I feel sad that when asking for more vacation or personal days at work, the only argument I feel I a can use is ‘it increases productivity’ rather than ‘I’m a human being and i need to spend my time doing human things instead of generating wealth for you’

When I started my KZfaq channel, the first thing anyone would ask me was, "how are you going to make money out of THAT?" The question annoyed me, because I just wanted to make videos. While not exactly "quiet contemplation", the act of doing it was a creative outlet that I didn't have, and that creation was the purpose; I had no other goal in mind. Now, my KZfaq channel _has_ been wildly successful, and that has been wonderful for me in many ways, but it also turned my creative outlet into a job. I now have schedules and contractors, and sponsorship agreements. I miss the days when I had a "pointless" creative outlet. Of course the only reason I was able to make KZfaq videos for fun was because I had the wealth of time and money afforded to me. Many people don't have that luxury. I would like to live in a world where anyone could "afford" the time to do "nothing". I think we'd all be better off.

This was posted 17 seconds ago and I feel like me seeing this and consuming it so quickly might be relevant.

I love the term "toxic cottagecore" omg

One thing I found interesting here is how you mentioned that it seemed a bit pointless in the beginning to do things with your grandma because she would forget it and all... It made me think about how much our minds live in the future and the idea of memory being so important? Your grandma would have a nice day with you and whether she eventually forgot about it, it wouldn't change the fact that when being with you was her present, she enjoyed it. I feel like we focus so much on how something will be or on how this something will seem that we forget that maybe just experiencing today is enough.

i love having the world explained to me in a calm voice by educated women.

What I found particularly interesting in Burnout Society is the idea that we went from a society with an excess of negativity (too much you can't), to a society with an excess of positivity (an excess of you can). Too much yes, too little no. He has a section where he analyses how Freudian psychology, which emphasizes repression (so you can't), is no longer useful to understand the burnour society. We are no longer subjects (as in subjugated, as in you can't), but projects - constantly in a state of endless potential. But, he says, our personalities - who we are - exists for a large part in what we reject or negate. The danger is that we become this endlessly moldable clay that capitalism can use. Not only that, but your self-molding. You see what capitalism expects of you, you internalize this, and then you mold yourself. But this is exhausting. Peace comes from rejecting this endless potential, from saying no, from rejecting endless potential, from being a person instead of a project. Capitalist society has told us that endless flexibility and endless potential are a good thing, but it's better to reject this and form a stable personality. Something that gives you a grounding to reject those things that don't fit you. In doing so, we can stop being exhausted.

*I HAVE RECENTLY BECOME* fascinated with boredom. I have long covid, I was forced to take a 10-minute total break from any stimuli at all for 10 minutes every hour. To begin with, I was almost having panic attacks, then my brain started to process decades-old traumas, then came calmness and creativity. I don't NEED it as much now, but I still do this for the mental health benefits. I think human brains NEED boredom.

Constantly caught between the two poles of "I need to slow down, I'm doing too much" and "doing less is giving up and admitting defeat"

That concern over boredom is in every part of raising a child too, my husband is coaching tee-ball and the instruction guides tell you to change activities every 5 minutes to keep them engaged. One day he had them practicing throwing a ball at a soccer ball on the tee and the kids eager kept at it for 20+ minutes and my husband had to fight the idea that they need to keep moving, keep doing. Those kids were learning to throw the ball and aim at a target AND they were having open ended fun. I read so many books studying child behavior when my son was a baby that insisted kids can only pay attention for a few minutes at a time, so we should embrace it. Yet I have had many conversations with different parents who had to acknowledge that their kids would engage with something they enjoyed for a long time and it was the parent who got bored and pushed a new activity on their child. The adults had to learn how to give their full attention to something, not the kids. We rush kids so much and then bemoan their laziness because the fun they're having when they relax is not 'productive' enough. We're not happy living this way for ourselves, but we bend our children into it.

Pure coincidence: when I started watching this I didn't speed up the video to 1.5x or more like I use to. In the last years I've accumulated so many videos in my "watch later" playlist that I try to optimize time by merely consuming them as fast as possible, and it must have an impact in my appreciation, understanding and enjoyment of them, but there is this neurotic will inside me to watch them all, and FOMO too.

The panopticon never went away; we've internalized it.

I have been pondering this recently too. People have such fond memories of older media, and I feel like that is due to the fact that we weren’t as overloaded with constantly new experiences and content, so we were able to actually meditate on the meanings of the media and find bits of ourselves in it. Nowadays I feel like we scoop things up and then drop them so quickly that almost nothing ‘makes a mark’ and has a chance to help to shape the person long term.

what's sad is that many people will not even have attention enough to finish this video fully...

"We're exhausted from having to attach purpose to everything we do. We live in denial of life's pointlessness instead of accepting it and creating meaning from that" This. I've been trying to live my life in a way that has meaning for me. I'm aware that there's no real point and sometimes that makes me really depressed. But other times it allows me to fully immerse in whatever I'm doing/making. Truly be in the moment for no reason other than being in the moment. And I get a lot of pushback from the people around me. Pushing me to do things they believe have value but are really just societal standards. Those standards hold no meaning for me. As long as I can do what I want to do, live out my creative hearts desires, then I don't see why I should have to justify any of it to anyone else with a meaning that means something to them.

Go on, I'm paying attention

Me immediately clicking the thumbnail is both high irony and the most self aware of my self destructive tendencies I have been for some time

About the criticism on "happiness": in my opinion, contemplation creates happiness in the sense of "serendipity". If I were not taking a walk at a certain moment and in a contemplation state, I wouldn't see bees, some birds interacting, hear a funny human interaction. Being able to experience that because I was available for that moment does make me happy.

Absolutely agree with your last point re: quiet enjoyment. Noise has always been an issue for me as an autistic person, but I've finally moved somewhere really quiet and honestly, even though I still sleep badly, my stress levels have gone down dramatically. It's even made me more relaxed when I'm not at home and the environment is noisier than I'm now used to.

This video feels a lot more personal than usual, I appreciate that

I have been comparing our society with chickens in an industrial meat farming setting, where we are constantly agitated so much that we lash out at anyone around us like the chickens that pick and hurt each other. And unlike the chickens, we are also more likely to get served divisive content that tells us to "hate" each other.

i’m procrastinating studying for tomorrow’s exam by clicking on this notification and watching this video

I'm so sorry about your grandmother, Alice ❤. (I know that is not the main part of your video but) thank you for sharing--I found that part about assigning meaningfulness to the gesture of playing her song really beautiful.

Excellent timing with that one. I've recently quit Instagram because of overstimulation, wanting to check if I am really burnt out or if my brain is just grilled with all the dopamine and overstimulation from doomscrolling. Guess what? I feel so relieved right now and my stress levels decreased significantly, I became less aggressive and more open to new people and new situations. What's more, I also noticed how weird it was to constantly check Instagram basically to watch other people's lives instead of just talking to them. We internalize so many unnecessary emotions and information from the social media that it's surprising to me how rarely we talk about social media putting literal garbage into our heads 24/7. Thank you for this amazing piece of content, crème de la crème as always!

About "slowing down", I feel that there is a possibility of being very active while being non-productive. Because "productivity" is about the goal and the creation of value, we can still enjoy things in intense or fast ways without participating in the production of capitalist goods or services. Contemplation is great, but a lot of the neurodivergent people I know struggle to engage in slow and non-stimulating activities like sitting on a bench, even in an active way. I think it is important to appreciate things we can do quickly or intensely yet without purpose : drawing a lot, writing all day, reading unrelated wikipedia pages for hours... These are not ought to be productivist, even though they are intense and long activities that can feel like labor. Thank you for the great video, et commentaire pour l'algo

On the same line of Han's thought on purposeless, Ailton Krenak - a Brazilian indigenous activist - wrote a book titled Life is Not Useful. He shares the ancestral wisdom of originary peoples in Brazil as an antidote to contemporary concerns of us, "civilised" people. He also wrote Ideas to Postpone the End of the World.

i think the term that defines that feeling of doing nothing and feeling not necessarily happy is “content.” you feel content when doing those things. or when doing nothing. it’s contentment that pours through one’s soul when they realize they don’t need to do anything to feel a pleasant emotion.

As a retired person, who spent 40+ years in IT, I certainly understand the problem of burn-out. And I probably spend too much time in front of the computer still :) All my own fault, of course. I have every reason to live a quiet, contemplative life. I live in a remote valley on a tropical island, in the Caribbean. What could be quieter? But as you say, the noise comes from within. I _am_ trying to get better. I'm watching more long form videos, mainly of people surfing (it's amazing how relaxing that is :), or people working silently on some handicraft project. What I _should_ be doing, is writing. I wrote less than 1K words today. Shame. Thanks for sharing this video.

Recently left a super stressful and anxiety inducing job and burnout is REAL. After I left I was bed ridden and unmotivated for months. After 5 months I started feeling like myself again

*LAST WEEK I BOUGHT A MECHANICAL TYPEWRITER* possibly one of the best 5 things I have ever bought in my life. I SLEEP BETTER, lots better...!!! My mind works in a completely different, much calmer, much deeper way - its like driving on a fast country road with no traffic V driving on a busy highway

According to my phone, it took me 46 minutes to listen to this video and read some comments while prepping and eating breakfast. Yesterday during my daily walk in the woods, I noticed that a bunch of red trilliums had popped up. I'd never seen red trilliums before so it was quite a treat.

These two poles of "doing nothing, therefore I must do more" vs. "doing too much, therefore I must do less" is rooted in confusing doing with being. "Doing nothing" and "resting" is still a form of "doing"

This might sound kind of brain-broken, but I feel like your videos sometimes help as a moment of contemplation within my bad habit of consuming internet content. Helping me to stop and think about things from angles I didn't percieve before

I recently lissened to a radio interview from 1989, and it was so relaxed and slow. It almost had something meditative to it. I think my urge to get away from input and shutting my senses for an hour comes from the way media is right now.

I have my college entrance exams and here I'm watching a video uploaded 4 mins ago😭

I practice buddhism and for me happiness is a destination, but it doesn't come from craving sensual pleasures but from contemplation, slowing down and accepting reality as it is

Man, does this hit home this week in particular! I do appreciate how you manage to use this platform that's often more given to hot takes to well thought out, perceptive arguments! Hope you're having a great week, Alice!

I like to consciously observe myself consuming (social) media. As many people I'm using it to "wind down" and distract myself from my daily worries. I noticed that this does not help, however. I've noticed that from this point of view, my mind has two states: a state where I absorb information and impressions, and another state where I process them. And the processing is not being done while in the first state. Sure, Processing is being done sleeping at night, but I also noticed that if I'm not doing enough processing during the day (by something like quiet contemplation), I have trouble falling asleep because my mind is racing.

I recommend meditation. Especially the Vipassana approach ("seeing things as they are"). It's been the ultimate cure against the attention economy for me. Basically: this leads you to live a life of creative decisions ("actions") instead of this constant reactionary mindset that pushes us around according to external influences, which is incentivized to attempt to monopolize our minds. In my experience, contemplation is insufficient. The minds roams on and on without aim, and this leads you right back into old habit patterns. Truly reconnecting with our bodies is a great way of accepting silence and boredom in their full realization.

0:50 We love scripts written in longhand! Go girl give us everything!

sort of similar to your grandma situation but also the opposite: My sibling just had a baby and sometimes I get to baby sit that baby and those days I usually get nothing done. Like cant even scroll on my phone cause this baby requires 24/7 holding but it is super rewarding and you get to ponder the nature of emotional intamacy and dependancy, and you get to watch someone learn how their body and the world works which is kind of baller. I say all this as someone who is decidedly child free but what I am getting at is that it is nice to do labor that isnt "productive"

no because I WAS JUST thinking about this, so thank you.

Its gotten to the point where I am guilty of taking days off. And even when I'm on a holiday, I can't be present and think only of work and the future.

4:50 I’m in! Where are we going? I want out of this model of life. You are right, people in the US don’t hang out in cafes, we don’t hang out anymore. Restaurants want to turn over clientele to get more paying customers in those seats. In the past, people would hang out in coffee and tea houses; in US modern culture, we have Starbuck’s where we are overcharged for drinks (my latte is $6.25) and we are not encouraged to hang around. It was called a third place and we do not have third places anymore. Even with friends, it is deeply disrespectful to drop in and visit friends. You must announce your intention to visit, make plans ahead of time. Those unexpected, unplanned moments of joy doesn’t happen. I think people are highly stressed, they can’t relax so construct strict borders on private time, thus they miss those unexpected pleasureful times and connections that would actually recharge them. I’ve been thinking about this a lot. In the US, people have become obsessed with privacy. We have 4’-5’ walks around our patio areas in the complex where I live, but that is not enough and people build weird barriers to have privacy. It’s so strange. We are in a very weird situation right now.

Love that you put yourself into spending time with your grandma. Speaks to the idea that meaningful experiences aren’t necessarily happy but create the kinds of raw emotion that makes us feel most human.❤

This made me think about what I´ve already observed in little children. As a teacher in kindergarten I see problem in the begining. The amount of stimuli children get is anormous. The way how toys have changed is crazy. We went from simple toys to toys which are super colourfull and each of them has mostly one purpose how to play with it. They are constructed the way, that children don´t have to think or create their own games. We just serve them everything and when they stay by themselves without any stimuli for a little while they don´t know what to do and are immediately bored. They wait for someone to entertain them. It changed really fast and I see it as something dangerous. Maybe I sound old but believe me I am really young teacher and I was raised in completely different conditions so maybe thanks to that I was allways naturaly searching "boredom" and doing nothing and just observe surroundings. I am trying to transfer this approach to kids but it´s hard when whole society is heading the other way.

I still thrive for happiness in everything i do, but its a kind of happiness that is different from how i for so long understood what happiness means. Happiness does not mean you are free from sadness and grief, happiness for me now simply means satisfaction and peacefulness despite what other’s thinks ! knowing that i did something because i really wanted to do it and not because what others thought will look cooler or worth revered!

oh the irony of this being on KZfaq, always there to speak away the silence

Manufactured freedom. Someone’s achievement and another’s shackles

"we live in denial of life's pointlessness, instead of accepting it and creating meaning from there"

As someone from the UK i hear alot about how in mainland europe everything is more relaxed such as work and general life. The cafe example was on point! It makes me want to move to spain in particular alot!

the editing, paper script, and fit make this vid just perfect

On true happiness: This reminds me of a comment a Chinese martial arts teacher (who happened to be a Sufi teacher, as well) I know once pointed out. That “joy” (in the sense of enjoyment) shouldn’t be understood as “happiness,” but instead as “alive with.” And this one should “enjoy” sorrow when sorrowful, “enjoy” happiness when happy, “enjoy” anger when angry, “enjoy” pleasure when pleased, etc. He asserted that this was part of what “surrender” means in a Sufi context, “wuwei” means in Daoist / Confucian contexts, etc. I bring it up as, from a contemplative perspective of such traditions, perhaps Han’s “true happiness” is most useful being understood in such a way. That “true happiness,” contemplatively speaking, is the ability to “enjoy,” to be alive with , the realities of things-events-experiences.

This combination of academic thought-provoking discussion and bits of french humor makes your channel an authentic treasure.

Though I have not yet experienced a burnout, I do use work as a tool to distract me from painful private stuff, so I'm a prime candidate for a burnout. Luckily, I also like to observe my mind and found out that in times of stressful work, in my free time I feel the urge to "make the most of it", to make each second as recovering as possible, only to get annoyed and stressed out if I don't manage to make my free time as relaxed as I wanted. :) Now when I catch myself being annoyed because my recreational time is not recreational enough, I see it as a warning sign that I'm probably too stressed in general. On the other hand, when I'm capable of allowing myself to follow my curiosity in things that don't have an immediate purpose, I know this is a good sign that I'm feeling well.

17:28 when you mentioned bombs my heart froze. I immediately remembered all this noise and uncertainty at sharp sounds that remind me of bombs or fear when I hear an air alarm. Only after hearing this and pause the video, I started thinking about how calm and relaxed I felt, since I did not hearing these sounds. However, as soon as I hear something similar to this, I immediately remember how I felt in Ukraine during this period. I immediately start to get scared and want to hide somewhere, sometimes I can start crying. My idea of calmness was actually in no living in noisy house, and I never thought about social media or my life experience. The only outside noise that I thought was only this, and now after almost week of thinking I can see that there is much more. Thank you for the video, love your content!

This is happiness to me: "a sense of clarity and melancholy which i love"

to me a more important concept than happiness for everyday life is contentedness/serenity coupled with the opportunity to experience awe and depth of feeling ("being moved" so to speak)

Thank you for sharing your story with your grandmother in the care home and also my condolences. Slowing down had sent me on a spiral (the constant need to grind/be productive nagging at you) but what is the meaning of life if you can't stay still and smell the roses. I've started being intentional with what I consume and eliminating everything else that's taking up the finite resource that I have (myself).

By far one of my favorite youtube channels - keep doing what you're doing!!

I've just discovered you while searching for someone talking about prominent issues in a rational way as possible without supporting extremist sides. I just want to say I'm grateful to you

100% my favorite philosophy channel. Thanks again, Alice. This topic is very interesting to me for a few reasons. First, I am old enough to remember life before the internet, young enough to have experienced childhood during the early internet, and the rise of cell phones, etc. I also have ADHD, which was not diagnosed until I was an adult. I was also raised religious, and as such, had contemplation built in in the form of prayer. As an adult, I've found that the hyperattentive expectations of the workplace have had a very damaging effect on my wellbeing. I've received so much flak for refusing to answer emails after hours or on the weekends in order to manage that time. I've also long struggled with email because it's inexpensive nature causes me to be deluged with low-priority messages that could have and should have been on a flyer or in person. As such, I've found contemplation very important. As you point out, though, contemplation has rarely been a happy time for me. Rather, it is often melancholy or at best, peaceful. But these times also form core memories for me: times sitting in the forest and listening to the wind and birds and bugs; or watching people at a cafe. I derive deep meaning, connection, and liveliness from these moments. Contemplation feels like stealing time and attention back for myself. And I love it.

So thoughtful and rewarding. Thank you!

So many others have discussed this topic already but your take is the one I truly am looking forward to. So happy you made this one!

I truly enjoyed this video essay in several ways. I liked how you included both your likes and criticism of Han's book but also adjusted this video's editing to reflect the slow cuts you pointed out towards the end, which, in fact, encouraged me to focus more contemplatively rather than passively. Moreover, this is exactly the kind of message I've been trying to tell my college students in my seminars in various different ways as hyperattention and achievement culture is absolutely *devouring* their mental health in every way imaginable---even if they can't quite envision another way to be in our industrialized, digitized, never-stop world. Keep being you, Alice! 🙂

Many years ago I was listening to an old recording of a talk that Allan Watts gave and in it he spoke about how capatalism corrupted leasure. Giving a leasure/time off as a means to an end to as you say recharge and become more productive. I think I was too young or rather immature to really let that sink in and understand the message, it wasn't until I lived in the middle of nowhere, almost living a cottage core lifestyle until I understood what he meant.

13:02 is such an important statement, well said

I love this video alice resting and relaxing and completely different in definition

That was an extraordinarily great video-thank you!

This is an amazing perspective, everything was so well put

I've loved this video so badly, thank you

I'm still only half-way through this video and I already love it. It's putting it all in words in such a great way. On the topic of contemplation, I wanted to add something, which is also related to the french cafes you mentioned. I have been working as a waitress at a cafe in Greece for almost a year now and we get all sorts of costumers, from very young to very old. To explain the situation a little better, you should know that the coffee culture in Greece is really relaxed. Going for a coffee is one of the most common ways to socialise and that's why we end up staying at the cafe for hours and hours on end. We love coffee, but it's not just about the coffee, it's about meeting up and catching up. In any case, what I have noticed while working there is younger or even middle-aged people will talk and talk and then, as if it was agreed upon, they will take a short break to check their phones and scroll a bit and then go back to talking etc. But older people are different. We get friends and couples who talk less and look at the street more. They just sit in silence, contemplating, and before, this struck me as strange in a way. I was wondering why they're not talking as much and what are they thinking looking at the street for so long. But now, I envy them. They're contemplating! It makes me happy to think about it like that. They live slower and they aren't as anxious to be doing something. I'm really going to try following their example more.

I cleaned in a care home during lockdown; I’d see some of them just sat about watching daytime tv and think ‘damn that must be dull’. But then I’d come home and sit in bed watching yt 😅, it motivated me to take really long walks out in the countryside tho. Loved the shot amongst the bluebells btw 💕

you are just incredible. thank you for that

I really like the path that your arguments took through quite different areas of human interaction. One thing that i found telling, albeit helpful, was your categorization of scrolling & contemplation into "passive & active", further cementing the unspoken ideal of remaining active

15:00 I think this is spot on. As you said, some of us do not choose silence, in fact, they feel miserable inside because they want to keep talking, expressing, but from past experiences they had been part of some kind of recrimination or were ignored for doing this, until getting to a point they feel they can't say anything useful, that would attract the attention.

a couple weeks ago I found myself bored (and off social media) and it made me realize what a pleasure and privilege it is. I feel like boredom is one of the most inspiring states to be in. to be itching to do or create something and have the TIME to do it while also not feeling anxious or guilty about the things I "should" be doing. I hadnt been boredom in years and man I loved it.

Always enjoy your videos Alice, thanks for another great vid!!

A brilliant video, thank you!

This made me tear up. In relief. What a beautiful intellect. ❤

I want to stop and contemplate, but I also want to binge the rest of the videos from this channel!

as usual this was rly great!!

I’ve been reading and enjoying pretty much all of Han’s books lately (thanks to another reference to him in another of your videos, so I thank you for that!). Sure, one can quibble about his DWM references, but I don’t think that we should necessarily let that detract from his message. And yes, his politics isn’t overtly in your face on the surface of the text-it’s more implicit-so that can come off as de-politicized. However, that in itself seems in line with the form and content of his thinking. True confession: I probably find his works appealing because he draws on The Greatest Hits of continental theory that I read in grad school forty years ago, tempered by a Zen Buddhist/Taoist sensibility that I also find appealing (I’m a uni prof of Japanese history and culture).

Yooo Alice!!! Love the video! Chul-Han has been on my read-list for a while now but!!! My parents get hella worried for me when I say things like "Joy/Happiness is a sedative" 😆. When I say that, I am coming from a place similar to the ones discussed in Chul Han's writings. Our expectation is messed up since we want to be as happy as possible while forgetting that happiness by definition is temporary; I think of it as an ever climbing hill until it plateaus. When that happens, what we see is the "lack" of growth in happiness over the happiness that has already been realized and appropriated! This maps out perfectly to our expectations of and tendencies towards growth. Apologies for sounding like a nerd here. Have a small stats background and have been reading Capital. I finished your book btw!!! I read it all and even though it is content you've already covered in your vids, I like how structured it is and how detailed it is. It also references so many of the content creators on youtube that I already follow!!!! Going to send my copy to my Mom so she can understand and connect with me on the new developments in the patriarchy. ^_^

Your Videos are always so inspiring, thank you so much for making them ❤

destruction of dense city tissue due to industrialization in 18th-century lost of city fabric (tissue) due to fabrique French pun on sexual innuendo of French silk fabric) and in 20 century with automobilization logistics grew exponential so called city sprawl where no organic city tissue left. Stendhal syndrome, or Florence syndrome is a psychosomatic condition involving rapid heartbeat, fainting, confusion, and even hallucinations. We need be honest then we talking about old city center like Florence, Venice, Paris they are is a bit fake, because many narrow streets, passages, "petite" pedestrian bridges, antic book shops, stairways already rebuild and adapted for high flow tourism industry.

I really like how you left in the clip of you stopping the filming each time. Its been nice to see how the video approach has evolved in subtle and lovely ways. You seem more comfortable, and the story about your grandmother relates to my experiences with her. I feel an urge to document it all, so that each visit is 'productive' in that sense - and at times it interferes with me actually being with her. She will be 90 in August.

I think it’s important as well to see how capitalism and productivity culture has infected our perceptions of effective political action. It’s still possible to engage in contemplation while organizing, as opposed to measuring or judging the impact of political movements by their visibility and volume. Anxiety about the effectiveness of political action contributes to burnout as well, so we should be mindful.

I am so pleased to watch this video about my favourite book from Byun Shul Han! I read the german version of „The Burnout Society“ as it was recommended by my therapist. I tend to struggle with „not doing anything“ and had a very negative stigma against my habit of prograstination/contemplation. I would definitly define myself as a hyper-active person, I struggle to take breaks, to relax inbetween work/study/activity/social interaction. And I have been diagnosed with ADHD, I struggle with my need for hyper attention and multitasking and constantly am under stimulation of my senses. Well this video and the literature behind it once again reminds me of the bigger picture that infact feeds into my personal susceptibility, of course everyone has a different likelihood to fall into the psychological loophole of the attention society, but in a nutshell, no one stays unaffected from it, it’s structurally embeded into our work-culture, our media usage and our self-assertion! Infact, this is the one argument that always brings me back to Byun Chul Han: modern exploitation is no longer externally driven, as seen in the clips from Charly Chaplins „Modern Times“, where a boss or manager is forcing the working class to maximize productivity. In the achievement society as you wonderfully illustrated, the self is the center of that force. Self-exploitation takes such an important position in our values, morals and expectations around labour. It is limitless and leaves the illusion of freedom, because „we WANT to, so we DO it“, however we are not really free in the decision of maintaing hyperproductivity. It is expected from workers to portray such mindset, to hussle both in the corporate and private live and to constantly demonstrate high productivity in order to „compete“. I recently started working and I sense it to be a vicious cycle which one can not escape, unless externally you are forced to step back. In a sense, having a burnout or getting sick to the point of physical collapse remains as the one-way road outside of the continually growing (self-)expectations. I am astonished of how little room for humanity the self-treatment we subject ourselves to leaves. If we would separate the „productivity-achievement-driven“ part in us from the practical ACTOR that does the work, and then re-establish the first part as a different person I find it much more obvious how out off line the self-exploitation is. But because „we do it to ourselves“ and we decide apon it do design our future and achieve greatness, it is somehow justified to overshoot the outlet of activity. Of course we are active beings and I don‘t mean to critizize the concept of work what so ever, but in regards of how close these concepts resemble working conditions that are now declined as exploitative by law, because of their risk for human health, sanity and relationships, I find it important to establish healthy boundaries to protect individuals.

Wow few months ago I tell to my therapist something like that, that I feel overwhelmed by the constant "demand" of self improvement like there is no end and I felt really tired that day but she just said that is part of live and we all are working in be a better person in this society. Oh and I wasn't just talking about improvement as a person but also with my hobbies and other thinks I'm learning just for fun. It's like never will be enough or doing things just for fun it's not acceptable.

second half of the video was really strong, great writing. your analysis and critique continue to hit a perfect pitch for me.

We are in a state of constant distraction. Attraction is actually distraction

I get anxious over the people who expect me to pick up all the slack that the nonproductive people have left for me to do. Everyone tells me that they fall apart when I am gone because I can shoulder much of the burden on my own. It feels good to be appreciated and wanted, but I also feel like I should be training someone else to do what I do regularly to pick up where I slack off or forget. That reminds me of the Clifton’s StrengthFinder from Gallup I took, I can learn things super quickly and pick up new information easily. The struggle is executing my responsibility to develop someone else to take on the roles I have manually taken upon myself.

Fantastic! I appreciated your turn to talking about those who have been silenced and those who are not able to find silence. As a postcolonial thinker, I can’t help but think of the many who have been and are being silenced, and the kinds of political things that prohibit them from finding silence and inactivity. And, it makes me ponder the kinds of activity that must be done so people can be able to have inactivity.

I’ve been subscribed to you for a while now yet have never commented, but I want you to know that this is my favorite video of yours so far. Thank you for speaking up for the truth and (ever so gracefully) fighting the good fight.

Really insightful post Alice, thank you

I really loved this video alice and it has come at an important time for me as I try and battle a very real information addiction i have. I feel the need to take up all my time with consuming information and i struggle to just let my mind wonder. Thanks for the reminder to calm things down

That feeling of melancholy and clarity... yes ❤

Video quality has improved, great job! Liked the ideas shown

Love that shot with your outfit matching the flowers and foliage