Input, Process, Output
Whatever our professions and however our lives are structured, our days are filled with inputs.
These inputs are sensory by definition—sights, sounds, tactile sensations, tastes, smells—but they contain a boggling assortment of information, ranging from the aesthetic to survival-related data, from the interpersonal to knowledge of meta-national importance.
We also generally engage in some kind of production on a daily basis; our generative acts culminating in different types of output.
We speak and generate sound that contains encrypted information about our emotional state, the state of the world, or the state of the meal we’re preparing.
We make visual art and music, we generate sensations and situations in which we and other people participate, and we produce both work- and play-related artifacts, sometimes passively and sometimes quite intentionally.
In between the input and output stages, we’re engaged in a ceaseless circuit of input-crunching and output-consideration.
We’re both consciously and unconsciously scrutinizing the book we just read, the conversation we just had, and the walk we took to the grocery store (and all the things we experienced along the way).
The processing of these inputs informs—immediately or eventually—our outputs in various ways. But it’s not uncommon to nudge this step aside in our desire to make more chronological room for consumption and production.
It makes sense that we might want to do this: there’s a lot to soak up from the world around us, and making things can be immensely satisfying. There’s also something biologically satiating about both absorbing and radiating information, and as such we tend to gravitate toward activities that prioritize both ends of the experiential spectrum.
That in-between space, though, is vital to our understanding and contextualizing that which we experience.
It’s also what informs our conversations, production of physical and digital artifacts, and our behaviors: our outputs, whatever their shape, are honed by our mulling over, sitting with, and eventual analysis of our previous inputs.
In an input-output prioritizing age, carving out time for just sitting with ourselves, with what’s happened, with things we’ve done and seen and heard and smelled and tasted and felt, and our myriad predictions about what might happen next, can seem cumbersome if not entirely unmanageable.
But taking that time—whether it’s actualized as some kind of meditation, a meandering walk, or a period of quiet contemplation between other, more “productive” activities—can increase the quality, value, and enjoyment derived from our many inputs and outputs.
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Projects
Brain Lenses: Peripersonal Space & Reference Groups
Let’s Know Things: Management Consultancies (there are now 250 LKT episodes!)
Yesterday’s Newsletter: Venezuelan Refugees, Undersea Cable, Camera Hackers
Curiosity Weekly: March 9, 2021
Other: I’ve been working on my Mandarin, working on the above array of projects, and working on next-steps—some of which I’ll hopefully be able to implement once a final bit of surgery is completed (potentially done with all that by the end of March) and the relevant vaccines are administered.
It’s been a while since I’ve been able to realistically make plans that involve moving around geographically, and it’s both exciting and a little bit intimidating: there’s so much I want to do, but I’m keen to avoid creating any new problems (pandemic-related or otherwise). As a result, I’m tempering those ambitions while also allowing myself to get enthused and dream big.
Interesting & Useful
Some neat things to click:
Stockton’s Basic-Income Experiment Pays Off(interesting look at a recent UBI experiment)
Netherlands Building Ages(I love this sort of tool; it makes new types of context available in a compelling and intuitive way)
Declassified Spacecrafts and Orbital Weapons of the USSR and Russia(some interesting alternative-history grist here)
The Basics of Alpaca Fleece(file this under “things I didn’t know I would be curious about until I learned more about it”)
A Ride On the Assembly Line With the World’s Most Famous Chalk(so interesting)
The Road To Electric Is Filled With Tiny Cars(I tend to think this is true, and am looking forward to seeing where the industry goes next)
10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2021(there’s some very cool stuff happening in science-land at the moment)
Outro
I’ve been truly enjoying my processing periods, of late.
Neglecting my “sitting quietly and doing nothing for 20-minutes” habit for a few days last week helped me realize just how important that time is to my understanding of things, the tabs I keep on my own wellbeing and thinking, and the balance I’m generally able to strike between competing demands for my time and attention.
Also, a quick shout-out to Mouse Book Club (this isn’t an advertisement, just a thing I discovered recently and love): they basically package up short writings on various subjects, publish them as nicely designed, pocketable books, and send out a trio of those books to subscribers, quarterly.
These works are all available online for free (through Project Gutenberg and similar services) in case you would prefer to check them out as ebooks or online, but I find this small, printed format makes me want to read them more deeply (often in moments where I would typically reach for my phone) and makes me want to hand them off to other people, afterward—which goes to show you how much value good design, the right medium, and thoughtful curation can add even to works that are in the public domain.
Making any plans for your (hopefully near-future) post-pandemic life? How’ve things been going in your neck of the woods, of late?
Wherever you are in the world and however you’re managing/coping/feeling, I wish you the absolute best and would love to hear from you.
You can say hello and/or submit an awkward selfie at colin@exilelifestyle.com or by responding to this email.
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You can also communicate via the typical channels: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or well-curated coffeehouse ambiance.
If you’re finding some value in what I’m doing here, consider supporting my work via one of these methods: Become a patron / Buy a book / Subscribe to Brain Lenses
You can also buy me a coffee if you’d prefer :)