As both I and Jeff Bezos have been discovering, time is flying and it’s flying fast. I first came across the phrase in The Phoenix and the Carpet by E Nesbit, but the truth of it has hit me only recently as I now realise it’s a whole two weeks since I last posted. I’ve got a note from the doctors to excuse me but I think it’s time I checked in at least. So… I’ve been reading Oliver Burkemans book 4000 Weeks on how to make the most of time. Carpeing the diem is in there of course but he also recommends totally wasting time; staring out of the window, watching clouds, it’s all good. Social media is not good of course as it sucks up your attention and manufactures outrage, but mainly he rails against the ubiquitous time management self-help manuals that give you 1001 joyless habits of successful people. It’s a relief. One of the books most useful ideas for me was that in choosing to do something you are simultaneously and inevitably choosing not to do others: as CS Lewis put it, you’re ‘free as a man is free to drink while he is drinking.’ You can’t drink and not-drink, you have to choose.
Don’t have a bucket list: enjoy what you’re doing now. Pay attention. Don’t fret impatiently at red traffic lights, just enjoy sitting and being.
It has also occurred to Jeff Bezos that time may one day run out for him, and so rather than spread his wealth around and help the undeserving poor he has embarked on what you might call Project Voldemort, ie the quest for eternal life. As Marina Hyde puts it in today’s Guardian, he has ‘decides that death is as inevitable as taxes, which is no say, not at all for the likes of him.’
I guess some people think you can conquer anything if you just throw enough money at it. Pity he didn’t think to throw some at his own staff.
Kirk out
Sarada Gray 
Watching clouds is good. I have just spent many hours sitting on a porch on holiday, staring at nothing in particular. I could do a lot more of that.
Bezos is horrible. I hope they defrost him 1,000 years in the future and put him in a zoo as an exhibit.
Best wishes, Pete.
I’ll drink to that, Pete! The sad thing is that so many people agree that his selfishness is the only way to be aspirational. Cheers, Jon.
I think possibly the hardest thing in life is to find the confidence to believe that we alone, as individuals, should determine what is the right & best way in life for us, so that we can create our own reality, which is why self-help books & courses are so popular; I’m not knocking them, but they can become an end in themselves, rather than a step on the ladder towards enlightenment [blimey!]. Happy Sunday! Cheers, Jon.