Moping About What Comes Next

I’m reading Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow. It’s this satisfyingly weird book about economic warfare waged among time zone tribes. It talks a lot about sleep deprivation, social networking and chat rooms, so it’s a great read for someone from my generation. Here’s a quotation that resonated with me:

I was too smart for my own good. I could always argue myself into doing the sexy, futuristic thing instead of being a nice, mundane, nonaffiliated
individual. Too smart to settle down, take a job and watch TV after work, spend two weeks a year at the cottage and go online to find movie listings. Too smart is too restless and no happiness, ever, without that it’s chased by obsessive maundering moping about what comes next.

I can understand that restlessness, that rebellion against the mundane. For instance, watching TV every evening seems a waste of time to me, especially when the Internets are begging for my attention.

save