Friday, May 02, 2008

Thinking, Time, The Next Five Minutes, Athletes And Other Shit

I stay away from others' comments. I read them. They make me feel self-important. I am saddened by this self-importance. So I stay away.

But in the last post some things came up. It is obvious I do not practice what I preach. One cannot blog at 9:49AM from his office about how important it is to to get up and go to work. This blog is not my work. It cannot be. I get paid to bullshit about integrated pest management in the United States. I do not get paid to blog.

This being said, my work requires me to have portfolio of ideas at all times. It requires me to read. It requires me to be up-to-date with things going on in the world around me. It allows me to examine many ideas and increase my "knowledge." Maybe allows is a better word.

I am a knowledge worker. I do not possess any physical skills. I do not perform manual labor. My "knowledge," my "human capital," my capacity to bullshit earns my salary. This is what college degrees do. They turn people into professional bullshitters.

I wish I could romanticize this fact. I cannot. All I can say is that "some of this bullshit is kind of cool."

To be good at anything, one has to focus. One has to concentrate on the task in front of him. He has to take control of the the next five minutes. Just the next five minutes, nothing else matters.
I agree with Jeff. Jim Brown would run that lily white motherfucker over. He would not think about it. He would just do it. I have to bullshit about integrated pest management well enough to get me a job.

I agree with Sam. I have to maintain a portfolio of ideas. This will be key to getting a job. A portfolio of ideas requires thinking. It does not require worrying. Worrying is a waste of time. I cannot continue to waste time. I cannot continue to have too much time on my hands. Life is much too short.

So I am going to quit fucking around. I was fortunate enough to be around some good athletes. The one common thread between all succesful athletes is training and focus. They train and focus to the point where they cannot worry. They gain knowledge in their training, but when they play, they just do. All they care about is the next play or event. All the other shit leaves their mind, and they just do.

I have been like this before, and I will be like it again. And I am going to stay away from others' comments.

"The trouble with talking
Is it makes you sound clever
The trouble with waiting
Is you’ll just wait forever

There’s a loop of excuses
That plays in your mind
And makes the truth
Even harder to find"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish you the best of luck. What I love about sports is that the goal is always very clear. I wonder if it would be easier to focus on work if I better understood what I was working towards...

Anonymous said...

i think it has something to do with that office upstairs.. ever considered moving into a shared office downstairs? sometimes that accountability can help...and sometimes not..

GGM