0 More Reading and Listening

_11.7.2021_ People do not really read. I asked my students whether they read or not, the answer was no. People who are not students that I know, they do not read at all. Their life is all about working and entertainment. Most people watch TV. It becomes the main activity in the living room. I read books randomly, one day I read so much, the next day so little. I need to settle this habit into more reliable habit. I should put a number and decide the time. I love reading and I hope I can read more. Lately I listen to audiobooks more than read the books. Listening spends less effort and can be done anytime and anywhere. Reading needs more focus and specific location while listening can be done while running or doing other things. The good quality that I have now is derived from reading and listening habit. I do not remember what my teachers taught me in the past. I learned very little from them. I learned more from books and podcasts. Audiobooks and podcasts are easier because I know how long it takes to finish one. I realize that number helps me a lot to finish anything. Now I put number on everything I do if I want to do it to the end. Number gives me the clear mental model from the start to the end. If I can imagine the end, I can do it simply. Books have page number on them, so it's easy for me to finish them. With drawing, I do not know how to finish it. It's so abstract and therefore I can't imagine how long it will take. Creative process has some unpredictable and random factors. Now I'm learning Mandarin. I know that the progress is very slow because I do not read and listen a lot. I must do it every single day for years just like what I did with my English. I remember that when I studied English long ago, I love reading any books even if I didn’t really understand it. I watched movies almost every day. I enjoyed the process very much. It happened when I was a student and I had all the time to study. Now my mind is busy with a lot of thoughts. I know I can do it better now because I am wiser. I can focus better and make better decision. Thanks to my reading habit that I can think better and clearer. I can voluntarily say no to distraction and useless staffs. I can feel it that I get better a lot lately with more reading books and listening to audiobooks. In the past, mostly I read fictions and philosophy, now mostly economic, psychology, and philosophy. People suffer from their own fiction in their mind. I think reading will help them a lot more than money will help them. No one is suffering from hunger and lack of stuffs. They have more than what they need. In all houses I visited, I could see too many stuffs. All people have television and smartphone. They eat too much and become overweight. Yet they still feel unhappy for not having luxury stuffs they have seen on television. They care only about working and consuming. It becomes the game of life. They think having more will make them happier. In this globalization era, everyone has the same access to foods and entertainment. Rich people do not eat different foods from common people. Now I live in a small village in Central Java, I eat better foods every day than when I lived in Jakarta. In the luxury hotels where the foods are expensive, they are expensive because of the context, they are the same foods I can find anywhere with much cheaper price. Everyone wants to look good but not to be really good. It's a social game. It makes most people unhappy. To live simple happy life, one can work very little and have a lot of time doing anything they like. I'm not anti-working. I love working because it gives meaning to life. I prefer to work than to have mindless entertainment like watching TV all the time. Working can be self-actualization and transform people into better version of themselves. The problem with working is that most people do it merely for money. They do what they do not like to do. They do not work to build and pursue their dreams. They sell their labors and time for others in order to be able to consume more. They are ignorant and unhappy. I pay attention to people. Most of them do not have anything to talk to each other meaningfully. They just repeat the same topic day in day out. The conversations are mostly about their problems because they do not have real ideas to share about. So life is mostly about their problems and others' problems. Other than that it's just how to consume more, and how to win social game. This kind of life is boring. They get bored and they need more entertainment and social media. They are busy with nothing. Their problems are also meaningless. I think they do not even realize this. Their mind cannot comprehend and experience the higher and better problems. It's like a primary students can't understand university level books and materials. I know that I'm not better than them just because I read more books. It's just different choice of life. People can be and do anything and become happy. Long ago before school and any modern technology, people went hunting together in a small group. They lived and experienced everything first hand, not from books or lectures. It's great adventure and I'm into that kind of life. Live freely in the nature. Now people are bombarded by misinformation and manipulation. People are unhappy and so much stressful with their life which is caused by unreal problems. In the past people hunted wild animals for foods, today they hunt each other for no more real prey and predator. People play the game of status and social power.