Cognitively Complex

One of my constant frustrations is the limited amount of time I have to do anything. It’s something that everyone, at one point or another in their lifetime, battles with, but for me — the battles have morphed into an all-out war with no cease fire in sight.

This typically manifests itself when I’m at work. I normally hit a few of my favorite websites, read over the latest world news, and check out some of my favorite Q&A sites. Upon this journey into the unknown every morning, I hit a wall.

Intrigue.

Some people probably read this and think to themselves… this guy is complaining that he’s interested in things? This isn’t a complaint. It’s pure frustration. Case in point… I was reading through an economics blog I frequent called Marginal Revolution. The economist behind it is Tyler Cowen, and he started a side project called MRUniversity that offers free courses on economics.

I took a number of economic courses in college, but I’ve lost a grip on everything I’ve learned. Back then, I wasn’t as into it as I am now, so learning about the online education aspect of Cowen’s website peaked my interest. I saved the page into my Pocket, thinking I’d return to it in a week and get to learning. That was two months ago.

I’ve taken up other endeavours in the meantime. I began freelance writing a bit, and I started a project to allow me to learn new technologies in the web development trade to keep me sharp at work. The latter of the two is enough to keep someone busy for a lifetime. The former is an immediate task I need to complete. Now, my list of things I want to learn has backlogged, and it’s causing me frustration that I can’t get to it.

I need to relax.