Comic 26: Nuancing is Caring

Nassim Taleb, author of the Black Swan (not that one, this one), offers this aphorism:

“You will be civilized on the day you can spend a long period doing nothing, learning nothing, and improving nothing, without feeling the slightest amount of guilt.”

I imagine that this aphorism was partly inspired by watching people nervously grasp at mobile devices, desperate for a little tidbit of something To varying degrees, we all fire up the informational one-hitter, hoping that it gets us through the next five minutes. Some people advise “media diets” to cope with this sort of addiction, reporting a better sense of well-being when they check out for a while.

However, when it comes to current affairs, our insatiable desire to know gets coupled with a feeling of guilt, as if our ignorance could actually impact revolution in Bahrain negatively. “There’s a revolution going on, motherfucker! How could you not even stay informed?”

So, we inform ourselves, carefully nuancing our Thomas Friedman with some Fareed Zakaria.

And now we know, I guess.

- Sandeep

In another aphorism,Taleb tells us to “Read nothing from the past one hundred years…”. So since he and I are still alive, nevermind all of the above.