⧉ Time vampires
Welcome to the eighteenth issue of OVERLAP ⧉
Time vampires
My new (well, new-ish) subway commute involves a transfer from my local 6 train to the 4/5 express that stops near my office. There are two spots where I can transfer — Union Square, which is closest to home, and City Hall, which is closest to the office. Every transit app recommends spending the greatest portion of the trip on the express train; the fewer local stops, the sooner you’ll arrive at your destination. But I almost always stay on the local train as long as possible. It probably adds at least five minutes to my overall commute time.
I know what you’re wondering — why would I ignore Google Maps’ precisely calculated directions in favor of a deliberately slower commute? Because time isn’t only about minutes. It’s about attention, energy, and experience. Weird things happen on the local train, but the extra time is worth it if I get a seat to myself and avoid a car full of finance bros.
Calendar apps show discrete blocks of scheduled activities, stacked and separated. I sometimes wonder if that visual gets in the way of clearly understanding the experience of time. We look for efficiencies — squeezing more things into increasingly smaller blocks — instead of taking a more holistic view. Just 15 minutes on a crowded express train drains my lifeblood and makes it harder to be present and attentive for a full hour after I leave the station. I could end up paying for that shorter commute all day long.
I don’t know of any transit or calendar app that accounts for the quality of time, as opposed to the number of minutes. For me, getting the most out of my day requires attention and awareness — and a willingness to go slow now in order to be nimble later. “Efficiency” can be a time vampire in disguise.
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I’ve been thinking lately about the ethics of photography, and what it means to photograph on the street in 2019.
Just recently, a photographer I follow on Instagram posted an interesting comment; he said he often asks permission to photograph people in his own town because he doesn’t want to face the long-term consequences of a possible negative reaction. But when he’s in another city, he does whatever it takes to get the shot and doesn’t care how subjects feel about being photographed.
Do you have personal rules or standards for what and how you photograph — and/or what you do with the images? I suspect everyone has their own principles, and I’m curious to know yours. Hit reply to let me know.
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Auntie Jess recommends:
Plum-cardamom crumble with pistachios. I’ve made this recipe twice with farmers market plums. It’s perfection.
The Rose Main Reading Room. The New York Public Library is a magical place in general, and this particular room may be the best place get work done in the city.
Dropbox Paper. I use Google Docs for work, but it helps to have a different digital workspace for non-work things. This app has been a good tool for writing and tracking ideas.
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Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear from you — hit reply or send a message through my website. You can also forward this to a friend or two and invite them to subscribe. If you missed a previous issue, all the archives are online.
Until next time,
Jessica
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