The Letterville BullBoard: Do we "think" too much?

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Posted by Mikes Mischeif (Member # 1744) on :

I just returned from my honeymoon in cancun mexico. I felt out of the loop when I got back the the good 'ol USA and realized we face a tremendous amount of information to keep up with.

I started thinking about what makes us driven to process so much information from the media and other sources (this one included)?

I think back to what it must have been like in the early stages of this country. Where men of thought sat quietly framing the constitution, contemplating the sciences...etc... without the outside distractions that made these men great.

In todays society we see more educated (perhaps) men in these positions with huge office staffs process the latest statistics and polls to make decisions while juggling the balance of every minority interest to get re-elected. Is it any wonder that the Congress, the courts, and decision makers do things in baby steps, only to have them repealed or won back years later by the other side?

For myself, I realized how caught up in the information age I have become, and how much time gathering information or listening to it took away from pure contemplation of who I am, where I am going, and how I will get there.

So, I'm going to stop thinking so much about everything, and start thinking more about something.

Does this make sense, or did someone spike my water with tequilla?

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Mike Duncan
Lettercraft Signs
Alexandria VA

From here on down, its all up hill.

[This message has been edited by Mikes Mischeif (edited May 30, 2001).]

Posted by Pierre St.Marie (Member # 1462) on :

Well, I think.........................oooooooooooooh.............it's hurting again!

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St.Marie Graphics
& Makin' Tracks Sound Studio
Kalispell, Montana
stmariegraphics@centurytel.net http://www.stmariegraphics.com
800 735-8026
We're chiseling every day of the week! :^)

Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :

I think you are very much right, Mike.

That is one of the reasons why I refuse to own a cel-phone or pager. Heck, I don't even take the local newspaper any more.

During certain times of the day, I don't take calls so that I can have at least 4 business hours of uninterupted time at the shop to concentrate on the important things at hand.

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Warning: A well designed sign may cause fatigue due to increased business.
http://members.tripod.com/taylor_graphics
walldog@nc.rr.com

Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :

First off Mike..Congratulations on your marriage (may it last a lifetime!!!!!!!!)

My wishes are sincere.

Second...You went to Cancun and had a wonderful time!!!(well I had a wonderful time on my honeymoon, didn't see too much daylight, but I had a good time!!! LOL ) but probably missed the best, most peaceful place to contemplate the "heady" questions of the world! That would be "Progreso"!! Only about 200 miles west of Cancun. A super area.

If you are "into" Mexico at all, check out some of the less "touristy" areas..THEY will allow you time to "contemplate".

AND I agree..thinking more about "something" is better than thinking so much about "everything"!

Well put Mike!

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Dave Grundy
AKA "applicator" on mIRC
"stickin' sticky stuff to valuable vessels and vehicles!"
in Granton, Ontario, Canada
1-519-225-2634
dave.grundy@quadro.net
www.quadro.net/~shirley

Posted by VICTORGEORGIOU (Member # 474) on :

Personally I would not trade this "age" for any other "age" that I have lived in. Information is power, and sharing information multiplies power.

Letterhead website for instance - I am a much better signmaker today by virtue of information received here that in earlier times just would not have been available. I would also like to believe that others have benefitted by information that I have provided here.

Glenn has the right idea - you manage the information rather than letting the information manage you. Quiet times are important. Vic G

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Victor Georgiou
AnchorBlanks.com
Jack Wills Clipart CD's
Designs Cut to Any Size
Serving the Trade Only

Posted by cheryl nordby (Member # 1100) on :

Hi Mike. I do think that too often we fail to listen to ourselves. We ARE to busy thinking. When I get too much going on I always take time to lay on the trampoline and listen to the bees buzz by.....or take a bubble bath and listen to the bubbles. I am one that requires alot of 'free time'.
Ever stop to think...and forget to start again? Try it....you might like it!!

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surf or MoJo on mirc
Cheryl J Nordby
Signs by Cheryl
(206) 300-0153
Seattle WA.....!
signsbycheryl@hotmail.com
A day without sunshine is like, you know...night http://signsbycheryl.homestead.com/home.html
http://mojosignco.homestead.com/home.html

From sharp minds come sharp products

Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :

all i can say...is i wish ida had this thing here when i was a kid....i would have a P.H.D. in something....i never new how information starved i was as a kid...untill i got into the computer....so much knowledge and so little time....now...when i was in grade school i had one book that was like 4" thick...sorta like a one book comptons...and i did all my home work with that book...now its like if i need to know something i point and click....

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joe pribish-A SIGN MINT
2811 longleaf Dr.
pensacola, fl 32526
850-944-5060
BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND

Posted by Santo (Member # 411) on :

Mike, you're probabaly start asking yourself this question several times a week after the glow of the honeymoon is over. Just about everytime your wife changes her mind for the 5th or 6th time on something you think is so simple. Then you'll need to kick up the speed on those projects you thought you would take your time and get perfect because you had to change yoour priorities on the spur of the moment.

Old Dave G is right about trying to comtemplate in some of the less "turista" towns in Mexico. We'll be heading for Puerta Vallarta in July. A little bit more tourist than I like, but the kids have to be considered. Of course, we drive, so we get to see the a little more.

Ahhhhhh! It's all in how you play the game. Have some fun doing it.

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Santo Brocato
Promotion Graphics & Letters
Youngsville LA.

Posted by David Overholt (Member # 2096) on :

Me think ur thinking too much!

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David Overholt
RunningDog Artworks
210 Cedar St
Pemberville, Ohio
aka, doc

Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :

Congratulations! May you have a lifetime of sincere sharing and exchanging comfort and fullfilled dreams together.

Thirty years ago, when we had television in our home, I watched a show on Sunday nights called 60 Minutes. It was a news type show usually exposing someelement in our society that was corrupt, and presenting it in a way to exagerate the offensiveness. Every week I'd watch and get fired up and ready to enter raging conversations for the next couple days over the injustice exposed on the show a couple night back. By Thursday or Friday I'd be calmed down again. My conclusion was that I didn't need that information. I couldn't do anything with it. It didn't help me to display love to the people around me, and most media news fit that description.

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The SignShop
Mendocino, California
"Where the Redwoods meet the Surf"

Posted by Diane Crowther (Member # 120) on :

Here, here! I think about that often. The shear anxiety of collecting and digesting all the information bombarding us is, at times, debilitating. As much as I love the info-age, I do harken back to a time not so long ago when things were less frenetic, and I (like you) try to imagine even earlier times when evenings were spent with family and friends singing and story-telling after a long day.

Ah, well, summer is arriving here on the south shore of Nova Scotia, and we'll soon be spending weekends meandering the coastal waters among the 365 islands in Mahone Bay, boating, kayaking, picnicing...pretending for a few short hours that there is no information age, only the beauty of the blue sky and water tinged with the lush green tree-filled islands and rock outcroppings, the call of the loon in the morning, the delight of a dolphin sighting, the impressive sight of cormorants drying their wings perched upon rocky shoals, the lapping of the water upon the shore, the myriad of things that fill your heart and make you feel akin to the planet the way no amount of information can.

I think there is an irony that the information-age is probably only overwhelming those of us who thirst for information. Rather than serving to quench the thirst, the flow begins to drown us. As Glenn pointed out, the trick is to find a balance.

Thanks, Mike, for a thought-provoking post.

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Diane Crowther, Metaline Graphics Ltd., Nova Scotia, Canada, ID #285

Posted by Diane Crowther (Member # 120) on :

Rick, your right about the expose shows such as 60 minutes. We used to watch several of them every week. Like you, we'd get all fired up at the injustices. Not to say that there weren't legitimate injustices, but when you see so much of it you begin to think that that's all there is. The reporting would be about something that happens to maybe a dozen people in the entire USA, yet you're left to feel it's happening everywhere to everybody. We had to curtail our viewing to keep our sanity intact and our blood pressures down!

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Diane Crowther, Metaline Graphics Ltd., Nova Scotia, Canada, ID #285

Posted by Robert Root (Member # 758) on :

I love technology and have four phone numbers to prove it. Every day though, I need to get away from it and have a ten minuite vacation with a fresh coffee and go outside and watch the koi and goldfish in our little pond. Sometimes I even take a ride and leave the cell phone at home.

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Rob Root
Root Cellar Signs
Waubaushene, Ont.
point and click until it works

Posted by Linda Silver Eagle (Member # 274) on :

I too have been overwhelmed by media.

I watch the weather on the news, mostly for the cloud travel I'm allowed to see and come to my own conclusions, most of the time.

I go outside a lot, just to connect to nature and try not to miss a full moon. That's a great time to sit outside and reflect over what worked and didn't work, since the last full moon. If I get fired up anymore, it's about solutions to problems that occur in every day life.

Going through changes, as I get a teeny bit older, led me to take knitting back up. I can keep my hands busy whilst processing back burner items and redevelope eye hand co-ordination whilst my eyes change a bit. It's great to lay it back down and feel more relaxed and a little closer to finishing the sweater I'm working on!

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DrQuill - Mural Woman
PEACE SIGNS
logodesign2@icqmail.com

"With every breath, we have a choice." --Linda Silver Eagle
Georgia, USA

Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :

I try not to think at all.. it gets in the way of having a real life.

everyone gets too wrapped up in stuff that really has no bearing on their personal lives.. so why even worry about it?

When I moved to Arizona I left all that behind... I think that's just what it took to forget it.. a fresh start. When I went back to St Louis last winter, it all came back... road rage, office rage, ulcers..
Blech.. who needs it?

Now I make it a point to get down to the shoreline 3 times a day, just so I can sit there in the water, look across the lake at the palm trees, mountains, sunshine and remember why I moved here. Sometimes I even get a whiff of exhaust from a 2-cycle marine engine and that just makes it even better.

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Mike Pipes
Digital Illusion Custom Graphics
Lake Havasu City, AZ
http://www.stickerpimp.com

Posted by Bruce Williams (Member # 691) on :

The original Q, I think, was about what is loosely and commonly called a bombardment of "information."

As a professional emeretus, I can say that too much is better than too little. At least you can sift, which is better than to guess in the dark. But one really does have to sift, and that can be a fulltime job for a young person. As well as for an older person who didn't catch on earlier,while "communication" was more primitive.

In a previous century, Bell invented the telephone and announced that New York could now talk to California. Thoreau asked "What if New York has nothing to say to California?" We have outlived Thoreau and Bell, and we know that it will be said anyway. And again. And again. Hard to imagine that at one time it might have been said only once, but this is where we are. All can say, is learn to distinguish history from promo hype, and sift.

Bruce Williams
Lexington KY

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Bruce Williams

Posted by PKing (Member # 337) on :

There are somethings I really don't need to know.Other things that have no bearing in my life is another don't need
THE REST is called trivial.While trivial to me personaly does not mean it is the same for someone else.I belive this bombardment is liked to a double barrel "scatter gun"
OR you can think of it as a pizza ALL THE WAY
What you don't want to eat,you take off.
Once again this is a personal choice ,wether you have a personality or not.Take myself for instance.I don't Hunt,Fish,Watch College Football,or any sports for that matter.Does that make me smater or dumber?

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PKing is
Pat King of
King Sign Design in
McCalla,Alabama
The Professor of
SIGNOLOGY

Posted by Diane Crowther (Member # 120) on :

Bruce, I agree about the sifting; however, it is the very act of 'sifting' that can become all-consuming. It is easy to lose sight of what it is you're trying to sift out and just keep sifting through! I love information...but sometimes I feel like I'm in the bottom of a grain elevator that keeps filling up while I'm trying to find the way out!

Technology...most days I love it, some days I wish the computer had never entered my life. And don't even ask me about automated telephone attendants!

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Diane Crowther, Metaline Graphics Ltd., Nova Scotia, Canada, ID #285

Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :

Pat,

No hunting? no fishing? no sports? Well by god, that makes you smarter than 'em all.

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Mike Pipes
Digital Illusion Custom Graphics
Lake Havasu City, AZ
http://www.stickerpimp.com

Posted by Bruce Williams (Member # 691) on :

Diane Crowther said "I agree about the sifting; however, it is the very act of 'sifting' that can become all-consuming."
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At the risk of putting the premium on ignorance, one doesn't sift thru Everything. It isn't possible to know everything, and it wouldn't be worth it anyway. Today there are enormous varieties and numbers of media. They are filled with twaddle, as closets are filled with junk and hours with make-work. This is the era of the non-event, the photo-op, and the great god that all worship and few acknowlege, which is Advertising. Promo. Hype. Garbage. Remember the nonstop saga of Little Eleán? I hear he's even written a self-help book _Getting in Touch with Your Inner Tube_. I fail to see how this might lower my taxes or improve the weather.

One learns to ignore most of it, turn it off, not bring it in the front door. There's enough real knowledge, easily available now, to occupy a seeker.

Bruce Williams
Lexington KY

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Bruce Williams

Posted by Aladd (Member # 1996) on :

Most people I know & most things I read tell me most people are not thinking at all.But the catch is they think they are thinking better than anyone, and they wonder how the world functions without their input !

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Alan Ladd
Atlanta,Ga

Posted by Mike Languein (Member # 319) on :

Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum

I think I think, therefore I think I am

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"If it isn't fun, why do it?"
Signmike@aol.com
Mike Languein
Doctor of Letters
BS, MS, PhD
___________________

You know what BS is, MS is More of the Same, and it's Piled Higher and Deeper here

Posted by Myra Grozinger (Member # 327) on :

I agree that our lives are full and hectic, which makes me want to reverse the original question, like some others did as well.
“Do we have so much information that we think too much.”- “Do we not think enough because we have so much information?”
We "Western Civilized ones" are overloaded every waking minute unless we make an effort to have some quiet time. Quiet times by ourselves are at a premium and must be scheduled. We hire people to meditate for us. ( alright, I’m kidding )
And its only in the quiet times that
we can really think.
Our lives consist of input upon input, like the water torture. No intermission to digest something before new food comes down the pike. I think that’s why we no longer see much studied opinion in people. Because of an overload of canned information we express little thought independently arrived at, we speak in platitudes and often are walking clichés. I don’t know what the answer to this is, because speaking from the other side of my mouth I want it all, I feel I need the info in order to know what’s going on. I try to pare down my interests in order for the most important ones to get the attention. I sift in large categories by leaving them out altogether. But there are drawbacks. To people who have my discarded interests I am a nightmare of a dull woman to be around.
Mostly I feel nostalgia about there being so little time in our lives where we would create poems, write journals or a short story or be creative in other ways based on private thought. So, no, I do not think we think enough. And it’s a real loss for the continued evolution of man.

Most of the evils in life arise from man's being unable to sit still in a room.
Blaise Pascal 1623-1662

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