We Are Indentured Slaves to Technology. The Solution? Do Nothing.
The 21st century didn’t only give us the tools to avoid each other, but it gave us the tools to avoid ourselves. Nothing is just part of the recovery.
When I was considering what to publish today, I had a really hard time. I wrote two new articles, and as I edited them, I realized they were way too dark to be published on Win the Night. To me, Win the Night is about what is good for people, so I had to look for a topic where I knew I could bring value. Not value in the sense we are used to, monetary- but I hope you will leave with the valuable knowledge of how to do nothing is a true act of rebellion.
Dear reader, I propose that you and I have forgotten how to simply be at peace with nothing. Whether that is doing nothing, expecting nothing, or even desiring nothing, we simply always want something. From the moment we come out of our mothers, we are accustomed to being given something. We are given our beds, our clothes, our names, and the different roles in society we can pick from. We are given our education and our jokes. I know you see the point—we have always been given something. We have never been around nothing, so how could we even know how to do or expect nothing?
Our natural human desire for something has been exploited by media corporations. We are the laborers who fuel their profits and build their incentives. We are not only the product but also the raw building blocks of the digital economy. The Industrial Revolution was driven by the exploitation of natural resources like coal. Now, humans and our natural behavior make up the raw material meant to be exploited and extracted. Our behavior and our essence are the means of production. We agree to contracts we don’t read, where we sign away our essence, where we agree to produce through our consumption.
Modern-day indentured slavery is invisible.
Three Rules
#1: Find your daily waste and replace it with nothing.
#2: Expect nothing & learn that others expect something.
#3: Force others to do nothing with you.
Nothing is: To rebel against indentured slavery.
What Is Best?
Before we get into the rules, there’s a point that needs to be made.
I propose that what is best will differ for everyone individually, but as a whole, your best only belongs to the group you are a part of. This is why it is significant to define our best. A carpenter’s best craft will not be the best craft of a painter because they are two different crafts that require their own unique time, skills, and experience to refine. We can only compare a carpenter to a carpenter and a painter to a painter.
In this case, we can only judge what is best based on what the groups we belong to consider best. If you are among criminals, what is best for you is the worst for others. If you are a police officer, what is best for you is what is worst for criminals. In this way, best is simply related to where we find ourselves.
Let’s Get the Difficult Part Out of the Way
I will ask you to do nothing.
The first objection I always get from my clients is: "I have no time. I have too much to do."
On average, the people I am having conversations with are spending up to six hours consuming media! These are business owners—people we may assume do not consume much media, but this is not the case. Business owners find themselves overwhelmed with their lack of time, rightfully so, but the truth is they have more time than they expect.
When people become comfortable doing nothing, they begin having urges that drive them to create—to engage in actual productive behavior. For me, it drives me to write. It drives me to do math or simply realize how fortunate I am to take the time to do nothing, to know that, in a small way, I am rebelling against a system that sets clear expectations: motion is the only best.
Rule #1: Find the Waste in Your Day and Replace It with Nothing
Media includes images, music, art—everything of the sort. We generate waste when we consume media. Take a look at your screen time. How many hours did you spend last week on social media? Not just one platform—all of them. Was it for work, or were you just scrolling?
Do you work retail and spend four hours a day on TikTok? Awesome! You just found yourself four hours to do nothing.
You run an online business, but your business doesn’t even have an Instagram, yet you spend two hours a day on it? Nice! Now that we have located some waste, we have to move on to replacing it—by doing nothing.
Sit there and allow yourself to become bored. Your brain will experience a sense of clarity that I know many people haven’t felt in a long time.
You will feel uncomfortable. This is the feeling you want. You will try to convince yourself that you could be doing something productive, but you have to reframe your thoughts and remind yourself that you are being productive—by allowing your mind to do nothing.
As you do nothing, your brain will start filling back up with serotonin—the feel-good chemical released in excess while scrolling on social media. When serotonin is released in excess, it leaves you feeling depressed. This is what we feel when we are no longer consuming media, Fight through the feeling of withdrawal. It is real. You are experiencing it.
When we allow ourselves to do nothing, we reconnect with a side of ourselves that has been untapped for a long time bringing about creativity we didn't know we processed.
Rule #2: Expect Nothing and Learn That Others Always Expect Something
It is crucial, dear reader, to know that others expect something. But don’t judge them. They don’t know any better.
You will see how vulnerable others (and yourself) are to things.
I don’t know how many of you have watched 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), a romantic comedy, but sorry to those who haven’t—at the end, the main couple has a moment of reconciliation. How? Through a gift. A guitar. It isn’t a moment of true love. It’s a moment of true giving. God, I guess this should be a Christmas film.
The point is that in the end, the failure of our main character, Kat Stratford—a young woman who believes she is the revolution—can’t help but fall in love when she is given a gift.
She could have potentially changed other minds—if she could only change her own.
Matter of fact, dear reader, ask your friends for time, and you will get to a stage of planning. Something has to be done to justify time together.
Humans are wired to expect something. So, just as 21st-century technology manipulates our biology, let’s manipulate our biology—to expect something in the form of nothing.
Rule #3: Hang Out with Others and Force Them to Do Nothing with You
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality." — Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963), Martin Luther King Jr.
This is the best of all the rules. When you start doing nothing, it is not enough to simply do nothing alone. Bring people around, and do nothing. We don’t know how to sit around and have a conversation, look each other in the eyes while sipping wine, laugh, and smile so show people how.
Even during family gatherings, there is always a disconnect driven by our deep desire for something. Next time you have family time, push for no media, and you will be looked at as if you’re crazy. You may even find that people aren’t interested in this approach to quality time. Push passed their fears of interactions, remember they may believe you want something and you do and it is their time!
Start with one friend. Bring them along. Convince them there is no point in planning—just sit around and talk.
When this is successful, bring two friends.
Then more.
It’s not about rejecting media. It’s the opposite. It’s about setting limits to our consumption as a form of rebellion against labor we are not paid for, it is about a new way of continuing our old relationships.
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Indeed a great prescription that is hard to follow given the interconnectedness of our lives.
However, given most, including myself, spend a good amount of time on social media, there is certainly time to do...nothing...
Here's a thought: I've heard of this Marxist? idea that capitalism/contemporary society has a consuming nature towards rebellion (or anything). Think of "punk" culture being this rebellious cry against society, now largely being turned into a fashion trend and a sort of "status quo of rebellion." A coke without calories scenario.
My question being: is doing nothing another form of "status quo rebellion?" Can doing nothing become another form to profit or consume? "How to Do Nothing 101" for $39.99"
I really enjoyed this article! I want to try to sit around and do nothing. It’s a bit scary tbh for me at least but worth a shot?!