Dishwasher Mindfulness

The Practical Polymath #50

Hi Friends, 

Greetings from Brooklyn! 

This week, I started a 30-day long no sugar diet. I’m curious to see how it affects my focus and energy levels throughout the day. I don’t usually last a day without munching on an piece of chocolate or carpet bombing my coffee with spoons of sugar so this is going to be a journey. I’ll report back if anything interesting comes out of this slightly masochistic experiment.

See you in two weeks,

Florian 

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Dishwasher Mindfulness

I have a love-hate relationship with my dishwasher. On the one hand, unloading it is number one on the podium of most annoying daily chores. On the other hand, it is an unexpected source of meditation. 

Hear me out.  

Back in 1655, English mathematician John Wallis came up with ∞ as the symbol for infinity. Had dishwashers been around then, he would probably have gone for a tiny square instead. Nothing embodies infinite repetition better than the ritual of loading and unloading the dishwasher. You did it yesterday, you’ll do it today and you’ll sure as hell do it again tomorrow.  

The minute I pull the rack full of steaming hot dishes, my mind knows it’s time to put the autopilot mode on. Just like taking a shower or putting socks on, unloading the dishwasher is the type of daily routine activity that doesn’t seem worthy of our full attention.  

But what if these mundane movements were a training ground for mindfulness? 

I’ve learned a lot from meditation apps but there’s something paradoxical about them. You close your eyes, breathe in, breathe out, and then it’s already time to go back to whatever’s next on your to-do list. The same way a boxer wouldn’t go very far just training on a punching bag, it’s naive to think that sitting cross-legged for twenty minutes is going to set you on the path to stillness. You need to get that mind in the boxing ring.

And what better ring than all of those mundane movements that retain our focus the way a fork retains water.

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Weekly Wisdom 

🎥 The Discipline of Do Easy: I’m not sure how I stumbled on this short movie by Gus Van Sant but I’m glad I did. Depending on your level of tolerance for the absurd, you may find this strangely relatable without really being able to tell why. 

🍩 Doughtnut History: Doughnuts are one of my favorite pastries. But I bought a batch recently that really didn’t go down well. Instead of the light texture I’m so in love with, these ones were crumbly and cake-like. It turns out that I’m squarely in the “yeast doughnut” camp in a battle that has been raging for over a century. 

🧑‍🍳 Better Eats: Technology in the kitchen didn't evolve that much in the post-war period but what did change was the knowledge of home chefs. Traditional recipes gave way to a science-based approach to cooking more adapted to the need of home-cooking.  

Lateral Thought

“We are now looking more and more in books and less and less at nature! There is clearly a risk we will go too far occasionally—and I expect this will happen frequently in the future.”

Richard W. Hamming