Reflections 16th October

Taken on a walk in Buttermere - away from the day to day noise.

On my Mind

Eavesdropping.

What had been on my mind this week was brought into focus by a message from my friend and mentor Ed Brenegar, drawing my attention to an old but excellent post by Paul Graham on the nature of cities. There is a line in that post that I kept being drawn back to:

The conversations you overhear tell you what sort of people you're among.

There is such a truth to this. The stories we tell ourselves about what is going on are hugely influenced by those conversations within earshot (and increasingly its digital cousin), but in which we are not involved. Scraps of information on the periphery of our attention on which we are not focused, but which nontheless find their way through our filters and affect our perception.

It's not so much the water cooler conversations that matter, as what pieces of them that those walking past take on board. Our mental and physical wellbeing is being significantly influenced by …