Tuesday, October 25, 2016
The Election and Productivity
Whatever: I was a couple of months late in turning in The Collapsing Empire; I originally planned to have it to Tor before Worldcon this year (which was mid-August) and ended up sending it to my editor literally the day I left for New York Comic Con, which was the first week of October. Some of that had to do with fine-tuning and changing bits of the story to make them more effective, plus travel and life in general.
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7 comments:
This is crazy interesting, and I actually feel the exact same way. Now maybe it's because this is the first election of my lifetime where I (and most people around me) have been able to vote, but I can not stop talking or thinking about it, and it is overwhelmingly distracting. It's actually just overwhelming in general. I think the constant checking of the polls has a lot to do with internet use. Even though four years seems like not a long time ago the amount of time the world spend online has increased dramatically, so that probably has something to do with the attachment we all feel to our phones, and computers. Also, lets stop pretending that the stakes are the same in this election than they were 4 or 8 years ago. Four years ago of Obama had lost I would have been sad, and it would have been frustrating but I wouldn't have feared for the future of this country. Donald Trump is the big elephant that didn't get mentioned in the article, which I think is funny because he is the reason we all feel this way. I am checking polls every day because I want to make sure that we are still okay, and that my safety isn't at risk. And when I say safety I am not over reacting, if that man became president I would be scared for my health rights, my voting rights, my right to my own body, all the progress made in the last 100 years gone because of one man. So yeah we are paying more attention but it's not for no reason. It's because the stakes are higher, it's because we are scared, and I've been a little less productive but I have also learned a lot about who I want to be in the world, and why it's important to keep fighting for your rights, as I imagine a lot of people have, so maybe not so unproductive in the long run.
I’ve never thought about the relationship between the election and my productivity until this article. I want to say that it has not had any effect, but I know I would be lying. The biggest example of this is that I’m finding time to keep myself up to date with what is going (like watching the debates and reading various articles) instead of doing other things. Granted these other things are most likely watching Netflix or something unimportant like that. However, for bigger events like the debates I would reorganize my schedule in order to ensure that I could watch the debates. I guess this is a good thing because I getting things done in advance to make time for activities like this. However, I can also see how this could have a negative effect because it really is one huge distraction. Either way, this is only happens every four years.
Yes. It hasn’t thrown off the *completion* of my work in a very meaningful way (my work is being turned in on time and, I assume, at the same quality level as it would were it not an election year,) but I can’t ignore the fact that my constant need to check the latest news is certainly slowing down my work process. Checking my Rolodex of news and social media sites is almost a reflex now. I am easily hooked. Easily angered. And easily distracted from whatever my task at hand may be. It’s taking up a significant amount of brainspace and, for me, creating a constant, simmering, low level of anxiety that underpins just about everything. Social media, in particular, is even more addictive than usual because it offers not only a place to argue (a sport I frankly love,) but also a place to vent my outrage, and receive satisfaction from a community that is, by virtue of my profession and personal associations, something of a political echo chamber.
Cool article. Love authors that are interested in the community and what we have to say. I have to say yeah you are right, news sites in 2016 kind of makes the entire world seem like it is falling apart. I agree with you in that it is unignorable, and cripplingly overwhelming at times. But I don’t think its just the election that is doing this. I pride myself in always trying to make art about current social issues and staying informed, even in high school. There were days being an African American in a predominantly white school district, that I felt that there were huge unignorable issues in the world, and yet we just kind of kept going. It is school so like we had to. I think one of the reasons that a lot of people are just now starting to feel this is because Trump is a sign of all of the underground sexism and racism that is still here even when, especially as Liberals, we have tried to say that ignorance is gone. Trump embodies regression and the fact that he is doing so well is terrifying, because it says to artists and creators and just normal people that there is still so much hate in the world. This election disrupts the comfort that so many liberals have put themselves in: This idea that sexism and xenophobia are a part of the past, and that lack of comfort is scary.
This article is interesting because I've never thought about this. Just last night, I was planning to do my comments but I ended up talking about the election with Sasha and did not do any comments. But I'm still getting my work done and I don't think that the election has affected me enough to stop me from doing so. However, it isn't necessarily a bad thing that this election is consuming so much of people's time and attention because it means that we care about it (however, on the flip side, it also shows how bad this election is in that the stakes are so so high). As artists I think the nature of what we do is similar to the author of the article, who is a writer, in that our work is very much impacted by the world around us and our work inversely also impacts the world. This makes me interested to see if people in the STEM industry's work are equally impacted by the election or not.
Hmm. Yeah, probably
I actually hadn't really thought about this before. Like Rachel, I certainly haven't seen any decrease in the timeliness or quality of my work, but I can definitely think of instances when I should have been working on something for school or production and ended up watching a debate (and getting heated over it and therefore not working afterward) or reading an article or getting into a discussion with a friend. In a way, this really bothers me. I hate that people like him (you know who I mean, everyone knows who I mean) have the ability to work their way into my life and bother me when I should be thinking about other things. But honestly, this election is an offensive reality show, and I often can't help being incensed by the things he says. Is it specifically hurting my productivity? Maybe, maybe not. But I do know that I spend more time pissed off than usual, which really can't be good for anything.
This really sums up a lot of what I have been feeling over the past couple of months or so. I often find myself distracted/procrastinating by looking at the news. This could be through news websites, my facebook feed, or many other websites. I think that it is a bit amazing and worrying all at the same time how widespread this problem is. The fact that this election is captivating so many people so much so that they're not doing their work is pretty strange. I don’t have the knowledge as much of previous elections and their ability to get me off track, but this cycle is definitely distracting me from my work. I am still getting my work done, just not on the timetable I plan for in my head. I don’t know if it is this specific election that is doing so, or if in another four years I will see my productivity go down again. I think that it is great how the author is actually interested in what his readers are saying, as I feel like that this election is both driving people apart and together to talk about the impact it has had on them.
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