Law in the Internet Society

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JakeBlecherFirstEssay 3 - 29 Oct 2019 - Main.EbenMoglen
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A Better Approach to Efficiency?

Like in most cases, neither of the extremes is good. The need for efficiency has reframed the way a generation looks at the world. Suddenly, doing only one or two things at a time feels incredibly unproductive, to the point where we will actively seek secondary tasks in any given moment to serve as a means of splitting attention. Yet, on the other hand, the rejection of efficiency has led to a feeling of resentment and underutilization of talents. The simple requirement of writing hours on a timesheet encourages procrastination and wasted time - as long as the work gets done, it doesn’t matter, right? And the combination of these mindsets is infinitely more dangerous. We approach work with the intention of spending large amounts of time on other goals, and then proceed to feel anxiety and unrest at the lack of meaningfulness in our time. Some sort of change is clearly necessary, and yet it is unclear how this will manifest. In some cases, it is okay for those five books to be less than they could be, yet others situations call for near-perfection. Learning to love the chaos of the expanding world is the key to achieving a balance. Decisions will have to be made, but that’s a good thing. Finishing a project in less time will have long-term payoffs. It is hard to retrain our brains, but that is the only way we will be able to resolve this paradox they’ve created. Otherwise, our quest for efficiency will leave us floundering in the end.

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There are two routes to improvement in this essay, I think. The existing draft is too diffuse.: It says less using more words than it should, and its commentary is uninformed by study of any kind. The only factual statement is one about the number of science-fiction television shows listed in a Wikipedia article, which is (to be generous) peripheral . No studies of "multitasking" from any disciplinary perspective are discussed, no facts are presented to support any argument. Nor is the argument clear. "Learning to love the chaos of the expanding world is the key to achieving a balance," is the closest you come to a conclusion, which does not afford the reader much insight from the effort.

What, put in a sentence, is the idea this essay wishes to convey? That sentence should begin the next draft, so that the reader knows what she is offered from the first moment. The roots of that idea—emerging not merely from opinionated introspection but from some learning—should then be shown, in a series of sentences that teach the reader something, whether he ultimately embraces your idea or views the material you have taught differently. Some attention to counter-arguments makes your essay useful for those who do not find themselves immediately in agreement. The number of books available to read before the current generation was not smaller in practice than it is now, for example, and the generations preceding yours who had your privileges of time and education had read far more of them than you have. If someone believes that the phenomena you describe are the result of a collapse of educational discipline rather than "the chaos of the expanding world," how would you explain why your contrary view leads to more insight and stronger conclusions?

 
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Revision 3r3 - 29 Oct 2019 - 12:52:12 - EbenMoglen
Revision 2r2 - 07 Oct 2019 - 22:16:49 - JakeBlecher
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