A Response to Writing More

Caleb said I don't write enough. He seems to think it's a better past-time than shopping, which seems to be my #1 past-time on the weekends nowadays. Now, he's never directly said, "you should stop shopping and write" but I can read his sub-text.

It's true that in some regards, I haven't been doing very much brain-stimulating activities for a while now. I still read - quite a bit, but reading is a type of consumption, much like shopping, and it doesn't seem like anything substantial has been created out of my consumption.

Human beings are born to consume - it's so easy. We eat great food, we wear pretty clothes, we read interesting books, we drink in world events from newfeeds, we absorb useless information of other people's life on Facebook, even when we travel, we are simply consuming the views and the culture - but how much of what we consume is created by us, or becomes a creation as an output of our consumption?

I've been feeling a bit listless lately. I don't really know what to do with myself on weekends when I'm not travelling - not to say that I prefer travelling than having down time, but I just don't know what to do with my down time that one would consider "productive."

The truth is, outside of "producing" as a cog in a corporate office, most people have no creative/productive outlet for a hobby either. With the advent of Internet and blogging, a lot of people are able to transfer this need to create onto the www (world wide web). People write reviews for products they consume, they write travel blogs to detail they've learned, they write about the things you need to know to live abroad, they write about a new recipe they've just created (or simply that they made something from a new recipe they found), they post pictures taken with their new DSLR, or they simply post photos of the stuff they eat.

All of this is perhaps to say that now that everyone is writing, writing has really lost its glamour. I use the word "perhaps" as I'm now writing in a stream of consciousness - which I haven't done for a while, and I haven't come to a conclusion yet. I just wanted to post something, in response to Caleb's request of me writing more.

Writing used to be easy for me, but it's not any more.
My writing is often critical and can offend, so the fact that even writing about the fact that everyone writes nowadays can offend someone.  I've never been a non-fiction writer. I used to write in a stream of consciousness and then I edit and edit and edit until it becomes coherent. Or I don't, and write like a teenager in a journal.
My writing was never great. At best, someone might liked a piece or two. But those pieces took work. To sit here and write something either insightful or useful takes not just a lot of time (which it did), but a lot of brain power.

To come home from work at the end of a long day, and sit here and write something good, if even possible, would be exhausting. To do it on a weekend - well therein lies the dilemma.

What is considered productive? What should I do on the weekends?
A person who sits in his garage all weekend long putting together his model airplane or building a boat in a bottle - is that productive? He's creating something and he's enjoying it. That's important. What's not important is whether the work he's doing is either important or even good. If a dude spends 2 wknds a month in his garage building boats in a bottle that isn't good enough to sell - is that an act of consumption or creation?

The premise that we shouldn't just consume, but we need to create - must the creation involve giving something back to society? Or does the creation just has to be something that works our brain in such a way that it doesn't deteriorate?

If a person only takes pleasure in consumption, but never creation, it's probably not very attractive either.
Maybe fundamentally, what it really boils down to, is to be good at something that not many others are. That is what is attractive. A person building crappy boats in a bottle every day isn't attractive, but after a year of practicing, he builds brilliant boats in bottles might. One can never be better at consuming than others, but one can be better that creating.

If I spent at least one day a weekend writing a blog and practicing whatever it is writing a good piece requires, I might become a better writer. Or, I can spend at least one day a weekend cooking something different. Or, I can spend at least one day a weekend re-organizing an area of a house and then I will have the neatest most organized house. Or, I can spend at least one day a weekend, reading articles and learning about my industry or my job so I can be better at it.

And now we have come to the final conclusion - I need to become more attractive by being really really good at something, cuz right now, I feel like I'm not good at much any more.

Let me get back to you on this.
(Although if you start to see a lot of mundane posts, you might know why)