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Thoughts

When your Pocket becomes a time machine

I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.

Do you know Pocket? It’s an app to save web pages to read later. Initially I just had a folder in my bookmarks literally called “Read Later” but this free app is so much better, as it allows you to read offline and tag them after you read them.

When I discover an interesting post, I click the Pocket button and I promise myself “I’ll read it during commute”. But when that time comes I’m usually too tired to read something that will make me think. And I postpone it.

All those insightful articles just stay there, in your Pocket, waiting for your eyes to pick them. The other day I had a glance on what was there and I noticed two things.

One, there’s stuff waiting for 5 years. Maybe those articles are no longer relevant to me, maybe I’ll never find time to read them… but my FOMO keeps them there.

Two, your Pocket is a reflection of your concerns or interests. With an old Pocket like mine, it’s like going through a time machine. As I scroll down I go back in time and relive my past worries. Let’s jump in and go back to when I was 23-25 years old, finishing college.

I had a mental breakdown, borderline depression. I was looking for meaning and advice on how to be successful. I still have no answers, it’s a sleeping beast inside of me.

During the next two years I found out that if I filled all my time doing stuff, my mind would not have time to wander into dark thoughts. And thus began the pursuit of passive income. It’s still a goal, not an easy one though.

And more recently, when I switched my career from developer to tester, I had to learn everything again (and I’m still learning).

Closing thought rant

There’s so much to learn… stuff that really matters and improves or eases your life, stuff that you don’t learn at school. You spend 12 years studying and yet you know nothing about how you should manage your life.

Why do students have to spend time learning photosynthesis down to the molecule?! To win the test? How about winning at life? How is “photosynthesis” going to help them on job interviews, personal finance, continuous improvement, lateral thinking, relationships, dealing with rejection, self defence, mental health, citizen responsibilities?

The current educational system is graduating “little wikipedias”.

What we need are creative, resilient, independent yet empathic humans.