From the Editor’s Desk: Learnscrolling ⭐

Years ago, when we still lived in Dedham with the kids, I went to a small fitness studio to work out with a personal trainer three times a week because I found the local gyms lackluster and I'm not much of a self-starter with this kind of thing. One of my favorite and longer lasting trainers was an attractive young blond woman, and she surprised me over time with an intelligence I really came to appreciate.

One day, I came into the studio ahead of a session and she was sitting at the front desk reading People magazine, or some other People-adjacent nonsense that focused on celebrities and whatever ridiculous advice they have to offer about eating, relationships, and who knows (or cares) what else. This surprised me, and before I could think better of it, I blurted out something like, "you're better than that." And regretted it immediately.

But she asked, so I told her that when she has downtime at work, she has choices about how to fill that time. And that I couldn't think of a less fulfilling activity than reading that magazine, which would just fill her head with useless information. Perhaps she could read something educational, I suggested, noting that when I had worked in banks as a young man I would often read technical books like Petzold's Programming Windows in my spare time. And that there had been some benefit to this as I later became part of the technology industry, albeit as a writer not a programmer.

She was unimpressed by this argument. She told me she didn't care about anything in the magazine and that sometimes she just wanted to rest her mind, not keep it busy. This was her free time, in short, and she would spend it the way she wanted to. Today, we would call this being intentional, but we have so many stupid terms today that weren't common back then. She was just doing her own thing.

Fair enough. She went on to kick my butt that day, as usual, but she also gave me something to think about. And while I've never drawn a straight line between these things, my wife and I will specifically--intentionally--watch true crime shows on YouTube or whatever at night because there's nothing to think about. It's always immediately obvious who did it, and there's no pretense otherwise. And we can wind down our brains for a few hours before going to bed. Sometimes we are engaged with a show or movie we really do care about. But oftentimes no.

There are countless areas in which I am unqualified to give anyone advice, and if I were to start a list, it would be long, and it would start with work-life balance. But buried in this mess of a brain, I do purposefully--intentionally--and occasionally get a few things right. And while filling every down moment with learning is perhaps a step too far, trying to learn, whether it's by reading, watching a video, or whatever else, is obviously the right thing to do sometimes. And I have spent a lifetime learning. It may be the only truly healthy thing I do.

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