Show Notes:
“We’re not passive observers or consumers of reality. We are creators. We are co-creating this universe — and we have an impact. The way in which we see the world alters the world. It shapes us; we shape it…” ~ Menka Sanghvi
Every once in a while I hit on a conversation that feels like salve for our weary souls. This is one of those times.
Menka Sanghvi and I feel our ways around noticing as the first step to caring, taking responsibility for where and how we direct our attention, attention activism and artistry, not accepting default settings, the essence of parenting, and why looking at the sky first thing in the morning is such a good idea.
Menka is a mindfulness and digital habits expert based in London. Her writing, speaking and many projects explore the relationship between attention, technology and society. She is the founder of Just Looking — a community project that champions more curiosity and wonder in the everyday — and co-author of the newly released book Your Best Digital Life: Use Your Mind to Tame Your Tech.
I think that we have this idea that attention does its thing, and then we notice something and then we get curious about it — and I think that does happen — but I also think that curiosity has a role to play before that noticing, to open us up to be interested, to notice in the first place.
Listen to Choose to Be Curious #276: Just Looking, with Menka Sanghvi
Check out Menka Sanghvi, Just Looking, and Your Best Digital Life. On May 22, Menka is offering a free webinar/workshop for those who have (pre-)ordered her book.
We touched on all sorts of wonderful curiosity-friendly resources in this conversation:
Sam Harris, neuroscientist, philosopher, New York Times best-selling author, source of the burning house analogy.
Sophie Howarth, author of Everyday Wonder: how to find beauty in the ordinary and source of “skies before screens”, inspired by poet Mary Oliver.
Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a compendium of new words for emotions, created by John Koenig, inspiration for Menka’s Just Looking card “Each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.”
Jay Vidyarthi, self-described “attention activist”, has a Substack on mindfulness, technology and design.
Center for Humane Technology focuses on transforming the incentives that drive technology, from social media to artificial intelligence.
Jonathan Garner, founder and CEO of Mind Over Tech, is Menka’s co-author.
If this discussion grabbed your attention, these C2BC Classics might interest you as well: #mycuriouseyes with Karen Ward; Urban Sketching, with Todd Cumpston; and The Art of Noticing, with Rob Walker. Also, check out my Gallery, photographic collections of me noticing everything from the kitchen to fall leaves and my own feet.
Theme music by Sean Balick; ”Mind Body Mind”, by Bodytonic , via Blue Dot Sessions.
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