Internet conversations

Once upon a time, conversation among adults happened mostly at the proverbial water cooler or at weekend gatherings.

Now, conversation is continuous. The internet is always on and is timezone-agnostic. There are always conversations happening somewhere that you could be engaged in that are the conversations you want to be having. Of course, these conversations aren't easily discoverable: some are hidden away on interest-specific discord servers or within twitter conversations with low like counts. Others are gated or otherwise not publicly visible, like group chats or voice chatter in a virtual happy hour.

Still others don't exist yet. Conversations whose potential exists but haven't been started yet. Maybe all it takes is a probing question to a friend or a controversial tweet to get them going, but when they do, they yield great rewards in knowledge and connection. Starting conversations today is permissionless: the gate is always open to the intrepid mind.

This is an exhausting realization.

The more your brain is involved in the churn of internet conversation, the harder it is to do deep work. The harder it is to push on an idea creatively or experience genuine discovery. But being involved in the churn of internet conversation is a source of great leverage. We live in a world of information abundance; no one brain can know everything. If you're able to harness the power of other brains on the internet, you're able to know and affect much more in the world. Internet conversation isn't just distraction. It's also a means to get ahead if wielded properly.

There must be a balance and you must seek it out. You need to be involved in the conversations that move the parts of the world forward that you care about but you must also make time free from that conversation to nurture creativity, read, and do deep work.

There's a yin/yang duality to deep work and conversation on the internet.

Being a modern adult requires navigating it.