How do you publicize the necessity to disengage from status quo and social media pressures? Read this article, “Solitude and Leadership.” Actually, it is an essay/lecture by William Deresiewicz. Take your ear buds out. Put away your mobile device (and tablet). Find a quiet corner of a public library (as I am doing presently). And read the essay from beginning to end. Here’s another acorn from the tree to whet your appetite:

“…true leadership means being able to think for yourself and act on your convictions.

One of the consequences for following this wisdom is you will not be popular. Here is another acorn to digest:

“Multitasking, in short, is not only not thinking, it impairs your ability to think. Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it. Not learning other people’s ideas, or memorizing a body of information, however much those may sometimes be useful. Developing your own ideas. In short, thinking for yourself. You simply cannot do that in bursts of 20 seconds at a time, constantly interrupted by Facebook messages or Twitter tweets, or fiddling with your iPod, or watching something on YouTube.”

Does that sound familiar? Do you see the need for undistracted time and space to develop ideas?

NOTES:

[1] William Deresiewicz, “Solitude and Leadership,” The American Scholar, Spring 2010 accessed April 8, 2014 http://theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership/#.U0QWZa1dXKI