I remember, years ago, reading an interview with the mathematician Marcus Du Sautoy, in which he said (I'm paraphrasing here) "I spend a lot of time looking like I'm just staring into space doing nothing, but actually I'm sorting loads of things through in my head" and I thought YES! - now I have a description for it when I'm accused of 'day dreaming'. This is what I see buffering as, it's processing during which you can't have "all systems on" but just wait for the little blue circle to gently spin, if we keep the computer analogy going 😄
Hahaha yes! Exactly! It’s just a thing that happens! There’s information to be processed; and that can’t happen in an instant, no matter how we (other people) might wish it were 😛
Love that concept of buffering. It sounds to me like the kind of time I crave, where I am not “doing” much but I have mental space to let things percolate, to reflect, to come to terms. This is the space where the glimmers that become ideas first surface.
💛 Yes. So much. I think it’s incredibly underrated and undervalued in our society - because it doesn’t look like ‘doing enough.’ But it’s necessary; that space for just ‘being.’
Would someone be able to elaborate a bit on what buffering is in this context? I feel like i understand the other 2 concepts (checking out and rest), but i havent heard of buffering in this way before. What does a buffering activity/moment look like?
Good question! I definitely wasn’t being very clear 😅 But I think that’s because buffering can mean different things to different people. It’s also not an official term or anything; just one way to think about things. One of things I associate with buffering is when you’re watching a video and it hasn’t fully downloaded yet; so you can start playing but it’s also still processing.
Therefore, I associate buffering with the time it takes to process things. It can feel a bit ‘jerky’ (ie. not smooth) and it doesn’t always feel especially restful; but it can be necessary for us to process before we move on to the next thing.
In practice, this might look like someone staring into space - not thinking of anything in particular. Or for me it’s doing my puzzle app or a doodle - I’m not especially ‘present’ but to me it doesn’t feel the same as being numb; if that makes sense?
Thank you for the reply! I was immediately super intrigued by the buffering idea because i hadnt heard it before but it sounded so relevant to my life. I travel a lot, yet always have issues with culture shock and generally settling in to new environments. So trying to rest during that time period sounds exactly like buffering to me.
Yes! Buffering is so required when there’s a shock to the system - we can’t be expected to process everything immediately (even though society/culture may make it seem that way sometimes!)
I remember, years ago, reading an interview with the mathematician Marcus Du Sautoy, in which he said (I'm paraphrasing here) "I spend a lot of time looking like I'm just staring into space doing nothing, but actually I'm sorting loads of things through in my head" and I thought YES! - now I have a description for it when I'm accused of 'day dreaming'. This is what I see buffering as, it's processing during which you can't have "all systems on" but just wait for the little blue circle to gently spin, if we keep the computer analogy going 😄
Hahaha yes! Exactly! It’s just a thing that happens! There’s information to be processed; and that can’t happen in an instant, no matter how we (other people) might wish it were 😛
Love that concept of buffering. It sounds to me like the kind of time I crave, where I am not “doing” much but I have mental space to let things percolate, to reflect, to come to terms. This is the space where the glimmers that become ideas first surface.
💛 Yes. So much. I think it’s incredibly underrated and undervalued in our society - because it doesn’t look like ‘doing enough.’ But it’s necessary; that space for just ‘being.’
Would someone be able to elaborate a bit on what buffering is in this context? I feel like i understand the other 2 concepts (checking out and rest), but i havent heard of buffering in this way before. What does a buffering activity/moment look like?
Good question! I definitely wasn’t being very clear 😅 But I think that’s because buffering can mean different things to different people. It’s also not an official term or anything; just one way to think about things. One of things I associate with buffering is when you’re watching a video and it hasn’t fully downloaded yet; so you can start playing but it’s also still processing.
Therefore, I associate buffering with the time it takes to process things. It can feel a bit ‘jerky’ (ie. not smooth) and it doesn’t always feel especially restful; but it can be necessary for us to process before we move on to the next thing.
In practice, this might look like someone staring into space - not thinking of anything in particular. Or for me it’s doing my puzzle app or a doodle - I’m not especially ‘present’ but to me it doesn’t feel the same as being numb; if that makes sense?
Thank you for the reply! I was immediately super intrigued by the buffering idea because i hadnt heard it before but it sounded so relevant to my life. I travel a lot, yet always have issues with culture shock and generally settling in to new environments. So trying to rest during that time period sounds exactly like buffering to me.
Yes! Buffering is so required when there’s a shock to the system - we can’t be expected to process everything immediately (even though society/culture may make it seem that way sometimes!)