Self-Control
In the morning, I opened my computer, and saw an email notification on gTalk, clicked on it out of habit.
While Gmail was loading, a thought crossed my mind. Is this email really so important that I have to check it at 9 AM, prime time? Seems like I don’t have any emails that crucial…
Once Gmail loaded, sure enough, it was a submission email from a design site showcasing visual works, listing many good pieces. I picked my favorite and clicked in. Again, out of habit, I scrolled the page from top to bottom. There were a few visually striking effects where I paused momentarily, but overall, I finished browsing the work in under 2 minutes.
Another thought drifted through. Is appreciating works like this meaningful? Or rather, is it worthwhile?
Yet, every day, I browse countless web pages, view numerous design works, read a ton of words. I can’t even remember how much I consume; I barely remember what I saw yesterday. I’ve purely become an information dumpster.
In this internet age, information is so plentiful it’s overwhelming.
Information is like fine food. In my childhood days, there were few good things to eat. Later, there were more, and the body needed it, so we ate in big gulps. But gradually, eating without restraint became a habit, leading to “eating without tasting.” Without self-control, I lost my sense of taste, couldn’t tell what’s good or bad, what’s needed or unnecessary.
Gathering information requires self-control.
So, I’ve decided to thoroughly appreciate just one piece every day, watch carefully, think it through, and engage in a bit of self-practice.
Coincidentally, Delicious with its Firefox plugin can help me with this. When I find a good article, I’ll tag it with the month and year, like 0912, and annotate the date with a keyword, like 091216, creating a special directory on Delicious. This way, the good stuff I collect doesn’t have to be read immediately; I can read it slowly, or after returning home.
In design, too, self-control is necessary. I plan to write more about this later.