That guy on the 7:15 train told me to stop reading industry blogs and it changed my whole commute

I used to spend every train ride scrolling through marketing blogs and LinkedIn posts. Some older gentleman in a worn out suit sat next to me last month, glanced at my phone, and said "you're turning your brain into mush trying to keep up with trends that won't matter in 6 months." He handed me a beat up copy of a history book about local bridges and walked off. Now I just read random non-fiction or stare out the window. My morning anxiety dropped by like 80 percent. Has anyone else had a stranger give them unsolicited advice that actually worked?

4 comments

4 Comments

jenny_hall18d ago

Did you ever try swapping the scrolling for a physical book? I started grabbing random paperbacks from the library sale rack and it made my train time way more calming. Sometimes the best filter for info is having someone else pick it for you.

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murray.drew17d ago

Grabbed a western off the sale rack last week, turned out way better than expected.

craig.mila18d ago

Not to be that person, @jenny_hall, but library sale racks usually have the books sorted by category, not totally random. Still, the point stands, grabbing something outside your usual genre is a solid move. Physical books definitely force you to slow down in a way scrolling never does. The whole screen-off thing helps my brain actually rest instead of just getting more wired.

burns.jenny17d ago

Last week I grabbed a random romance novel from the thrift store bin for 50 cents because the cover had a guy in a cowboy hat and a dog on it. Turns out it was the third book in a series about a horse farm and I was completely lost but honestly did not care. My brain was so used to jumping between 14 open tabs and doomscrolling that just reading a single dumb story felt like a vacation. The best part is there's no algorithm trying to sell me anything, just some retired librarian's weird taste in cowboy fiction. So yeah, I'm fully on team "let someone else pick." My attention span is still trash but at least now it's trash with a plot.