A Sabbatical from the Internet Anti-Resolution

My anti-resolution¹ for 2025 is to take a break from online discourse, including writing on this blog. I’ve been writing here with varying levels of frequency for eight years. And hence it’s time for a sabbatical, before what’s going to be an incredibly intense but rewarding period of life that’s just around the corner. I’ll be back eventually and hopefully with something fresh to say.

In the meantime I have some older posts and ideas that I want to heavily edit to the point of rewriting them. This is what writing in public has always been about for me: forcing myself to have enough clarity in thought so that I can at least express something coherent. It’s a mix of fascinating and embarrassing to read what that guy wrote five years ago. Something that’s missing from the internet’s culture of never-ending now is a chance for reflection, to amend our previous thoughts.

When I look at my recent notes, I don’t see much original thinking. It’s just quoting and commenting. Getting stuck in the rut means the half a dozen or so drafts for long-form posts about big ideas sit and gather digital dust. Everything has an opportunity cost, including short-form writing.

My interests have changed over the years. For a long time, tech commentary was the meat and potatoes of this blog. Yet my interest in the tech world outside of my specific craft of UX design has waned to almost nothing. I’ve turned off the obnoxious “Apple Intelligence” on my computer and find almost every new feature is a distraction rather than an improvement to this powerful precision tool. If I were to write about tech criticism though, there’s nothing I could add beyond what the giants in the field such as Cal Newport, Jaron Lanier, Kyle Chayka, et al. have already said. Read them instead.

When it comes to UX, I’m on a curmudgeon streak. Software like iA Writer and Things are beautiful and a joy to use. Obsidian is powerful, even if the interface and UX aren’t as refined. Almost everything else is somewhere between tolerable and abysmal. The march of bad software goes on; it feels like every other blogger I read is annoyed about having to use Teams at work. My company switched to Microsoft over a year ago, and I can’t say that I’ve even figured out how to share links to documents that always work. That was effortless and required zero thought in Google Drive. But what am I adding to the discussion by heaping on more complaints? There are people who do write good stuff about UX design: Abby Covert, Craig Mod (his older stuff, before he switched to walking), Sophia Prater.

What I actually want to write about is Buddhist practice and the nexus of related topics of texts, art, and religion in general. A couple of things hold me back: my thoughts are too raw and this blog’s audience probably isn’t that interested. Writing about religion and spiritual practice is the distillation of years of practice and research, not a series of hot takes. I’ll get there eventually. And when I do, I suspect writing somewhere else will make more sense.

As I reflect on what I don’t regret over the past year, I’ve never caught myself thinking, “Gee, I wish I had argued with more random strangers on Reddit or saw more memes on Twitter.” In fact, I never regret not aimlessly spending time in front of a screen. I do enjoy using my computer for purposeful tasks like writing, organizing my notes, doing research, or calling friends and family. Over most of December I kept my laptop in my upstairs home office. If I have something to do, that’s a fine place to do it. But it discourages the sort of aimless “surfing” that can easily eat away an afternoon. I’ve felt much better about this arrangement.

My experiments in journalism have also shifted. I’m letting my two-year subscription to The Economist lapse. Daily news is too much of a firehose, and I can’t say I’m any the wiser from it. Conversely, I find that some of the long-form articles from The Atlantic and The New Yorker are deeply compelling and still thought-provoking months, even years, after I’ve read them. An example from each publication, respectively: Phoenix is a Vision of America’s Future and Why So Many People Are Going “No Contact” with Their Parents. This isn’t so much about being high brow as it’s about reading at a slow enough pace to make sense of anything.

And lastly, I find myself increasingly uncomfortable with the way the online discourse is going. I don’t stand with either side in the culture wars, nor do I get the cult of identity and victimhood that are so prevalent right now. About a year ago, I quoted a lecture by a modern Buddhist teacher entitled Culture War Pacifism. The points he makes are salient and relevant to anyone, Buddhist or not, who’s uncomfortable with family and office political discussions.

What I find remarkable about researching ancient texts is that once you peal back the layers of culture and language, you find that the ancient Greeks, Indians, and Hebrews among others were having many of the same discussions that we are today.

And thus:

‘He insulted me, he struck me,
He defeated me, he robbed me’:
For those who get caught up in this,
Hatred does not cease.

‘He insulted me, he struck me,
He defeated me, he robbed me’:
For those who do not get caught up in this,
Hatred ceases completely.

Dhammapada 3–4, Roebuck translation

In Roebuck’s note to these verses, she adds that the commentary says the Buddha said this in response to “a stubborn monk…who harbours resentment against other monks who do not treat him with the deference which he thinks he deserves.”

Some speak with hostile minds,
while some speak with minds bent on truth.
The [wise one] does not become involved in an arisen dispute…

How could one transcend one’s own view
if, drawn by desire, one is entrenched in a preference?
Taking one’s own [view] to be prefect,
one would speak as one understands…

Attachments to views are not easily overcome;
having decided among teachings, one tightly grasps [a view]…

One who is cleansed formulates no view
anywhere in the world about various states of existence.
Having abandoned hypocrisy and conceit, through what
would the cleansed one go [astray] when he is uninvolved?

One uninvolved is embroiled in disputes about teachings;
but how, about what, could one dispute with one uninvolved?
Nothing is taken up or rejected by him;
he has shaken off all views right here.

(excerpted from Suttanipāta 4:3, Bodhi translation)