On Doing Nothing

Forcing something is almost never a good thing.

When I was younger and suffered from writer's block, my friend Jack used to say "Your mind is fermenting,  just wait." Eventually I figured out he was right. Not without a bunch of unnecessary stress along the way.

Today I know the words that come when they want to are much better than the ones I force.

Farmers know to let soil sit fallow every few years to allow nutrients to build up. College professors go on sabbatical. Students and teachers have the summers off to recharge.

Everyone needs a break  from everyone else once in a while.

Kurt Vonnegut said we were put on this earth to fart around. He also wrote about 20 books, so he must have been doing something else, too. Whatever else he did, I'm certain he did it alone.

Steve Wozniak says, "Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me — they’re shy and they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone... I don’t believe anything really revolutionary has ever been invented by committee… I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone… Not on a committee. Not on a team.”

Woz is a bit extreme in his thinking, but his point is a good one. Alone time is as important as social time, at least if you are hoping to accomplish something of an intellectual or creative nature.

Researchers spend a lot of time and effort studying the effects of social networks. But what about the benefits of being alone and choosing to do nothing with your time?