Volume 2 · The Discipline of Hours · Essay 39
Bullshit Sleeper Effect
You have felt Bullshit Sleeper Effect even if you have never read it. Reading it simply gives your experience a label and a little dignity.
The effect is strongest precisely when nobody mentions it. Awareness does not kill it, but awareness does give you a vote. Without awareness you are not even in the room where the decision is made.
What this concept offers is a pause — one extra beat between what happens and what you do about it. Civilisation, someone said, is measured in that beat.
Think of the student the night before the board exam, and the same student the morning after results. One believes time is an enemy; the other discovers it was only a mirror.
Time is the one currency the Reserve Bank does not print more of. Print it on a card if you like. Better: print it on a habit.