I’ve cut back on a bit on drinking and smoking over the years. I still do both sometimes! But I’ve exercised some discipline to do it less than I used to. It’s got me thinking about discipline more generally.
I believe living in the USA in 2025 requires a significant amount of discipline to keep a steady head. There’s a lot of distractions and not-great-for-you activities to do. It feels kind of cyberpunk to me. A lot of it is technology-based and enables increased wealth disparity.
New items that increase the “discipline requirements” of modern USA:
I try to limit these things as much as possible. Stare at the wall instead. Call your loved ones. Read a book. Play the guitar. It makes me sad when I see kids on iPads. I think their parents are setting them up for anxiety, distraction, and lifelong issues.
These addictions and their consequences are going to become more and more acute. What are the consequences? I’ll give an example that I think illustrates my point. A large portion of the college-educated individuals my age I speak with don’t read books stating they “don’t have the attention span”. And we are a generation that’s too old to have been iPad babies.