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VER-XV-0021

“I have 10,000 photos on my phone and I can't remember any of those moments.”

You outsourced your memory to a device and your brain got the message: don't bother storing this, the phone has it. But a photo is not a memory. A memory is the smell, the feeling, the sound of someone's laugh, the temperature of the air. The phone captured the surface. Your brain would have captured the depth, if you'd let it.

Your Practice

The next time something beautiful happens, put the phone away. Look at it with your eyes. Breathe it in. Tell yourself: I am here. You'll remember that moment in a way no photo ever captures. Then, once a month, delete 100 photos you don't remember taking. Lighten the archive. Deepen the experience.

The Architects

“There is continually a slight irritation when things don't look quite right; and I think that dissatisfaction in present days is a key driving force in good scientists.”

Claude Shannon, Creative Thinking, talk at Bell Laboratories, March 20, 1952