If it wasn’t for TV …
I’m 40 years old (soon to be 41). If I were to calculate how many hours of TV I have watched in my life based on an average of 3 hrs of TV per day (oh! I have done lots better than that), I have watched 5 years of TV. 5 YEARS!!!! Here’s how I did it.
- 3 hours per day
- Times 365
- Times 40
- equal 43,800 hours of TV in my life time (not including the last 11 months)
- Divided that by 24 hours (as in per day)
- Divided by 365 days (per year)
- gets me 5.
- Yes, I realize that I both multiplied by and divided by the same #. I’m not mathematician.
Ok, that’s 5 years of my life. They say that 10,000 hours of doing anything will make you a master of it. By this account, I wasted my ability to master 4 things in my life and then be well on my towards a 4th. While I don’t need to master anything there are a ton of things that I wish I had done with my time and want to use this article as a means of working towards doing them in the next 40 years of my life. I’m not sure which of these I will really do, but here they are:
- Learn to program
- Learn to draw
- Learn solid graphic design skills
- Speak 1 non-English langage really well. I’m leaning towards Hebrew or Portuguese
- Get back into Capoeira and at least get to the point where I can teach others
- Learn to play real folk & spanish guitar
- Master the Birembau (capoeira/brazilian instrument)
- Become active in politics in my local community
- Become active in a cause I deeply believe in. Choices include:
- ONE.org
- Israeli peace movement
- Ending capitalism
- Ending racism
- Food Revolution
- Healthcare revolution (reform is so yesterday and ineffective)
- Spend the time fixing my body
- my diabetes
- my lipids
- my back
- my heart
- my sleep
- Related but separate is to radically go through behavior modification around eating.
- Spend time fixing my mind (oh! too many things to list here; and most too uncomfortable to do so publicly)
- Read more
- Dive deeply into a design problem and apply my existing mastery towards that goal. (I realize this is related to #9) Options include:
- healthcare
- urban living
- education
- Become a dive master (this requires getting over some major fears of the ocean; but diving is so awesome!)
- Build my own company, or making my own “school” (education system)
This is all made possible now that the last great serial TV show is over. Thanx for 5 years, LOST!
TV shows I think I would maintain no matter what are:
- SG-U: or the next great Sci-Fi show. It is important to keep eyes on possible futures, even if those futures are in the present.
- So You Think You Can Dance & Top Chef: I watch these shows less for the drama then for the constant reminder of the importance of craft against rigorous criticism.
- How I Met Your Mother: a) my wife & I love this show. It’s something we do together. b) A constant reminder of the value of good friends
Well those are mine. What will you do if you turn off the TV?
