Why Christopher Nolan uses a flip-phone

[Andrew Reid]

A new blog post:

https://www.eoshd.com/news/oppenheimer-why-christopher-nolan-uses-a-flip-phone/

It is interesting that the same technology that enables modern life, also at the same time destroys us.

[MrSMW]

But if you are Christopher Nolan, you don’t have to be on social media to tout your wares because everyone in the industry knows your résumé.

And you can afford to fly to Ireland in your private jet to hand deliver the script to Tommy Shelby in person.

I was asked last week if I could drop in to Bordeaux next week to meet a couple who might be interested in using my services.

Yeah, 15 hour round trip driving so 2 days for a zero commitment chat. If they even turned up… 🤪

But otherwise no fan of social media myself, other than for 2 purposes.

A. Not having the status of Nolan, touting my wares to prospective punters.

B. Sharing pics with friends & family.

But I could happily live in a world where social media did not exist.

[SMGJohn]

I can see Nolans point of view, I personally had to disconnect the internet in my work office because its too distracting, even told my boss to get me one of those dumb phones since we were required to take phone calls.

Only three times a day did I connect to the internet, when I came to work, after lunch and 30 mins before the workday was over, and all of that, was to check and reply to emails as those are primary source of tasks including updating the progress on various jobs online. 

I really hate working on computers in general for the simple fact its easier to draw concepts on paper than it is to make one in a computer says it all.

It even went to the point where if I had no idea what to design or create, I had to walk out the office, go sit somewhere, and I probably sit there for 2 -3 hours just drawing madly in my notes until the boss had enough of that and I quit 6 months later for burn-out. 

The world is so connected today its honestly mind blowing when people complain they are "lonely" in life, well I wonder why? Most people sit in their little echo-chambers feeding narcissism and other toxic attitudes, the days of social gatherings ended and I am so thankful to have actually lived in an era before social media just so that I personally know what it is like having to meet friends and go out do something, we used to go photography trips together a lot, but no one wants to do it, why? Oh they got smartphones now, it take pictures, they are bored of it.

Thats another problem, ease of access, makes things boring, there no struggle, there no challenge to anything thats easy, why work hard when you can work easy? Right? What took a team of 3 people to make a magazine design, is now pushed onto suckers like me who have deadlines in 1 week. 

The thing how Nolan was missing out is true to many extent, people making groups in social media and chatting away, but in my 14 years of experience, I never seen these groups ever do anything productive, its always toxicity brewing eventually. But if you were to meet out for a drink, thats rarely the case mostly because everyones too drunk to care. 

 

I miss the analogue world, and while I do appreciate the modern wonders, too many side effects.

[kye]

I recommend the movie "The Congress" from 2013.

[Clark Nikolai]

14 hours ago, SMGJohn said:

Quote

I personally had to disconnect the internet in my work office because its too distracting,

This is something I find as well. When I first got an editing computer at home (MacPro in the miniDV days) I had dial-up so would only check emails on a separate computer. Later when I got ADSL and could connect more than one computer I decided that it was too distracting and kept the edit computer offline and used the other one as the general computer, email, web browsing, etc. That was good for a few years. Then the laptop got too old to run some new things and I ended up making the MacPro the single computer for everything so it had to be online.

Big mistake, way more distractions. Say I'm in the middle of concentrating on a scene, there's all the subtle things you have to notice in the footage to make creative decisions that you have to muster up, then you get interrupted by an email coming in.

Another thing is when things get tough it's natural to avoid it but you have to force yourself to stick to it and figure it out. When distraction is easy you can avoid it easily. You can tell yourself that you're just taking a break but a real break would be not involving a computer (going for a walk, etc.)

I read about how David Lynch meditates every day and has for decades. This might be why he's so prolific.

(I also have a theory about the increased diagnoses of ADD in young people. Maybe they're just normal but living in a time when their environment is more distracting than previous generations and to manage.)

[Eric Calabros]

Vladimir Putin is also a disconnected man. Did it help? Not at all. He doesn't even know what's happening on the ground, and yet his peasant cannon fodder soldiers calling for his help, or at least a bit of attention, on TikTok!

In a world of "popular contrarianism", some people are selling the online abstinence as a virtue! And its stupid. The alternative of spending 8 hours a day on Twitter is not using flip phone. The alternative is spending 2 hours. 

 

"Can an AI generated actor who doesn’t exist, become a celebrity?"

Yes, it can. When he is so realistic that people don't even want to hear that its software generated. 

[MrSMW]

6 hours ago, Eric Calabros said:

The alternative of spending 8 hours a day on Twitter is not using flip phone. The alternative is spending 2 hours.

Yep. It’s called self control.

My main working laptop is connected to the internet but as with all my devices, I have social media alerts switched off because without exaggeration, 99% of alerts are of zero interest to me. Ditto email. I can connect to it when I want to or not.

I don’t get this, “but it’s a distraction”. 

If’s only a distraction if you choose for it to be.

Same for watching a TV show or going for a walk or going to the gym. Wife and daughter, phones on. Me, phone off.

It’s with me for emergency purposes and I am not immune to pausing during a TV show to look up an actor or write a note, but never at the same time.

Social media for me is scheduled for 2 times in the day (typing twaddle on this forum, whenever I feel like it) and that is my business social media, which is purely Instagram, around 8-8.30am for about 10 mins. Personal insta and then only if I have something to post, at the end of the day and only about once per week.

Email is a simple communication business tool so I will use it whenever I need to and I will check it when it is convenient.

I guess for some, maybe it’s like a recovering alcoholic who can’t have a bottle in the house because the temptation is too strong and maybe the ‘answer’ to social media etc is not becoming an addict in the first place?

But a flip phone? That would be for me like going back to shooting weddings on a DSLR. Any advantages? For me, zero.

[kye]

3 hours ago, MrSMW said:

Yep. It’s called self control.

My main working laptop is connected to the internet but as with all my devices, I have social media alerts switched off because without exaggeration, 99% of alerts are of zero interest to me. Ditto email. I can connect to it when I want to or not.

I don’t get this, “but it’s a distraction”. 

If’s only a distraction if you choose for it to be.

One thing I have learned as I get older and gradually learn more about psychology and neuroscience is that we are all very different from each other.  In most cases, very very different from each other.

We don't notice it because people work hard to fit in and behave like everyone around them, plus we tend to spend most of our time around people who have a lot more in common with us than the average.  As an office worker in a city I don't spend much time with manual labourers from the country, and far less time with uneducated villagers.  When I do spend time around people that don't have as much in common with me, like if I meet the husbands of my wife's friends for example, I tend to find a topic you are both interested in and just stick with that.  There are lots of people I am friends with that would drive me crazy if I had to live with them - they're that different to me and these are my friends!

It is widely recognised in productivity research that we all have a very limited amount of self-discipline per day, and constantly using it all the time is a big predictor of burn-out.

So I'd say that you think it's a choice because it's a choice that isn't that far from your natural behaviour, preferences, habits and values, and so for you it isn't a very difficult challenge to overcome with willpower, but that's not the case for everyone, or even a great many people.  There are likely things that I think are easy that you would find completely impossible, and vice versa.

I mean heck, it's pretty obvious from these forums that a lot of the time we can't even stretch our thinking to how differently other people like to use their cameras!

[MrSMW]

1 hour ago, kye said:

So I'd say that you think it's a choice because it's a choice that isn't that far from your natural behaviour,

Almost certainly. I am a hybrid of both a black sheep and a lone wolf, which makes for what should be polar opposites…but just is who I am.

That desert island they talk about. Yup, I could happily live on it.

Invite me to a party/social event and I’m going to spend considerable time in working out how to get out of it 😉

I don’t have complete self control and I doubt anyone truly has, but a higher degree than most, but yes, PLENTY I can’t do!