On trimming the silence from our lives. “One of the more distressing qualities of humanity, in my mind, is the emphasis we collectively put on efficiency.”
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I admit I had no idea that this was a thing, primarily because I don't listen to podcasts. I love reading blog posts, but really have no patience for podcasts, which is strange since I like audiobooks so much. I like reading transcripts of podcasts as I can do that in about 1/10th the time as listening, which I guess is similar to being more efficient. However, if I listened to a podcast, I would not want to trim the silence. I'd want to hear it with all the natural gaps and pauses.
There were a few days last year when I must have accidentally set my podcast player to 1.25x playback speed and I remember wondering why everyone on the internet was so much angrier than usual.
Ha I totally didn't read this and assumed it was about how people walk around with headphones all the time, listening to podcasts or music whenever they are doing something else. These days it seems we trim silence from our lives and strive to fill our internal quiet time with outside noise. I'd read an article about that!
This is what I assumed the article was about too; internal space can be so hard to build a relationship with in this overloaded era.
Meanwhile, I agree with the author that trimming silence is a gluttonous use of art and craft. My favorite podcast is Ordinary Unhappiness, where the hosts ramble on in their academic jargon and delightful tangents for …hours. It feels cruel to imagine shaving down their creative process.
The metaphorical aspect of the piece is mostly why I posted it; I'm happy you picked up on that.
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