Get back to work

Merlin Mann rocked my world today with this video. The point I want to highlight is that the Internet (by and large) is never going to tell you when to stop looking for answers and get back to work.

Makebelieve Help, Old Butchers, and Figuring Out Who You Are (For Now) from Merlin Mann on Vimeo.

Here’s a quote directly from Merlinn’s site:

Here’s a video I made about a video I made. Consequently, it’s also about writing a book, fake self-help, the long road to developing expertise, and the ups and downs of repeatedly asking the world to tell you who you are.

Near the end of the video while talking about self-help sites, like Life Hacker, Merlin mentions how they have a disincentive to tell people to leave and get back to work.

…they’re not bad people but the nature of what they do requires them to not tell you when you’re done.

This is one of the biggest problems I have with the Internet in general. It’s never going to tell you to go home. It’s always on, always ready to feed you more information. This can be a great thing, but like Merlin says, there is a dark side. It’ll never tell you when to stop looking and get back to work.