Less is More (적은 것이 더 많다, 少ないほうがいいです, 少即是多)

As I become more and more detached from the rigorous beliefs and standards of mainstream society, I realize more and more how the word "more" has been transformed, where actually smaller, compact products that take up less time and less energy is actually "more" or better. It's everywhere in society nowadays, this generally accepted wisdom: get everywhere faster, write less so others have to read less, do a shorter Youtube video so people don't lose attention span, etc. 

As people have shorter and shorter attention spans, my Youtube video feed is full of videos that are 30 seconds or less, and I am much more willing to click on a 30-second video than things longer than that. Not only will this be likely to cause an ad to pop up, but it allows me to commit less time to it. 

MJ uses the 1.5x speed function for the same purpose: condense everything into less time to get it done quicker. This seems to work for her in doing nursing school homework, but I do wonder if I would miss something important if I went faster than the ability to take notes, either physical or mental. Then again, I tend to lose focus if something is slow and dragging on, so maybe fast speeds is the natural combatant of boredom and monotony, and I would have learned more and paid more attention in law school if it sped up. 

There's also a important skill in being concise and being able to express more with less. I'm not just talking about short statements on social media that elicit the most likes just because of the extreme message that they send, like "xx person is a terrorist." That doesn't lend any nuisance, doesn't address concerns with your message, and oversimplies everything about the subject matter. Much more artful ways to express complex ideas have evolved through human history, like symbols, motifs, allegories, and power quotes. It's hard not to admire these artists' ability to summarize everything into small understandale messages, and really nowadays that's what we need in society, where nobody seems to have any free time and is constantly being distracted by the next thing on the queue. Less is beautiful, less gets read more, less gets attention, so being less is an art form in itself that people appreciate. 

It's kind of what Ken Jennings said in his books about being an obsessor of convenience: finding shortcuts, more efficient ways of doing something. That is the new currency of the twenty-first century, and those who master the skill better are best positioned to succeed in the new society. 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan