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"Hi, I'm Taraz. It's been seven days since my last post..."

I have always said that I have been a bit of an addict when it comes to content creation and in a few hours a chapter in my life will end, as I will receive my last payout as a creator on Steem. Tomorrow will be my first "zero day" in 3 years, though I have quite a few and many *very close to zero* days since the start of my blockchain journey back in January 2017. Doesn't that seem like a long time ago?

Blockchain time travels three times as fast as regular time, because the seconds are three times as long. Three "earth years" are equivalent to one blockchain year. Due to this, *Hive cake days* should only be celebrated every third earth year. 

https://i.imgur.com/q4fz4UB.jpg

But really, I think that time flies on Hive, as there is always so much going on as well as I put so much time into the creative process. Some might find it strange to put so much effort into something, but I enjoy participating in this process and have really liked the organic evolution of my own development process. In my opinion, if what a person is doing isn't improving themselves or something, it is likely a bit of a waste of time - this includes passive activity. 

While sitting in front of a screen for so long isn't ideal for the body, I consider writing an active process as it engages my mind in ways that I wouldn't or couldn't in other activity. Much of the life we lead is not suited to depth of thought as it is based on quick consumption of *highly processed* content that has been engineered to evoke an emotional reaction, without engaging much of the brain at all. By targeting emotions, the thought mechanisms can be bypassed as the emotional reaction hijacks the circuitry and forces a reaction, before giving space for deeper consideration. 


Headline after headline is fashioned in a way to evoke a reaction of support or anger, clickbait designed to regixter a click, regardless of the value it offers the viewer or the world. The only value that matters, is the profit generated by commandeering the attention of as many people as possible. It is akin to fast-food conglomerates doing all they can to shove junk down our throats for profit and even while we know this - *we keep eating.*

One of the biggest lies that we have been led to believe as a truth is that if we don't consume the news fed to us, we are uninformed. the problem is that we have been programmed to think that we have to know everything, even if it doesn't affect us or add value to our experience in any way. We have been programmed to eat what we are fed, which is engineered to evoke those emotional responses and segment and fragment us as a society, which then allows for the targeting of the "for and against" reactions, *thoughtlessly.*

I get the sense that while we all want good outcomes across our lives, we don't actually spend much time thinking about what is valuable to our life and instead, are just reactionary. In my opinion, this is a passive position as while there is an action in the response, the catalyst is always external. It is a game of follow the leader where we are told to continually chase the heels of whatever carrot they put in front, or run from whatever stick they threaten to bring down upon our backs. Because we are moving we feel that we are doing something of value, but we don't put much thought into where we are moving, nor *why* we are moving. 

The information we possess is no longer ours, as for the most part, we are not the ones who have experienced it in order to learn it. Instead, it is delivered to us via algorithmic curation and engineered distribution and we onboard it as if we know it to be true. We can see this when people talk about all kinds of topics that they actually have very little understanding of, other than what they have gleaned from a skim of something that crossed their eyeline through Google or whichever news outlet they fill their plate from. It might make us feel knowledgeable when we are online, but what of our *actual* experience?

I see investment on many levels and from many perspectives. When it comes to investing capital for example, the goal is to get a higher return on investment than what was put in. I also see the investment of time and energy in the same way. How come we don't apply the same rules to the content we consume and consider the actual return it gives us? 

If we only eat what tastes good and makes us happy in the moment, since we are geared toward sweet and fatty foods, the likelihood is that we are going to end up unhealthy. There is no difference when it comes to the our mental diet where if we only eat entertainment and what is fed us that makes profits for some conglomerate, we are likely to end up mentally, emotionally and probably financially unhealthy. Shouldn't we spend some time consuming some mental vegetables?

When it comes to what we do and consume, I wonder how many zero days there are where the investment of time and energy we made, returned nothing of value to our lives. When you let fast-food outlets choose what you are going to eat, you can't really expect them to make choices that benefit our health as there is no incentive for them to do so. This is the same with media outlets. I stopped consuming the news several years ago and I am more informed about what is relevant to my life than I have ever been. 

Every day we make investment decisions with how we spend our time and energy through what we do and what we choose to consume. If we intend to add value to our lives, we best pay attention to the content we eat and what value we want it to bring, rather than mindlessly absorbing whatever is put in front of our face. Personally, I haven't had a zero day in years and I won't tomorrow or the day after. 

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]


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