))