This line comes from George Orwell’s 1937 book, “The Road To Wigan Pier”.
He was writing about working-class life in the North of England before the War, but this line is still poignant, 80 years later.
Sure, today we’d write it differently: “Like many people, he spent far too much time on Facebook, Twitter, the Internet”, etc.
But the point is still the same. Though it’s good to be informed, it’s easy to be *too* informed.
If you’re really succeeding at the A-Game, playing on the A-Team, you most likely don’t have time to be “au courant”.
You’re too busy trying to hit your KPIs, pay the mortgage, and look after your family. You know, all the stuff the news media couldn’t care less about.
This can be a hard lesson to learn- especially or those of us with arts/creative/media backgrounds- but it’s very liberating once it happens.
We are here to better ourselves, and to do that it’s a constant reevaluation of what matters and what to focus our energies on. It’s never-ending, and if done right, it’s a beautiful thing.
