One consistent tension I’m navigating:

The pull to be at the vanguard of technology (learn Claude Code, install OpenClaw, vibe code everything!) and hurriedly experiment and drop ~$50 worth of credits on a project while asking Claude for step by step instructions like I’m disarming a bomb (“which wire, Claude?!”)

versus

Going analog, expanding my attention span, dive into books, poetry, re-learn to notice the texture of the moss, the buds sprouting into bloom—the small, the simple, the mundane.

These are two different speeds, and I believe, two different sets of values: In one, you concede that reality is demanding speed, relevance, and experimentation. And sure, my curiosity fits into that well. On the flip side, the other mode implies that a deeper, slower connection with our reality will not only help live life with more resonance, but also financially, will be the better way to go (e.g. in tech bro parlance “building taste”).

I see the virtues of both, as well as the pitfalls. We are in a very frothy era where people will convince you that the robots are here and that you won’t have a job in two years (alarmist, but partially correct). But then, accepting this hurriedness feels like you are running to catch a train; it raises the stakes in a way that I think is fatalistic and often misguided.

The “slow life” is now being elevated as a status symbol (you are cool and aware if your phone is brick). I feel the allure of this, but then wonder if I’m being lulled into some sort of conformity that blinds me to the fact that—yes actually—the world is radically changing, and covering my ears and pretend otherwise won’t do a darn thing.

I share this because this is a tension that is becoming more common. As with most things, the “answer” (which I don’t have) lies somewhere in the middle; that sort of synthesis where you experiment from a place of curiosity, but remind yourself of the sacredness of our attention, of living a bit more at the pace of the sun, and not of a stopwatch. But even with this possible way forward, I’m not sure if humans are designed to operate in this mode.