What if you could turn off the internet?

Tech writer Paul Miller did that for a whole year. This is what he found. Safe to say, his findings about the forces of dependency, internal and external, are not what you’d think. How is Online Paul Miller different from Offline Paul Miller? Does that different matter? As he puts it, “there’s a lot of ‘reality’ in the virtual, and a lot of ‘virtual’ in our reality.”

The experiment’s resulting short feature, “Finding Paul Miller,” is an introspective tale of the human desire for connection, the metaphysical need for purpose. Stunner: it has little to do with technology.

This is worth every one of its 17 minutes, and especially salient given the topic of the next issue of Block Club. More on that later, though. Until then, let’s give Miller the floor.

-Ben

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The internet can be a tough place to navigate. You might go in search of learning a new skill or finding the best way to accomplish a certain task, and the next thing you know you are buried under spam, cat videos and piles of useless information.

Organized Wonder is a side project for designer and front-end developer Sawyer Hollenshead. It’s a site that aims to reduce the clutter and bring you inspiring talks, documentaries and various other videos to inspire and enlighten.

The site is fairly new but has already amassed a great collection of videos that will be sure to get you re-energized and eager to start the next big thing.

I’ve included one of my favorite videos, which was done by Albin Homqvist for Education First, a world leader in international education. 

- Steve

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