Consumerism vs Producerism
I’m not really sure that Producerism is a word, but it’s the closest I can come up with the describe the phenomenon I’m thinking about. Basically, I feel like I go through these extreme phases of alternating consumerism and producerism.
For instance, in recent memory, I started with a massive consumerist phase starting in November. I read an average of two books a week, watched three or four movies, read hundreds of online articles, and basically absorbed knowledge and information like a dry sponge in a deluge. Starting in mid-January, I changed gears, and spent virtually all of my free time working on some creative project or another: finally finishing my DVR project, programming like a fiend, and polishing and revising a couple of my short stories. Early April saw the pendulum swing back to consuming, while late June shifted back to production.
The weirdest part of these shifts is that they seem so complete and one-dimensional. Right now I’m not sure I could force myself to sit down and read a book, because I’m virtually bursting with ideas and projects that I just have to finish. When I switch back to consuming, I can’t seem to focus on my projects because there are too many things for me to learn.
Does anyone else ever get these feelings? Or is it yet another example of my warped personality?
August 10th, 2005 at 11:39 am
Sounds like binge and purge creativity. I go through these phases from time to time, though mine are more balanced and tend toward being a few days in, a few days out as opposed to a whole month or more in one direction. In my experience, the “down time” or the “in” phase is a time in which I let someone else exercise his/her creativity on my behalf, allowing the back of my mind to continue to work on projects that will surface during my creative or “out” phase. I often read books over a week or so, but I have found that it is easiest for me to enter an “in” phase when the rest of my schedule is upside down. Like now, for example, I am starting a rotating shift that I will be on for a week, and then I will return to my normal work schedule for a time. During the five days off before this new shift, I have finished two books, watched 20 or so hours of the History Channel, watched a dozen movies, and reread some fiction that I have been working on for ideas about where to go in the future. When I get back to a normal schedule, I will probably put down whatever book I am reading at the time and not pick it up again except for a few minutes in the evening before bed. I will also complete another chapter or so for one of my projects, and I will outline some items for future projects. I may reverse-engineer some schematics for HVAC control boards and other logic CCAs that haven’t been made in 20 years but are still in use and such as more time avails. I never know…but I understand