A philosophical YouTuber posted a video explaining the gossip that circulates on social media, and it made me realize how lucky I was that there was no internet or social media when I was young.
The internet today offers countless enticing options (i.e., content) that have no intrinsic value but which only stimulate our dopamine levels. I think it's mainly young people who are wasting their time there. These are really unimportant things, the kind of things you'd put at the top of your "not-to-do" list.
Even if you throw a YouTube video that catches your eyes into "Watch Later," if you self-regulate your viewing time, you won't be able to watch the whole thing, even at double speed. But, oh well. You can get by without watching it, you think.
Truly successful people probably have that "I can without it, it's okay" mindset. They probably have a massive "not-to-do" list ready for themselves, and they live each day carefully, avoiding potential landmines. Their speed isn't fast, but because they don't get caught up in unimportant things, they can steadily move forward. It reminded me of Aesop's story of the tortoise and the hare.
I feel like there has been a decline in "inventions" over the past decade or so. Perhaps it's because huge resouces are devoted to the development and consumption of algorithms online. Inventions, after all, utilize the laws of nature, meaning they start with physical objects. Intellectual property on the internet does not qualify as "inventions," although they may qualify as utility models or designs.
I believe that the development of human civilization and society is driven by "inventions." This is very similar to Drucker's statement that "an organization's success is defined by its external customers." In other words, it's about whether or not we can keep extract values from the outside, the natural world. Without this, I guess human civilization would be impossible to develop.
It may be that many people will soon begin to realize the limitations of the method of measuring "development" that has been used for the past few decades solely in terms of monetary transactions.
Many people are wasting their energy on things that would normally be on their "not-to-do" list. As a result, "inventions" have plummeted. If we are no longer able to prolong the impasse known as "human survival," then the end may truly be near.