Chapter Content
Okay, so, basically, this part talks about, like, moving from being, you know, a marching soldier to a spinning dancer, which, at first, sounds kind of weird, right? But hear me out.
So, this philosopher guy, Marshall McLuhan, he said that back in the, uh, like, electric age, or the information age, people started, like, feeling restricted by the super structured way things used to be. Like, clock time and all that. He said we started craving, like, more variety, you know, different rhythms, instead of just doing the same thing over and over. And he used this image of soldiers marching in step compared to, like, a ballet dancer moving with all these different flows and patterns.
And, um, he had this idea that how we learned to read and how things were printed, it kinda shaped how we think. Like, step by step, one thing after another. Almost like an assembly line, right? But he thought that when info started moving faster, everything changed. You couldn't just take your time and go through things slowly anymore. Life had to be, you know, like, lived with these rhythms.
And now, fast forward, right? And we're still dealing with this, like, huge shift in how we work and learn, with information just, like, exploding everywhere. And we have, like, two choices on how to deal with it.
One way is to just try and keep up, right? To try to go even faster and push ourselves even harder to stay ahead. But, uh, the problem is, well, machines are going to beat us at that game. They're just, like, way faster and stronger.
So, the other choice is, instead of trying to change how *fast* we work, we change *how* we work. We shift from, you know, marching in a straight line like a soldier to, like, dancing around, spinning in rhythms. You know?
And if we do that, if we embrace, like, a rhythmic way of working, we're less affected by how fast everything is moving. Because a rhythm isn't just a straight line, right? It's, like, all over the place. And also, we'll create a better headspace for learning new things, coming up with ideas, and solving problems creatively, while, uh, you know, still making time to rest and recharge. It kind of, like, frees our minds from being stuck on a rigid, old assembly line. It, like, restores us to how we were before all that industrial stuff, honestly.
So, yeah, technological change is often, you know, seen as this scary thing, like it's going to, like, wear us out and outsmart us. But, honestly, maybe it's the opposite. Maybe it'll push us to work in a more rhythmic way, and restore our ability to create and innovate, which has been, like, kind of suffocated by all the assembly line thinking. The marching soldier’s, like, stiff mind becomes, you know, one that dances with imagination. And that’s how we become, like, *super* efficient. And that's how we, like, "win" against the machines, if that makes sense.