On: Waldenponding.

Episode: N/A

Date: November 2019

Background: Writer and management consultant.

Key Subjects:

• Waldenponding:
  • Various levels of retreating from technology.
  • (Thoreau: virtues of retreating from social contact, leading a quieter life at Walden Pond.)
  • Historically common response to emerging new (communication) technologies.
• Better response: adapt.
  • Balance attention allocation – superficial up-to-date vs. more in-depth.
• Retreat from technology driven by mistaken perspectives on:
  • Overestimating the impact of the technology and its design (they are too addictive).
  • Underestimating the agency of the consumer (we have no control).
• Online platforms allow for emergence of a global social computing system.
  • Bottom-up platform of participatory conversations.
    • Individuals each contribute their private knowledge.
  • Contributions are largely anonymous.
    • [Is this true or necessary? Importance of weight of opinion, reputation?].
  • May cause “fear of being ordinary” (FOBO).
    • Afraid of losing credit for ideas.
    • [Not sure this is a worry or reality for many.]
  • Individuals may lose their identity or uniqueness.
    • [Also feels like a stretch.]
  • [Generally, at least at this time, there is little evidence of the emergence of intelligence through iterative online interactions.]
  • [If anything, online platforms can be productive (and often they are not) by making information available more easily, faster and more widely than before, i.e. information discovery.]
• Unproductive technology usage.
  • Driven more by the user than the technology itself.
  • [Probably true for 90-95% of the people; to what degree do we need or want to protect the rest.]
• Be a producer.
  • Try to create something new instead of reflexive reacting to others.

Key Takeaways:

• Be a producer.

Worth Listening:

7/10