SOC 1: Why have I stopped working while I eat?

Hey Friends,

Introducing SOC posts, starting with a question to myself, and finding out the answer as I write it.

This week’s question: Why have I stopped working while I eat?

Currently eating some eggs and toast, flipping between browser windows and workspaces. Reason? We’ve been hard at work, doing some slow-motion multitasking at Four Suits. DEFCON is coming up this year, we’re getting geared up for that; Spec(toke)ular is almost in the bag (even though it’s a few months away); we’ve been creating material and rehearsing for a new Four Suits branded show, in pre-production for a new magic series… You get the point.

Other point is, get to work. I was thinking about this the other day, how much time I spend noodling around on the internet. I heard Jeremy Griffith once refer to social media as “candy” and I think about that very frequently. Our brains love candy, but it provides zero nutritional value. Enjoying something is also happiness, and that’s important too. However, I have found myself leaning a bit too much into the instant gratifications that the internet can afford.

It’s crazy, I started learning the entertainment side of magic properly right around the cusp of youtube and web 2.0. Legitimately, most of my early knowledge came from books or teachers in real life. Now I hear about so many people starting off youtube channels or whatnot. I’m not being old man J.R. here and shaking a stick saying “Learn from books!” what I’m saying is, for me, it’s still hard to shake the concept that so much information is out there, legitimately free, for me to consume, and better myself for it, not just consume it for consumptions sake.

It started with little things, I would gradually slip into watching a fictional show while eating, instead of having it be something that I could learn something from, yet being equally fictitious (currently I’m re-focusing my habits by searching “magic” or “mentalism” on youtube and just watching whatever I come across). It’s equally cringe-worthy and insightful watching some/most of what’s out there, but realizing that this is the year I’m creating a magic special, I can also see what people readily consume as their candy. Damn, am I just making someone else’s candy? BRB, existentialism incoming.

— J.R.