In Praise of Wasting Time
Written by Alan Lightman
Narrated by Alan Lightman
4/5
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About this audiobook
We are all worried about wasting time. Especially in the West, we have created a frenzied lifestyle in which the twenty-four hours of each day are carved up, dissected, and reduced down to ten minute units of efficiency. We take our iPhones and laptops with us on vacation. We check email at restaurants or our brokerage accounts while walking in the park. When the school day ends, our children are overloaded with “extras.” Our university curricula are so crammed our young people don’t have time to reflect on the material they are supposed to be learning. Yet in the face of our time-driven existence, a great deal of evidence suggests there is great value in “wasting time,” of letting the mind lie fallow for some periods, of letting minutes and even hours go by without scheduled activities or intended tasks.
Gustav Mahler routinely took three or four-hour walks after lunch, stopping to jot down ideas in his notebook. Carl Jung did his most creative thinking and writing when he visited his country house. In his 1949 autobiography, Albert Einstein described how his thinking involved letting his mind roam over many possibilities and making connections between concepts that were previously unconnected. With In Praise of Wasting Time, Professor Alan Lightman documents the rush and heave of the modern world, suggests the technological and cultural origins of our time-driven lives, and examines the many values of “wasting time”—for replenishing the mind, for creative thought, and for finding and solidifying the inner self. Break free from the idea that we must not waste a single second, and discover how sometimes the best thing to do is to do nothing at all.
Alan Lightman
Alan Lightman is a physicist, novelist, and essayist. He was educated at Princeton University and at the California Institute of Technology, where he received a PhD in theoretical physics. Lightman is the author of five novels, including the international bestseller Einstein’s Dreams, two collections of essays, a book-length narrative poem, and several books on science. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Granta, The New Yorker, and The New York Review of Books, among other publications.
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Reviews for In Praise of Wasting Time
53 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In Praise of Wasting Time
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A very timely book in today's busy, busy world. Remember when we were children, and could lie on our backs and just look at the clouds? And just let our minds wander? Some would call it "wasting time". What happened to those times? Today we are constantly rushing from one task to another. Always 'plugged in" to some electronic device, checking them over and over again to make sure we don't miss something. Even on our vacations! And what is the result of all this busy searching? Are we ever really satisfied? News flash....you will never get to the end of the internet, never are going to be "up" on everything. And that's okay, the world will not end if we don't be the first to find out the latest Kardashian news, or what Sue said about John on Facebook, or to see the latest bunny ears photo enhancement of Kay on SnapChat!And that's what this book is about. Taking a step back from our time-driven lives and just "wasting time" for a bit. I like this line, "break free from the idea that we must not waste a single second, and discover how sometimes the best thing to do is to do nothing at all."Did you know that Albert Einstein described his thinking process as letting his mind roam over many possibilities and making connections between concepts that were previously unconnected! I wonder how he could do that today, and still check his phone every ten minutes? That Hindu's discovered over 2500 years ago that the mind needs periods of calm, and to rest. A passage from a Buddhist monk reads "when a monk has gone into an empty place, and has calmed his mind, he experiences a delight that transcends that of men". Lightman explains how you need quiet time and stillness to find your inner self, that part of you that imagines, that dreams, that explores, and that is constantly questioning who you are and what is important to you. He explains that it really comes down to the big questions in life: how should you live in the world, and why should you live that way? For him, and for many of us, there are certain things we all want in life. 1) the pure joy of helping others, without expecting anything in return. 2) the belief in certain values that require action. 3) the desire to have an impact in the world, to make a difference. And 4) the desire to promote one's self or achieve personal gain, regardless of whether there is any positive impact on the world. And how can you determine how to do these things, if you are always rushing around, and not "wasting" time to listen to yourself? Lest you think that this is all well and good, but you don't have time for it, Lightman lists what happens to people who don't slow down. Think about your own children, how they don't seem as happy as you used to be when you were their age. The rate of teenagers reporting at least one major depressive episode in the past year has almost doubled from 2010 to 2015. Experts say the main reason is the "massive and pervasive presence of the digital grid, with little opportunity or desire to disconnect". A Pew survey shows that the average American teenager today sends or receives more than 110 text messages a day! And that the source of the increased depression and anxiety is their "terror of aloneness'. their FOMO (fear of missing out). I think Lightman is really onto something here. And that we owe it to ourselves to take a step back from all the noise and distractions to just tune out for a bit and waste some time.