84. Wasting time with Sudoku, 2048 & TV

Dear Jan

I have come to a shocking conclusion: I am a layabout (a person who habitually does little or no work).

I have two games on my phone which I play almost every day: 2048 and Sudoku. I like them because there is some difficulty, but really they are pretty easy, so they give me the feeling that I am pretty smart. I like this feeling. They are also good because I am making progress. I am getting better bit by bit. This also gives me a good feeling. So I have been filling in numbers (from 1 to 9) for a few years with Sudoku and for half a year sliding number tiles with 2048. It was not until last week that I realized how much time I spent on this, as the games keep statistics of how much time you spend per game. On Sudoku I have spent, over the last 8 months, about 14,400 minutes. 14,400 minutes = 240 hours divided by an 8hour working day = 30 working days = 6 working weeks. On 2048 I have spent this year 6,000 minutes = 100 hours = 12.5 days = 2.5 workweek. On watching TV (and I hardly dare to write this down) I spend an average of 1.5 hours per day. That is up to yesterday – 231 days x 1.5 hours = 346.5 hours = 20,790 minutes = 43.31 days = 8.66 weeks.

So in total, I have wasted 17.16 working weeks this year. 85.81 days. 686.5 hours. 41,190 minutes. And that makes over two million, four hundred and seventy-one thousand and forty seconds. And that is a lot of time.

Suppose I had spent this time working, reading books making me smarter or studying, I would have been 86 days smarter, more successful and/or wealthier. The only thing I can say now is that I reached level 12 with Sudoku and reached tile 4,096 with 2048 (after hundreds of hours spent I belong to the lowest 1% achievers). From all those 8.66 weeks watching television I cannot remember anything worth mentioning. All of this does not give me the slightest sense of fulfilment or meaning, it is without any kind of relevance and actually extremely sad I wasted my time on this.

So I deleted the games from my phone and I stopped watching TV. Yesterday was the first day without this kind of entertainment and a strange sensation hit me. It was as if my life had no meaning anymore. I had no idea what to do that evening. So I grabbed a book from David Bohm, “Unfolding Meaning” and I immediately realized that this was the purpose which I had in mind. Reading this book felt much better than filling numbers, sliding tiles on a phone or passively watching television.

My intention is not to waste any more time on TV and dopey games and I am very curious what this will bring. Maybe I will write more on my experiences in one of the next columns.

Sincerely,
Gerard