Comments on: Listen Everywhere

By: Madeleine

Madeleine — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:36:41 +0000

Jeffrey, Listening seems almost to be a dying art. Just as we've having some incredibly imortant discussions in the U.S. aboout how we organize health care so that people get the care they need, many people seem to be collectiving holding their hands over their ears. They give an automatic response, such as “But that's socialized medicine.” No information is going in, and none is coming out. What are we so afraid of?

By: chompermom

chompermom — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:27:40 +0000

The idea of the sheer volume of things to listen to… this is an idea I've been noticing lately, but hadn't put into words yet. I've always hated the fact that even if I started reading from the time I could until I die, I could never, ever read every book that has ever been written. Thousands or millions more would be written during my lifetime. And that doesn't even count magazines, newspapers, blogs, even movies. There is so much information out there.

I've been doing a lot of networking lately and watching/reading other blogs to see how other people are doing things. There are so many intriguing people out there. And I can never have enough time to know them all well and read every single thing they've written. It's frustrating! :) But I love it. I find inspiration in all kinds of things.

By: Jeffrey Tang

Jeffrey Tang — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:23:33 +0000

Absolutely. Besides, listening gets us a lot more knowledge than we would have had otherwise.

By: phaoloo

phaoloo — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:08:56 +0000

Nice post. Knowledge talks, wisdom listens. I still believe it.

By: Jeffrey Tang

Jeffrey Tang — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:01:32 +0000

I love that W.H. Auden quote too! It really hit me hard when I read it for the first time.

There are absolutely times when we need silence; some time to ourselves or to process all the information we've taken in. I just think it's important never to use silence as an excuse, because there's so much out there, and so little time …

By: Jeffrey Tang

Jeffrey Tang — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:59:18 +0000

I agree, Karlil. But although information overload is a problem, I don't think it's as serious as we sometimes believe. I think our information threshold is pretty high, especially if we let ourselves be curious.

In a way, true focus must emerge from a noisy environment. If you have a lot of information and experience to draw on, you'll be able to identify the things to focus on, whereas you might unwittingly straitjacket yourself otherwise. What do you think?

By: Jeffrey Tang

Jeffrey Tang — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:56:08 +0000

And thank you for reading :)

By: Patty

Patty — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:09:53 +0000

Hi Jeffrey – The quote from Auden is perfect. Like you, I used to believe I had to strive for originality, but I kept bumping up against the truth that my ideas were already out there in so many other shapes and forms. So I thought, “Well, that's that. I have nothing new.” But a dear friend explained that it wasn't about having new ideas, it was how I expressed those ideas through my own unique voice. My authenticity. And when I started exploring Jung and studying depth psychology, I really got it: the collective unconscious is alive and well, we're all linked in ways we don't fully understand. Oh, and I do appreciate what you say about listening. Your energy just shines through in this post. But since I listen for a living, and it is intense, there are times when I simply need silence.

By: Kitty Cat

Kitty Cat — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:58:59 +0000

Thank you for sharing :))

By: Karlil

Karlil — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:24:48 +0000

Hey Jeffrey. This is a good topic.In a way, I can't agree more Jeffrey. Though I would say that this is only true in a sense that the information is useful for you. If you always try to take everything that you hear, you might end up having information overload and sooner or later, would be overwhelmed and start losing focus. At least that is the case for me.