Outline
Why Unplug?
All the devices that steal your solitude, either in huge stretches or tiny bites, are hooked up to a giant rules engine I refer to as the Robot.
Every single interaction you have with it amounts to a contest between your ability to get what you want without giving the robot what it wants.
What the Robot Wants
You want directions, the Robot wants… other stuff…
I took a Product Management course at Haas school of Business at Berkeley a few years ago. The first thing we were told was Why Would a Company Build a Product? In other words, Why do business?
Help humanity?
Solve problems for people?
Advance our nation's interests?
Alleviate suffering?
Learn and Grow?
Create a Legacy for Future Generations?
To be Remembered?
No.
The reason: Wealth Capture
Question: Do you think the goal of a business is to capture wealth for you, or from you?
And if this business uses technology, that ever-advancing set of practices, processes, inventions, patents, tactics, and teams of highly motivated, highly skilled people, how likely is it that you, with your neolithic ability to discern patterns and avoid risks, could win even one round?
What Does Unplugging Get You?
When you spend a few minutes deliberately in your own company, unplugged and out of reach of the Robot, you can devote your energy to solving the real problems - the ones only you can solve.
Before we get to the real problems, we need to talk about substitution.
The Big Switcheroo
Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman quote and substitution.
“The essence of intuitive heuristics: when faced with a difficult question, we often answer an easier one instead, usually without noticing the substitution.”
What Real Problems?
You can really only work on three problems: one bad one, and two good ones.
The Bad Problem
"I don't know what I want because I don't know who I am."
~Herbert
If you don’t get used to working on this one, the solutions you come up with on the other two will not be good.
Don’t go to the Robot for help with this one.
Who are you?
What must you do?
Two Good Problems
1. I don't know how the world works.
2. I can't predict the future.
When you try to accomplish something, you either get a lesson or a blessing.
The Lessons give you information on these two problems. This means that failing and then LISTENING can teach you way more than SUCCEEDING.
If you’ve worked even for a few minutes on the BAD problem without the Robot’s help, you can use the Robot to help you with these two.
Journaling Prompts
What will happen in 1 hour?
What will happen first thing tomorrow morning?
What will happen in three weeks?
Breath Work
30 breaths
5 stress-relieving breaths:
Raise arms out above your head, breathe in fully
The pull elbows down and in toward your lower sides while breathing out completely
Repeat
Poem
Irises by Li-Young Lee
Addendum: Removing notifications
Even though they are periodically turned back on by software updates while you're sleeping, it's worth taking five minutes every month or two to repair this bulwark. Even if it only spares you being interrupted for one five-minute stretch, there's no telling what you could dream up in that little interval.
Apple iPhone
This one, for iPhone, is pretty straightforward, but you'll probably have to sit through some ads:
Google Android
This page for Android is pretty comprehensive. Depending on what demographic slot the Robot has shoved you into, your page will probably include some display ads. I won't tell you what I see, out of respect for about five middle-aged leotard-clad models doing squats...
https://allaboutcookies.org/how-to-turn-off-notifications-android
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