What should one give a fuck about - reading only Sci-Fi books for 12+ years
What should one give a fuck about? My attention span and focus have all but disappeared due to all the bleeps and beeps coming at me from all directions. Shouldn’t we all actively pick a better interest/passion rather than being so heavily influenced by bombardments of suggestions? Especially in a world where every device is competing for your attention.
I find it increasingly useful, in this time especially, where our focus is trying to tear itself apart by jumping from one targeted stimuli to another, when I catch myself being stuck in a particular bad or useless habit. Or rather, in this specific case, something that’s a silly habit in disguise.
I had a habit of reading only sci-fi novels. And it lasted for 12+ years. That means, that for more than twelve years, I didn’t read anything else but science fiction novels. Granted, in the past four years I’ve also read quite a lot of children’s books to my kid (I don’t think A Very Hungry Caterpillar and the likes qualify as sci-fi), but throughout, I’ve kept on reading science fiction. And to be honest, I was even proud of myself for cultivating such a specific interest. Internally, I understood this as a passion.
”All of those rigid perceptions, just waiting to be swept away by a mental shift.”
Isn’t it interesting how it’s possible to label something as a passion, although it really isn’t? How many more misconceptions of our character do we build for ourselves, just to stop us from going into new, undiscovered territories? A lot! And the results can be devastating. For me it was also sticking to the same software for 10 years, not traveling, afraid of meeting new people etc. All of those rigid perceptions, just waiting to be swept away by a mental shift. And indeed they were, once I was open enough to understand them. I’m now a proud owner of a brain that loves to travel, meet new people and... is learning new software!
Time to let go of some silly habits
New adventures ahead
So: Stanislaw Lem, Frank Herbert, Neal Stephenson, Dan Simmons and everybody else that’s carried me on this epic space journey throughout the vastness of your imaginations - I still think of you all as heroes from a hectic period in my life, but I do think we need to break up. It's not you, it's me. Thank you for being amazing! Ironically, I’ve just recently figured out that my mind needs more... well, space... from reading about space!
Although I’ll definitely revisit the genre and the books that I love most (Dune by Frank Herbert and Hyperion by Dan Simmons are still my favurite books of all time), it’s time to let go. The main takeaway that I’ve learned is the importance of finding and understanding your bad habits and introducing new, better ones. Recently, I’ve successfully replaced yet another bad habit (which was to watch TV every evening) with reading books (non sci-fi) and/or excercising. And you know what? That would definitely have been science fiction to my past self.