Some Comfort Zones are more Equal than Others
Understanding your comfort zone
A lot of things are amazing with modern society. Electricity, internet, tap water, modern sanitation systems etc. However, as with most things, there are trade-offs. Having all these facilities, surely, makes our lives much more comfortable. Imagine a life without any water pumps, running water, heating etc. While this is the reality for many 100s of millions (if not more) of people across the planet, most of us, especially us who have time to read and write blog posts, don't have this problem. I am writing this for us.
If you have the above stated facilities, it is fair to say that you are blessed and doomed at the same time. Most things in life are a trade-off, or a double edged sword and even having these modern luxuries, we are surrendering important life skills and experiences. I am not writing this to call for the abolishment of modern advances in technology, especially like the ones stated above which increase quality of living. However, what I am calling for is to introspect how these facilities have spoiled us. Imagine having to walk several kilometers to get your daily ration of water. Thereafter, living your day based on what you have. The sheer planning and execution that needs to go on living your day with rationed resources (such as drinkable water) takes immense toll on your mind and your being.
Many would argue, that in the long run, it makes you resilient and enhances your ability to live with what you got. In other words, for us who have these facilities, it is fair to say we have been conditioned to take these for granted and imagining a life where we live with limited water, no electricity and societies where sanitation handled manually would be scenes of dystopia.
By now, I have probably succeeded in making you feel guilty for having running tap water, electricity and internet. This probably means you don't know how to direct water using pipes, pumps and along with deficient knowledge in engineering sanitation systems. Also, the fact that you use internet, you probably never visited a library in your life, opened a book or just overall lazy. Same for using electricity - you probably don't know how to start a fire and keep yourself warm and safe. Showering, with only two buckets of water, it's an art - and you are missing out. Jokes aside, just trying to highlight that most things come with trade-offs depending on how you view them.
The future of comfort zones
Your comfort zone, is a commodity. Everyone wants a piece of it and promises you a life with more of it where you do less, so can do more of the things 'you love'. In my humble opinion, technology is amazing and an indispensable tool to ensure a certain level of life quality and without exception, a necessity in certain aspects of human societies - a few examples being defense, health and arguably judiciary, education etc. However, from a perspective of consumer technology (the fun stuff like gaming, entertainment etc), there are a few things we should consider before getting too comfortable.
With the emergence of new 'productivity tools', sold to us under the banner of 'AI' (Artificial Intelligence) or 'GenAI' (Generative AI), an assault on our thinking is looming. While the advantages are many, this might be one of the first signs that we are heading towards a total capitulation of our own consciousness to an era where everything will be 'enhanced'. Your productivity, your thinking, your health, your A-Z. Soon, there will be chips in your brain, and you will be 'optimized' and depending on your income, you will be able to program yourself to whatever IQ you wish. You will be able to paint, sing, dance, perform any martial art, sport, write books etc - as long as you are subscribed to the premium package and have the budget for occasional add-ons.
Again, there is also nothing wrong with the above. Because 'productivity' is just this. Thinking, designing, experimenting and then building things in the hope (or not) to monetize the output in the market. This beautiful process starts from the mind with the action of thoughts. From this process, what is produced, is truly yours which you are contributing to the pool of knowledge - no matter how the market responds to it. While I am not taking a moral stance, I only hope that there is enough electricity and water to cool the massive data centers needed for these modern AI tools. After all, all these tools, to be 'productive' and do the things you 'love' in one prompt will save you a lot of time. Time to do what?
Some comfort zones are worth staying in
Often, when one takes a contrarian stance, you are described as a dinosaur, anti-progress, communist (!) etc. The need to sheepishly promote the hype just to fit in is wrong - especially if you are sheepishly promoting the hype just to fit in! Technology is not inherently wrong but surrendering the process of 'discomforting' your mind, in the pursuit of creating, improving etc on something, is a dangerous path to follow.
Simple example -you want to get better at drawing. Are you going to sell me the idea that I can simply use a GenAI tool and just prompt what I want to create and actually become better at drawing? Then sell the output of my prompting to the world as my art? And that the new skill that we need to become better at is prompting? Drawing, is one of those things I 'love' doing when I have some time after finding lumber for my fire, collecting water from a distant lake and gathering fruits and berries for the winter.
The process of learning drawing has been painful and I never seem to be happy with myself. However, sometimes, not often, there are moments, when I can see the improvements and that 'suffering' that my brain has gone through, is the sweat and endurance of learning something new. That sweat and endurance also manifests in the 'juice' that makes something yours.
Another example is physical health. It's not easy to lose excessive weight, eat healthy, schedule in exercise (despite the tolls of collecting lumber, walking for water etc) and at the same time maintaining responsibilities of daily life. However, while we are often urged to 'get out of our comfort zones', we often also forget that in order to establish a more healthier routine, was just that - getting out of a previous comfort zone. But maintaining the new comfort zone, that is the healthy routine, has itself become the new comfort zone which takes time, sacrifice and effort to stay in. That effort, perseverance is the juice that is building you. So, before you get tempted into injecting yourself with a serum 'optimized' for you, or simply prompting away your creative thoughts, think twice, or even thrice and make some time to persevere, to sharpen your pencil, to draw, to run and suffer! Because this beautiful suffering is living!
A toast to engineers and neuroplasticity
If there are a few things I want you to take from this article is that not all comfort zones are bad and similarly, not all technology is bad. As I wrote at the start, most things are double edged swords. Playing sports under the sun while wearing shorts and t-shirts, will always be one of those 'suffering is good' comfort zones that you don't want to stop being in. Run, scream, lose, win, introspect on how to get better, and repeat again. For aspiring artists, suffer the grueling task in learning form, perspective, proportion - don't outsource the final product of this, that is your art, to a GenAI tool. Your mind will hate you in the start, but that process itself is the testament that your mind is still yours.
Lastly, a toast, to the engineers that advanced technology so that I could have internet, clean water and electricity. Long live STEM, long live the construction of neural pathways.
