Immigration to China

Beginning Sept. 1, 2009, I will be starting a 3–month subjective reality experiment. That means no TV, no internet, and no books during that period of time. I will also not listen to radio, or read any newspapers and magazines. Basically, I will be trying to experience the world through my own eyes, not through any media or print.

The goals of this experiment include:

– to accelerate my learning of Chinese language and culture

– to experience a different view of reality

– to reduce information consumption and overload

– to overcome the need of an authority to confirm my beliefs

– as with any other experiment, to have fun

Let me discuss my thinking on the concept of subjective reality in more detail.

All areas of human knowledge can be roughly divided into two parts, subjective or objective truths. Discovering objective truths is the realm of science, where people try to discover how the universe actually works. For example, scientists discovered that earth rotates around the sun, and not the other way around, by combining results of multiple observations into a logical system that makes sense. 

Subjective truths occupy the small world around each of us, comprising the areas of our health, our relationships, and our business activities. These truths are subjective since no one can fully explain them using the current scientific framework because of their complexity and lack of scientific knowledge. For example, no doctor can tell you why you are having a headache because there are literally millions of reasons why you might be experiencing one. It could be because of the food, air pollution, noise, solar flares, drugs, etc. or a combination of any number of factors….  

Because of the complexity of subjective experiences, it doesn’t make sense to try to figure out exactly what is going on and put it into a coherent logical framework. It could take you a lifetime and might not be worth it. The best way to find subjective truths is not by trying to discover what the world actually is and how it works, but instead by directly experiencing it. Direct first-hand experience gives you subjective knowledge that is invaluable in solving your own subjective problems. For me, solving a subjective problem of chronic headaches that I struggled with for years only required a change to my diet. For someone else, the solution might be totally different because of the subjective nature of the problem.

Starting the SR experiment, I have to accept that much of what I know about subjective truths in my life could be false, since it was not acquired through direct experience. Instead, it was acquired through TV, internet, books and the advice of others. Why do I read books anyways? There is no point in reading books to discover subjective truths. It is self-evident what needs to be done. Action. Direct experience and action. I don’t need to read books to improve my health. It’s obvious that to improve it I need to eat healthier and exercise. No more objective knowledge is needed, only action! 

Some other details and expectations about the experiment:

– letting go of TV should be the easiest, since I didn’t subscribe to cable in the last year of living in St. Louis and only used it to watch DVDs

– I expect it to be difficult for me to let go of reading books, since I’ve been doing a lot of that since purchasing Amazon’s Kindle this summer!

– I plan to check email once a week, just like with regular mail

– I will still let myself use the internet in certain situations where it is the best tool to use (like buying air tickets on expedia.com), but never to browse any kind of news or forum websites. Total internet usage should not exceed 10 hours per month, which hopefully would completely eliminate my internet addiction.

Read part 1 of Fighting Internet Addiction here >>

It’s been over a month since I wrote the first article about internet addiction and implemented several steps to fight it. Now is a good time for an update of how things are going.

Of course the irony of blogging about fighting internet addiction does not escape me . However, the blogging process itself is not information consumption, but rather information production. And that makes all the difference, since consumption is at least 10 times easier than production and therefore results in 10 times more wasted time.

First of all, it’s been a lot easier for me to take most preventative steps, like the sticky note routine, than I expected. That said, some things still took me by surprise! I’m really used to using sticky notes right now. I don’t stick them on top of my laptop as originally intended, but they always lay right next to it, making it impossible to forget about the procedure.

I thought removing Google Toolbar would make me go crazy, since I used it so much before. In reality, I didn’t miss its absense at all. I do miss not having access to Favorites and Bookmarks though. It’s weird to realize that I now remember only about half of all the websites I used to visit from day to day. There’s still a nagging feeling that I’m missing out on some important info by not visiting those sites, but I just don’t remember what they are! From this it’s safe to conclude that they weren’t that important to begin with. This clinging to existing thought patterns, expressed as a desire to visit a web site, is a sure sign of an addiction.

Don’t miss the iGoogle homepage at all. Still checking email more than once a day though, since my Gmail account acts as an archive of all kinds of info for me. Maybe it’s better to keep that info in an archive on my hard drive instead, so that I’m not distracted by email whenever I need to research something from my past?

Really getting used to the premium version of Gmail without the ads. It does feel simpler and a lot less cluttered than the free version. Highly recommend it. Also, I’m always processing my Inbox to empty (by either archiving or deleting all incoming emails), that really makes it feel squaky clean!

In addition, I’ve set up more restrictive filtering rules for my new inbox, only allowing personal emails to come in. That way, I can check my new inbox more frequently than my old one, but not miss any important emails. To think about it, can any email be that important? If it’s something really urgent, people can always just call me on my cell…

As often in life, sometimes it’s the little changes that generate the most impact. For me, it was hiding the browser status bar. Wow this was a big one! It turns out not seeing the URL of the link makes me very uneasy, it’s like I associate the domain name to something like a brand in my mind… I realized just how often in the past I hovered over a link and analyzed where it was pointing to, somehow always processing parts of that information in my head. Right now, without having that information, I question whether I should click on it at all. I really craved having the status bar back the first few weeks, more than I craved anything else that I’ve eliminated. It seems like the status bar was, in some peculiar way, in the center of my internet addiction! How bizzare!

WorkTime Discovery

A few days ago I was searching for an app that would let me track the time spent online. I stumbled upon a cool little app that’s called WorkTime that lets you track not just online, but any application usage time.  Ironically, it seems like WorkTime was developed for companies to spy on their employees (it has smartly configurable Offline and Hidden modes), specifically what people are spending their time on the whole day. Well, I use it to spy on myself! WorkTime reports my computer usage by day, week, month, and application. For example, it tells me that I spent over 40 hours in front of the computer just this week alone, including over 25 hours online! It also tells me exactly how much time I spend browsing particular websites. This is an awesome app to keep my internet addiction in check and to observe progress. At only $30 for the home edition, it’s worth every penny.

Two other little changes that I made was to create my own browser search provider and disabling URL autocomplete. Most browsers have a search box toolbar that’s associated to a default search provider, usually Google. You can override that fuctionality to search any website (eg. your blog) by creating a custom search provider. I’ve set it up to search i2china.cn, creating a closed system information-wise, so that I don’t accidentally fall back into my old surfing patterns. Disabling browser autocomplete for web addresses forced me to memorize the important urls and not be distracted by suggestions from previous browsing history.

As a result of all of those changes, I’ve been spending less time in front of the computer per day. Definitely enjoying more reading and walking outside. Experiencing higher alertness and awareness even in the evenings, which was unusual before.

I realized that I should never start my day by consuming information (both online and offline sources like books). Just one day of delaying my daily walk until the evening and starting reading/surfing the web in the morning threw my whole day off and made me really restless and depressed. I realized how much I missed my morning walk, how much meditation/relaxation it gives me each and every morning, and how much energy and clarity I have throughout the day after it. It’s worth getting up one hour earlier than necessary to have this enormous boost in my day.