You tube shorts. Tik Tik Videos. Book summaries. Headline Summaries. Summary of the summaries. We are the Maggi 2 minute people. And even 2 minutes is too long these days. Khane me kya hai? People are rushing to deliver things to you in under 10 mins. It feels to me that we are staying right next to a kirana store. The next iteration is someone dressed as Santa standing outside our door every day with a pack of goodies, as our habits get mapped by AI and our dumb phones provide enough information for these companies to know exactly what we need and when. Desire mapping and delivery to follow. And then fantasy mapping and delivery. Cross the fantasy mapping. That will need the platform guys to turn contract killers for those households married for decades. Just kidding!!
Relax. We need to take it easy. Skip the summaries.
Go long on detail. Spend time alone and let your mind wander. See what comes
out (like this piece). Stop the dopamine flow. Can’t avoid it altogether though,
this blog was typed on a laptop and is most likely getting consumed on a screen.
But we need to be mindful.
What’s the problem with the summary? You miss
the nuances. The grey. The edges. The wrinkles and creases. That is where all
the fun is. That is what makes each one of us unique, and human. Summary of
human kind is that we are all male and female (sincere apologies to them/they/it
and others). Then continent wise white/brown/black and yellow (repeat sincere
apologies to the rainbow community). Then religion wise. Etc Etc. As you keep
going down, even at the smallest subset of this is not interesting at all. Just
a statistic. Or a employee code. Or a government issued identification number.
Where it gets really interesting is starting with you as the individual. Your
story, your experiences, your beliefs, your uniqueness. Not the stats. Understand?
That’s why the headlines don’t capture anything at all. The devil may be in the
detail, but he is definitely interesting (sure as hell, get the pun?).
All love stories are the same. Boy meets girl
(or the other way, or boy and girl marry) go through ups and downs and then
live happily ever after. Or live happily until they decide to separate and then
go on to live happily ever after with other partners. Or realize that they are
missing one another too much and come back to live happily ever after. You get
the drift. It’s the details that make all love stories beautiful – the background
of the people, the courtship, the circumstances, the family
members/friends/pets and all other things that make each love story so
beautiful.
At the top, even life headlines are the same -
birth and death. The details make the difference. Did you get the ovarian
lottery or the short straw? It takes an entire village to raise a child. How
was your village and the community? How much did you take? How much did you
give back? Your attitudes to life and people. Your personality. Your evolution
as a person. The role of luck. Your taking the asymmetrical payoffs. Your
connections, to people present, past and future. Even the tombstones don’t capture
it. Name. xx.xx.xxxx to xx.xx.xxxx Loving Spouse. Doting Father. Friend Of
Friends. The One For All. You see, the summaries suck.
And in the same way, Friendship headlines are
the same. The details make all the difference.
Business headlines are the same. The details
make all the difference.
Civilisation headlines are the same. The
details make all the difference.
Working life headlines are the same. The
details make all the difference.
So start bottom up. Don't let the headline click bait manipulate you. Take time and effort to
absorb the details. Get to know the stories behind the numbers. And then life
will be fuller, more fun. In the end, we can’t beat the tombstone summary. But while
we are here, lets make it worth the time and effort.
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