Procrastinating going for my Friday run by shitposting on nostr. I always go, so it’s just a matter of time, but I ask myself, “Is posting on nostr work?”
In other words, when I write a substack that gets emailed to subscribers, I consider myself having done work. But why is that work and shitposting here not work? Is there any difference?
One difference is substacks are full length essays so they take more effort, more editing, more thinking through. Here it’s just off the cuff.
But not every observation needs to be stretched into essay length. Sometimes observations should be one sentence, just as sometimes books should be one essay.
Bottom line, I would prefer to think of this as work because I have a lot of observations, and forcing them into essay length and format is taxing. I’d rather just shitpost a lot of the time and feel useful doing it.
But that gets to the issue of “feeling useful”. What the fuck is that about?
Well, I think humans have a need to contribute. If you’re not contributing in *some* way, you are not living your life, like a cheetah or greyhound that sat around all day and didn’t run.
And while you can do dishes or pick up your kid at school, a person also needs to contribute at the edge of his abilities, i.e., you will not be deeply satisfied over the long haul doing basic work IMO if you are capable of more. Don’t get me wrong, basic work is important and much, much better than smoking weed on the couch all day, but you don’t want to be a cheetah who merely jogs.
Anyway, this is now almost essay length, though only of shitposting rigor, but my point is I want to lean into shitposting as an outlet of important, edge-of-my-abilities expression, so I can avoid the formality of crafting essays except on those less frequent occasions I am motivated to craft one.
And if I am able to flip that switch and decide it’s “work” rather than idle procrastination, I will be able to do so. And then there’s the question of who the fuck is really deciding which is which, and shouldn’t I leave that up to the Tao or God to show me the way rather than the paralyzing bureaucracy in my head that tells me whether I’m contributing as if it has any fucking clue?
But that’s the subject for another post.
Chris Liss /
npub1dtf…hgu0
2024-06-07 09:48:04
Author Public Key
npub1dtf79g6grzc48jqlfrzc7389rx08kn7gm03hsy9qqrww8jgtwaqq64hgu0Published at
2024-06-07 09:48:04Event JSON
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"content": "Procrastinating going for my Friday run by shitposting on nostr. I always go, so it’s just a matter of time, but I ask myself, “Is posting on nostr work?” \n\nIn other words, when I write a substack that gets emailed to subscribers, I consider myself having done work. But why is that work and shitposting here not work? Is there any difference?\n\nOne difference is substacks are full length essays so they take more effort, more editing, more thinking through. Here it’s just off the cuff. \n\nBut not every observation needs to be stretched into essay length. Sometimes observations should be one sentence, just as sometimes books should be one essay. \n\nBottom line, I would prefer to think of this as work because I have a lot of observations, and forcing them into essay length and format is taxing. I’d rather just shitpost a lot of the time and feel useful doing it. \n\nBut that gets to the issue of “feeling useful”. What the fuck is that about?\n\nWell, I think humans have a need to contribute. If you’re not contributing in *some* way, you are not living your life, like a cheetah or greyhound that sat around all day and didn’t run. \n\nAnd while you can do dishes or pick up your kid at school, a person also needs to contribute at the edge of his abilities, i.e., you will not be deeply satisfied over the long haul doing basic work IMO if you are capable of more. Don’t get me wrong, basic work is important and much, much better than smoking weed on the couch all day, but you don’t want to be a cheetah who merely jogs. \n\nAnyway, this is now almost essay length, though only of shitposting rigor, but my point is I want to lean into shitposting as an outlet of important, edge-of-my-abilities expression, so I can avoid the formality of crafting essays except on those less frequent occasions I am motivated to craft one. \n\nAnd if I am able to flip that switch and decide it’s “work” rather than idle procrastination, I will be able to do so. And then there’s the question of who the fuck is really deciding which is which, and shouldn’t I leave that up to the Tao or God to show me the way rather than the paralyzing bureaucracy in my head that tells me whether I’m contributing as if it has any fucking clue?\n\nBut that’s the subject for another post. ",
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