• Two Basic Things Left to Do
• …And Two Basic Ways To Do It
• Mindful Creation
• Mindless Creation
• Mindful Consumption
• Mindless Consumption
• In Summary

I’m at a point in my life where I have a lot of time on my hands, and this has gotten me thinking a lot about the classic philosophical question of “how do we live”?

When you actually have hours of the day to fill, you start to think about these things a lot. How do I be mindful, not mindless about my consumption? And what, if anything, am I using this time to create, and why?

As global material wealth rises over time, and more and more people move out of grinding poverty and into the middle class, the question of what one does with “leisure” time becomes increasingly pressing.

Both Marx and contemporary futurists considering a post-scarcity society have had to contend with the question: What happens when material needs are more or less met, perhaps with an hour or two of real “work” a day? What does a (post)human being do with their time?

§Two Basic Things Left to Do

I would argue that there are two basic activities we can do: create or consume.

“Create” is used in the broadest sense possible. Build a house, paint a picture, have a child, teach someone something, cook a meal. Basically, it’s the other half of the yin-yang from consumption.

“Consume”: Learn, eat, watch, scroll, read. Take things created by nature or other humans, and consume them, with your eyes, ears, mouth, or… whatever.

§…And Two Basic Ways To Do It

The acts of creation and consumption can be done in one of two ways: mindfully or mindlessly.

As I’ll explain, while “mindful” is usually better, I don’t want to get into the realm of judgment here. There are plenty of mindless activities that should, I think, be part of a good life. But caution must be taken not to let them overwhelm.

So now, we’ve set up a 4-quadrant picture:

Let’s interrogate each quadrant.

§Mindful Creation

This is what most of us probably think of as humanity’s highest calling. The intentional act of creation. Building something that lasts, putting on a performance that wows, a dish that amazes, etc. Raising children with intention, purpose and love.

The common framing of S.M.A.R.T. goals would be a subset of this quadrant. “SMART” is an acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. The “R”, relevant, is particularly important here: mindful creation means that, “I’m working on something where I both understand and appreciate the outcome as something I want to accomplish”… In contrast to mindless creation, which we’ll get to later.

But there are other non-obvious things that would fit into this framing. Video games, for instance; I’m playing a game to win, or at least to advance a character creation process, advance an in-game plot, or etc. I’m mindful about the specific thing I’m trying to do and what the likely outcomes are.

§Mindless Creation

Ever had a job where you work all day but don’t understand why you’re doing it or what it accomplishes? Well, that’s mindless creation. Busywork. Make-work. “Looking busy.”

But there’s a positive side too; “tinkering,” automatic writing, the drip-painting style of Jackson Pollack. Sometimes creation occurs without thought or intention. Sometimes, “busy work” can lead to productive work; although in most cases it’s probably best to start off with some kind of well-defined intention.

Again, not to be necessarily judgmental about “mindless” : All of life on this planet, with the exception of human beings, engages in “mindless creation”; it’s called reproduction. And plenty of human beings do it too… Every unplanned pregnancy is an example of mindless creation.

§Mindful Consumption

Seeing a movie in a theater is a perfect example of mindful consumption. In advance, I buy my ticket, plan my trip, go to the bathroom, decide on any snacks and drinks; then, go to a large room to sit down, turn off my devices, and have 100% of my attention focused on a single audio-visual experience.

None of this happens accidentally, both intention and attention is clear and focused throughout the entire process. Sitting down to read a book, going to see an art exhibit or a live performance, or to cook and eat a nice meal are other examples. Although, with the proliferation of the smartphone, it’s increasingly difficult to be a mindful consumer at home.

§Mindless Consumption

We all know what this feels like. Junk food, “what’s on TV”, the endless social media scroll…

But not all mindless consumption is necessarily bad. On a basic level of Maslow’s hierarchy, foods such as Soylent and Huel can provide a baseline level of healthy nutrition while minimizing (or even effectively eliminating) the need for food preparation that is mindful of the complex balance between nutrition, taste and variety.

Huel is an example of “autopilot” mindless consumption that is nonetheless healthy, at least in the nutritional sense. We can pose the question, what is the “Huel” of social media? Can we design algorithmic choice to provide a sort of “balanced diet” of a feed, with just enough of both the “vegetables” we need, the “yum” that our limbic brain craves, and the “spice” to make it all exciting?

Some consumption will always be mindless; the mere act of breathing is performed automatically whether we think about it or not. What we have to get better at is managing the “mindless consumption” of our digital lives.

§In Summary

Most of what we do in our day-to-day lives can be put into one of these four categories.

I think what I’m really arguing for is to be mindful about what category we’re in at any particular moment. Understand when you’re doing “mindless consumption,” and be OK with that at the moment, but don’t let it take over your life.

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