On A Friday Five From Last Week

[danieldwilliam]

1. Are we losing the art of listening?

I think we're in a strange place with regard to listening. I know that my primary school aged child is taught and encouraged at school to be a good listener.

My general presumption with any technology is that we're getting better at it.

However, the way we communicate on the internet seems to encourage us to not listen with attention and generosity to people we disagree with or who are alien  and also not to critically evaluate the content of what we are presented with.

I think that institutions matter greatly to the political and economic well-being of states. Those states or groups of citizens who solve the problem of listening and evaluating on the internet will prosper, the others will be as chaff before the wind. Or something like that.

2. Have you ever interacted with the police?

Quite a lot of my work-life involves interacting with the police in one form or another.

But I have also done so in a civilian capacity. The last time being about 11 years ago when some idiot broke my living room window with a shovel at about 4am during the Festival and when confronted with me, stark bollock naked, demanding to know what the fuck he was doing told me that he'd got the wrong house and was sorry.

3. Do you like being alone?

Yes. I do find that when surrounded by people I then want to have some time alone and when alone for a long time I wish to spend time with people. At the moment I am surrouned by too many people most of the time and wish I had more time alone.

4. Who would you share your passwords with?

I'm in two minds about this for serious passwords. One part of me thinks no one. Some other part of me thinks I ought to appoint a password executor who, in the event of my death or incapacity, could access all my social media type accounts and just delete them.

5. What are you grateful for today?

That my dinner will be better than my lunch.