El Arte Y La Ciencia De No Hacer Nada Andrew Smart
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Interesting merely flawed, this trivial volume (really more like a long essay) argues that we would all be happier, more than creative, and peradventure even more productive if nosotros spent more time doing absolutely nothing. Except "argues" is kind of the wrong word -- it's really more than of a rant, or peradventure a manifesto, than a sustained argument. At that place are some gaping holes between premise and conclusion, and instead of addressing them, Andrew Smart just continues repeating his determination louder and louder.There are ii reasons this didn't make me dislike the volume. The less rational 1 is that I really want to believe in what he'due south saying. It's easy to get the sense that the vast strides in productivity we've made over the last 200 years or and then haven't been matched by strides in personal well-existence. The cynical explanation is but that people can learn to experience vaguely dissatisfied with anything. Simply it's tempting to wish that the feeling of dissatisfaction many people have with their roles in mod industrial society is not wholly unfounded. Andrew Smart affirms this hope -- and with the (purported) support of brain scientific discipline, no less! He's angry, he'southward passionate, he's scientifically literate, and he's telling united states of america something we want to hear. It's hard not to fall under his spell, at least a chip.
The more rational reason I didn't dislike the book was that Smart really does muster some interesting and suggestive testify, even though he doesn't stitch it together into a single coherent argument. The evidence is of two kinds. First, there is the existence of the "default way network," a set of brain structures that are more than active -- use more oxygen and glucose -- when people are idly thinking or daydreaming rather than performing some chore or other. According to Smart, the discovery of this network was a big surprise, considering neuroscientists had previously causeless that your brain was essentially "resting" -- using little energy and not doing much work -- when you weren't performing a well-defined physical or mental job. Smart's second primary kind of bear witness comes from his own work on children with ADHD. His team found that for ADHD kids, some amount of ecology racket was actually more than conducive to attention than complete silence. By using the optimal amount of background dissonance, they were able to boost the kids' performance on a test of working memory to the neurotypical average (!).
Smart connects this second line of show to a number of conceptual arguments and examples to build a case that the brain is a complex system -- more like a wood or an pismire colony than a automobile -- which is designed to expect environmental variability. When building a motorcar, engineers typically assume that external noise is an unwanted source of error and try to minimize it, withal complex biological systems can use it to their advantage. The rigidly repetitive, variability-minimizing weather in which machines -- or "ideal employees" -- are expected to part may simply be outside the "blueprint specs" of the human brain. (Smart believes that the high suicide charge per unit among employees of Foxconn, the huge Chinese manufacturing firm famous for making our MacBooks and iPhones, is due to the extreme rigidity of the imposed schedule. The central trouble isn't how hard the work is, but how little "noise" the employees are allowed to feel.)
The "complex organization" statement is interesting and (somewhat) convincing, but it takes up surprisingly petty of the book. The rest is devoted to talking virtually the default mode arrangement (frequently very repetitively -- Smart doesn't seem to believe his lessons most variability apply to his ain writing) and to various types of ranting and rambling. In these sections Smart is much further from making annihilation that seems like a lucid statement.
Smart clearly believes that the default style network is doing very important work when information technology'south active (i.e. when we're non doing annihilation), and that if nosotros all lazed effectually more than, our default mode networks would have the time to generate all sorts of brilliant ideas that we could subsequently exploit while we're working. Meanwhile, we'd be closer to the "design specs" of our brains, which look leisure cleaved past intermittent tough activity (hunting, foraging, running away, etc.) rather than the constant low-level stress of a modern job. The problem is that he doesn't actually provide whatever evidence that the default mode network really does anything. He says it'south more than active when we're idle, and he goes through the dissimilar brain areas involved in information technology, which have to do with phenomena like consciousness and cocky-image. From a layman's perspective, I can't really say this is surprising at all. In my idle moments, I usually detect my mind filled with thoughts nigh my life, my goals, my sense of my place in social life and social club, and so forth. Should it be surprising that this mental activity takes energy to perform, and that it involves a specific set of encephalon areas associated with consciousness and cocky-image? Not really. What would be surprising would be to learn that this self-centered mental screensaver actually accomplishes something of import. But that's exactly what Smart claims without evidence. The most important link in the argumentative chain is missing entirely.
(I suppose you could say that since the default manner network consumes valuable energy, it must take a purpose, or else information technology would have been weeded out by evolution. But Smart doesn't even go that far -- he doesn't even heighten the effect -- and that's pure speculation, non scientific discipline. Besides, how would we know that the function of the network isn't something that's useless or even counterproductive in modernistic guild?)
Instead of filling in gaps like this, Smart spends a lot of infinite telling us most how Isaac Newton and Rainer Maria Rilke came to their famous moments of inspiration by letting their default mode networks run and experiencing the right amount of ecology noise. This is, plain, not going to sway anyone who wasn't already convinced. The rambling, the gaps in logic, and the hyperbole brand this volume feel like information technology was written very hastily, perchance while sleep-deprived, and this impression is bolstered past the writing style: in many cases Smart places two sentences next to each other that seem to accept no connection whatsoever, and the reader simply has to muddle forward until the unifying link arrives a paragraph or a folio after. (Maybe idleness is a expert thing in some cases, but there'due south no upside to lazily written prose.) I get the sense that the ideas in this book are very of import ones, ones that deserve to take a skilful, tightly argued book written about them. It's too bad this book isn't that 1.
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I got bored and the large words were putting me to slumber. On a positive note, I did find myself reverting to autopilot quite a bit when I was trying to listen...
Great concept, poor execution. The book reads like an essay written by a 6th grader. It may be more accurately titled "Why I hate Six Sigma, and, and, it STINKS! And then in that location!" before boot productivity gurus in the shins and running away to hide among the stacks of popular psychology and business lit. The subtitle could be, "Here'south a agglomeration of pseudoscience, half-donkey philosop
Don't. Just don't. Do not waste any moments of your life picking upward this book. You will wish yous hadn't. I want my hr back.Great concept, poor execution. The book reads like an essay written by a 6th grader. Information technology may be more accurately titled "Why I hate Six Sigma, and, and, information technology STINKS! So at that place!" earlier kicking productivity gurus in the shins and running abroad to hide amongst the stacks of pop psychology and business lit. The subtitle could be, "Hither's a agglomeration of pseudoscience, half-ass philosophy, randomly strung together concepts, and a few big words, and then you call back I know what I'g talking about as I blather on and on most topics without actually making a case for anything other than my articulate disdain for Six Sigma, which seems to have bullied me as a child. But now I'll have my revenge because some publisher's assistant with a temporary lack of judgement thought what I threw upwards on paper was worth printing."
Ah, aye. I feel better at present that I've retitled this book. Now information technology seems more accurate.
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Autopilot is a pop-science/manifesto, where Andrew Smart, a machine learning engineer with a groundwork in neuroscience, argues that busyness is a curse, and that idleness is actually a necessary and useful part of beingness human. The book has a kind of freshman earnest intensity that overwhelms the argument. I'll buy that there is a resting network in the brain, that activates when we aren't thinking about or doing anything in particular, but I'thou not
Show me on this brain where Half dozen Sigma hurt you.
Autopilot is a pop-science/manifesto, where Andrew Smart, a machine learning engineer with a groundwork in neuroscience, argues that busyness is a curse, and that idleness is actually a necessary and useful part of beingness human. The volume has a kind of freshman earnest intensity that overwhelms the argument. I'll buy that in that location is a resting network in the encephalon, that activates when we aren't thinking about or doing anything in particular, just I'grand not sure that the converse, that activating this network leads to genius, is true. Certainly there's a style in which the managerial jargon of efficiency and always being on task is actually opposed to hazard-taking and innovation, just while Smart is persuasive in criticizing Six Sigma in particular, his arguments drawing on Rilke are much less convincing, and the neuroscience comes in a gush of metaphors.
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Andrew Smart takes cues from psychology and neuroscience to explicate the significance of existence idle in a hyper competitive earth where overachieving is new normal .
A thought provoking analysis , this piece of work of pop science will surely let you enjoy your idling and have those Aha moments of epiphany prob Have yous ever wondered why fifty-fifty afterward abundant technological progress , nosotros go along to piece of work so hard and seem to always exist curt on leisure time . If aye , then this just could be a good book to read .
Andrew Smart takes cues from psychology and neuroscience to explicate the significance of being idle in a hyper competitive earth where overachieving is new normal .
A thought provoking analysis , this work of pop science will surely allow you enjoy your idling and accept those Aha moments of epiphany probably (of grade without the associated guilt ). ...more
If you plan on voting for Elizabeth Warren for president in 2016, you'll savor this whole book.
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I enjoyed the showtime half of the book when he is dealing with the neuroscience of our bodies' need for rest.
The back half of the book takes off into his personal rants against things totally off-topic -- half dozen Sigma, the evils of capitalism, banking, and rich people.
He too fails to make an elementary stardom between our need for residuum ("doing nothing") and those who are always resting (the lazy, slothful, and indolent)
I finished reading it last night. Information technology's a quick read being such a short book.I enjoyed the first half of the book when he is dealing with the neuroscience of our bodies' need for balance.
The back one-half of the book takes off into his personal rants confronting things totally off-topic -- half-dozen Sigma, the evils of capitalism, cyberbanking, and rich people.
He too fails to make an elementary stardom betwixt our need for rest ("doing nothing") and those who are always resting (the lazy, slothful, and indolent).
If you are going to read it, stick with the first half. As soon as he starts veering off-topic, put it down and get some residual.
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Genius with the exception of his bare slate worldview, his talk virtually ants is unaware of group selection and personality heritability and biological science, and his concluding affiliate is left-wing communistic virtue signalling which haidt or rand or bastiat counter (that the socialistic ideal is achieved through capitalism, non by money redistribution equally redistributing money does not redistribute wealth, wealth must exist created and shared What across expert and evil did to morality, this book does to productivity.
Genius with the exception of his blank slate worldview, his talk about ants is unaware of group selection and personality heritability and biological science, and his final chapter is left-wing communistic virtue signalling which haidt or rand or bastiat counter (that the socialistic ideal is accomplished through capitalism, not by money redistribution as redistributing money does not redistribute wealth, wealth must be created and shared first). These ignorances if addressed would actually amplify smarts message and impact, every bit they connect the dots of his arguments with larger supersets of integration, rather than dismissing anything he said. ...more
I think he stretched his encephalon scientific discipline too far, though, when he clumsily tried to
I really enjoyed all the science in this book and learning most what our brain is decorated doing when we retrieve we're being non-productive with "wasteful" activities like day-dreaming and staring off into infinite thinking about zippo. Mr. Smart has done a very overnice job of making a stiff case for more stopping to olfactory property the flowers and helped explained why I seem to get a lot of expert ideas in the shower and out on a run.I think he stretched his encephalon science too far, though, when he clumsily tried to apply it to macro level societal organization, though. Seemed a lot like Soviet-style central planning, to me. I'm sure he'd disagree, but most social architects would. But skip the terminal chapter, and information technology's a good book.
22-April-2015: Just read it once more and liked specifically the ideas effectually graph theory, stochastic resonance and not-linear systems.
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Oh and since Amazon can't seem
The thought of mindful relaxation was a not bad counterbalance to the societal urge to constantly excel and go. I read this at the same time I read Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Ways And so Much and the 2 books dovetailed nicely for me. The creation of arrangement "slack" was a theme in "Scarcity" and this seemed to be Smart's bespeak also. We demand to cut our brain some slack, so information technology tin can do its task, rather than pushing it with a constant barrage of caffeine and activity.Oh and since Amazon tin't seem to effigy out how to relieve my Aural bookmarks:
ii:03:06: Depression and anxiety are highly correlated.
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The last part of the book focuses on order's need to always be busy, suggesting that spending more fourth dimension existence idle and "lazy" may actually be beneficial. The author too tackles Six
This is one of those book that I wished I had a print version and then I could comment information technology. The beginning part of the volume was nigh interesting to me every bit it covered research into brain function when our brains are busy and idle, multi-tasking, inventiveness and stochastic resonance, and the need for down fourth dimension to reset our brains.The concluding office of the book focuses on society's need to e'er be busy, suggesting that spending more fourth dimension being idle and "lazy" may actually be benign. The author also tackles Six Sigma and how its emphasis on eliminating variation in process can actually stifle creativity and innovation.
You may not hold with everything independent in the volume, but information technology is practiced reading and thought provoking.
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Descending from science to pseudoscience to raves well-nigh Apple and iPhones and quotes about the occupy movement and rants about corporation direction and the rich never giving to the poor, this was an increasingly disappointing read. I had found it interesting at start. It is a shame some readers were turned off past the big words at the get-go. Nearly half way through he'd run out and just started ranting.
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As a Marxist and a former 6sMBB (yep, rara avis indeed) I've got to say that the writer approach is missing an important factor in his disregard for the Six Sigma methodology, which in turn makes his valid and solid points autumn just shy off target:
The capitalist mode of production, with its relentless pursuit of relative surplus value.
Capitalists pursue for ways to extract turn a profit from the exploited labourers, whether those exist the old fashioned slave driver with a whip, dr
Equally a Marxist and a former 6sMBB (yeah, rara avis indeed) I've got to say that the writer approach is missing an of import cistron in his condone for the Six Sigma methodology, which in turn makes his valid and solid points fall just shy off target:
The backer mode of production, with its relentless pursuit of relative surplus value.
Capitalists pursue for ways to extract profit from the exploited labourers, whether those be the sometime fashioned slave driver with a whip, dressed as shift foreman, or new "innovative" fads that may or may not operate as a corporate cult. ToC, Lean, 6s, JiT, yous name it.
Granted, 6sigma requires (apart from the statistical scientific approach to collecting and interpreting data) some sort of committed militant teamwork in social club to eliminate defects and loss in a production process in guild to reap the rewards; although a couple of decades later I'one thousand still waiting for my bonus from at least two successfully implemented comeback 6s projects in a nickel mine upwardly n on the Colombian declension; which tells yous that the manager's bonus is the important thing, non the bonuses for the weary team members.
Simply, information technology is also true that the human side of information technology -the states, workers- are not to be treated (although capitalism already does) equally cogs in machinery and that some problems in processes may require a different approach to exist solved. There was a brilliant volume written by George Eckes "Six Sigma for Anybody" that deals with the "soft" Human side of the methodology, the strategic side as he chosen information technology. The book developed a set of tools that regard the labour force as human, thus non to be treated like mere pieces of mechanism, and that there's work to be done to gain credence for an comeback idea.
Unfortunately, the obvious culprits, bureaucrat dimwits in 60 minutes with degrees in Industrial Engineering science with no engineering nor industrial sense, seem to call up information technology is possible to manage the labour force equally industrial equipment. And when something does not goes according to plan, are the commencement ones to blame the workers, and are chasing them with logbook sheets to exist filled on schedule to demonstrate that yous do not idle. So, if blame is to be allotted, information technology should not go to the improvement methodology itself, but to those ones that misuse it; especially the capitalist organization that causes its ain seizures and crises.
Finally, that precious idle time could be accomplished even with 6sigma in place. I made it throughout both the team work principle -never do for a team what a team can do for themselves- which is basically the sectionalisation of labour; and, what I chosen "coercive drove of surplus value" which was to force myself to be idle in order to generate fewer amounts of surplus value with my unpaid weary labour.
Fantabulous book, the chapters on the recent discoveries of the human being encephalon functioning are very enlightening and enjoyable.
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The author makes it abundantly articulate in the first few pages itself that he is fighting the age-former ideology.
"Our contradictory fear of being idle, together with our preference for sloth, may be a vestige from our evolutionary history."
Machine – Pilot: The Fine art & Science of Doing Null is a book thursday
The tagline of the book, Auto – Pilot: The Fine art & Science of Doing Goose egg is what attracted me to the book. I wanted to know if my thoughts on the concept of being idle resonated with the volume and author.The author makes it abundantly articulate in the first few pages itself that he is fighting the age-old ideology.
"Our contradictory fright of being idle, together with our preference for sloth, may be a vestige from our evolutionary history."
Motorcar – Pilot: The Art & Scientific discipline of Doing Nothing is a book that is not to be read lightly. Fifty-fifty though information technology explains the importance of being idle, the process and inquiry put in are anything but niggling. The author has mentioned in-depth studies, research projects and books that bear witness beyond a doubtfulness how serious the concept is.
To just sit and exercise aught is one of the most difficult things especially for those who follow the age-old adage, 'Idle mind is devil's workshop'. All the same, I agree to disagree since I accept personally had many a wonderful breakthroughs and ideas while sitting idle—daydreaming—thinking or relaxing.
He does not talk most just existence idle or relaxing just most not existence 'wired' or continued to our devices 24/vii so when are our minds truly free or just 'wool-gathering'. We are connected or in working fashion that we cannot unwind properly. No wonder, we have getaways at present that have no gadget, no Wi-Fi and no networks and so guests can be truly free and in-sync with Female parent Nature and their inner selves.
Andrew suggests in his volume, Automobile – Pilot: The Fine art & Science of Doing Nothing that freeing our mind, unloading the 'stuff' stressing us out on to a notepad or to exercise list or any of the numerous app available is the right way of working. Only then can we some space gratuitous in our brain, help us relax that we will not forget them and they volition be washed likewise. The importance of self-organisation is paramount for him. In his studies, he has done extensive research and establish error with Six Sigma, too much work, the concept of being wired to our work and how too much work is really killing people. Especially if y'all die, you volition be hands, swiftly replaced at work merely non past your family.
This book, Auto – Pilot: The Art & Science of Doing Aught goes into particular almost existence overworked, suffering from extreme stress, depression and suicides. A chapter, 'Work Is Destroying the Planet', sums up his thoughts on the work culture. Though majorly on American work culture and lifestyle it fits into whatever state, any person. After all, we all are running after that perfect job, the best pay and the perfect vacation. The book has a few pages that are scientific discipline heavy and are a bit difficult to read, nonetheless, they become the message across. A short book Auto –Pilot mentions many times the astonishing breakthroughs or the creative masterpieces washed past people who were idle or relaxing. He makes a valid statement, ane that I agree to.
Fifty-fifty for our kids, we are told to let them be, allow them go bored and not to fill their days with continuous tasks or unlimited television so they can relax, let their mind have flight. To relax and get bored so we start thinking out of the box.
And then did you lot spend any idle time today?
How do you relax?
Which is your preferred place to unwind?
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The volume explores the benefits of idleness (defined as the antithesis of busyness) - i.e. peradventure doing one or ii things a twenty-four hour period, crucially on an internally imposed schedule.
I can see a link between idleness and creativity, original thought, or deep reflection. I remember virtually people practise.
But construction, planning, scheduling, standardization, and seeking to optimize things is not necessarily a bad thing in itself like information technology is portrayed in the book
The book explores the benefits of idleness (defined as the antonym of busyness) - i.due east. mayhap doing one or two things a day, crucially on an internally imposed schedule.
I can see a link between idleness and creativity, original idea, or deep reflection. I remember nearly people exercise.
But structure, planning, scheduling, standardization, and seeking to optimize things is non necessarily a bad thing in itself like it is portrayed in the book.
Overall, information technology read more like an opinion of the author who has some personal grudge and wants to vent. The arguments and examples felt a little stretched.
However, the book has some curious nuggets. I'll present the ones that stuck with me the most.
Why is it that the more constructive we become, the more hours we work?If I tin at present complete some work-related task in 4 hours rather 8, should I go home earlier? I feel this is linked to economic growth - the more we tin achieve in the same fourth dimension, the more prosperous the community. Just should one work more than hours for the same goal? How much should one work? 8 hours per day seems similar a very arbitrary number.A prevalent belief is that time should not be wasted. But wasted time is not an absolute value similar mass. Fourth dimension tin can just be wasted relative to some goal or context.
For case, let'due south say I'm reading a book and not doing dishes. Or I'm doing dishes, and non reading a book. Am I wasting time? Information technology all depends on what I desire to achieve. I never thought of information technology this way. Choosing counterbalanced and salubrious goals seems critical and then.Another prevalent conventionalities is that without underlying action we are somehow not living up to our potential, a conventionalities which we are taught implicitly from infancy.
I guess I do feel this way. Something to consider.To the ancient Greeks, anyone who had to work to make a living was considered a slave. In modernistic society nearly everyone has to piece of work to make a living because we all owe someone money, or expect a bill to come due in the most time to come.
When y'all call back of it, information technology is like that. In seems like an unavoidable consequence of social club with highly specialized roles. Merely is specialization bad? Is it even possible to be a cocky-sufficient generalist these days? ...more
According to the author, there is a defau
Autopilot by Andrew Smart is a volume near the science of doing zilch, the idle time catamenia your encephalon needs and wants. In today's time and age nosotros do not let our brains sit idle, we overload information technology with a lot of activities when we are not working. According to the author, the brain really needs the idle tie to store the experiences more effectively into memories and to recuperate from the agile fourth dimension flow it spends when we are performing acts/activities.According to the author, in that location is a default style network in our brain that actually assists to idle the brain at it's peak, making information technology more efficient.
Some points shine through: The author hates loading brains up unnecessarily past multitasking and overloading. He too hates the six sigma methodology which according to him is suited for fault-free mechanical / device production and humans should non exist subjected to it.
Overall a proficient book, quite dissimilar the other self-help productivity booster books there are in the marketplace. Must read for alternative / out-of-the-box thinkers.
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