Magical thinking: reaping results of our invisible ties

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in ANASTASIA ASHMAN,community,friendship,global niche,identity,society

black cat by A.Ashman

By ANASTASIA ASHMAN

I’ve been thinking about magic. Even though I’m reading Joan Didion’s memoir about the year she spent pondering how she might reverse her husband’s death, I don’t mean that kind of magical thinking.


I’m talking about context. In its absence, everything looks like magic.

David Blaine’s TEDmed talk reveals the training behind the endurance-artist’s 17-minute feat of holding his breath under water. Rather than illusion, the magician relied on science.

“What will the world be like 10 years from now?” asks the Shorty Awards interview. (I’m honored to be nominated this month for producing 140-character, real-time content). I’m afraid the future will be divided: digital-natives and -immigrants on one side, and the other group mystified how we know so much.

In much the same way, philosophies about our interconnectedness will also separate us. Look at the release of marketer Seth “tribes” Godin’s latest book this week. Among a hundred positive ones by people who donated to the Acumen Fund to receive advance copies — resulting in a slew of pre-publication synergistic footwork among his tribe — the top critical review on Linchpin’s first day suggests the Amazon review system has been gamed.  Shillery.

When we invest in research and relationships (with online alliances even more invisible to the unconnected) our results can seem like wizardry.

Which magic are you going to think more about?
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Anastasia Ashman is a California-born writer/producer of neoculture entertainment based in Istanbul. This series covers what’s crossing the mind and desk of expat+HAREM’s founder.
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Tagged as: Acumen Fund, Amazon, book, book review, context, David Blaine, digital divide, digital immigrant, digital native, endurance, expat+HAREM founder, expat+HAREM founder series, founder's desk, illusion, Joan Didion, Linchpin, magic, magical thinking, marketing, real-time content, relationship, science, Seth Godin, Shorty Awards, synergy, TEDmed, The Year of Magical Thinking, tribe, Tribes, triiibes, Twitter

  • Brian

    He’s thinking about getting a BlackBerry? What, did he file this in 2005?

    • http://www.retaggr.com/Card/AnastasiaAshman Anastasia M. Ashman

      Oof, Brian! Yeah, as John McQuaid writes at True Slant today, it’s fine as a random blog rant but to attack the media revolution and Twitter on the New Yorker’s platform, it’s got to be a lot better than that. “I wish he’d devoted some thought to this.”

  • Brian

    He’s thinking about getting a BlackBerry? What, did he file this in 2005?

    • http://www.expatharem.com/identity-messages/ Anastasia

      Oof, Brian! Yeah, as John McQuaid writes at True Slant today, it’s fine as a random blog rant but to attack the media revolution and Twitter on the New Yorker’s platform, it’s got to be a lot better than that. “I wish he’d devoted some thought to this.”

  • http://isao.typepad.com Isao

    I am also afraid that the world would be divided according to digital literacy based on curiosity and openness. But being on the digital nomad side (hope so), I am equally excited to see the world where true borderless society is formed first online, then spread out offline.
    If the 20th century was the time for expansion, the 21st century will be the time for transition. Those who change will survive and prosper. Those who don’t change – hopefully will also have a good life.

    • Anastasia M. Ashman

      Thanks Isao…this digital divide has existed since the advent of the Internet, but for the first time I’m feeling it divide me from people in the information world.

      All the technophobic op-eds from serious writers at major publications are really tedious. George Packer’s anti-Twitter anti-Blackberry piece made me consider cancelling my subscription to the New Yorker. It was especially annoying because it was a response from a non-user to a piece in the New York Times by its media critic David Carr who so very well encapsulated the value of using Twitter — the freighted meanings of the best tweets and the possibility of being “in narrative” on more topics than ever previously imagined.

      I never thought I’d grow out of the New Yorker but if they can’t keep up, maybe I will.

      • http://isao.typepad.com Isao

        …But George Packer shouts “Stop Twitter” alongside a Follow-New-Yorker-on-Twitter badge. Thanks for a good tweet source :)
        The digital world is kind to us, so it seems.

  • http://isao.typepad.com Isao

    I am also afraid that the world would be divided according to digital literacy based on curiosity and openness. But being on the digital nomad side (hope so), I am equally excited to see the world where true borderless society is formed first online, then spread out offline.
    If the 20th century was the time for expansion, the 21st century will be the time for transition. Those who change will survive and prosper. Those who don’t change – hopefully will also have a good life.

    • http://www.expatharem.com/identity-messages/ Anastasia

      Thanks Isao…this digital divide has existed since the advent of the Internet, but for the first time I’m feeling it divide me from people in the information world.

      All the technophobic op-eds from serious writers at major publications are really tedious. George Packer’s anti-Twitter anti-Blackberry piece made me consider cancelling my subscription to the New Yorker. It was especially annoying because it was a response from a non-user to a piece in the New York Times by its media critic David Carr who so very well encapsulated the value of using Twitter — the freighted meanings of the best tweets and the possibility of being “in narrative” on more topics than ever previously imagined.

      I never thought I’d grow out of the New Yorker but if they can’t keep up, maybe I will.

      • http://isao.typepad.com Isao

        …But George Packer shouts “Stop Twitter” alongside a Follow-New-Yorker-on-Twitter badge. Thanks for a good tweet source :)
        The digital world is kind to us, so it seems.

  • http://www.rosedeniz.blogspot.com Rose

    Having read The Year of Magical Thinking recently myself, and still thinking about Didion’s experience of waiting for her husband to return, I do think there is a connection between that kind of ‘magic’ and the magic of what appears to be wizardry online. I think it is related to time and perception. Online, relationships can be formed quickly, ideas manifested in hours or days, and while not every project or relationship forms that quickly, I do find that when I start to talk about the work I do online with ‘offline’ people, it appears like a lot happens in a compressed period of time. The experience of it happening for me may seem kind of slow: a week’s worth of tiny interactions and steps taken that accumulate into a larger pattern. But from outside it appears fast. In Didion’s first year of grieving, the moments seemed to be so slowly paced because of how invested she was in making the return of her husband something possible. As a reader, that one year seemed nearly infinite, but conversely, a year is a very short period of time in which to grapple with the loss of a husband of 40 years.

    • http://www.retaggr.com/Card/AnastasiaAshman Anastasia M. Ashman

      Thanks for lending the book to me, Rose!

      Interesting perspective on Didion’s magical thinking as experienced by the reader….perhaps more like in reading the book we see a year’s worth of incantations themselves about something that happened (and happens) in the blink of an eye. Here. Gone. Back again.

  • Anonymous

    Having read The Year of Magical Thinking recently myself, and still thinking about Didion’s experience of waiting for her husband to return, I do think there is a connection between that kind of ‘magic’ and the magic of what appears to be wizardry online. I think it is related to time and perception. Online, relationships can be formed quickly, ideas manifested in hours or days, and while not every project or relationship forms that quickly, I do find that when I start to talk about the work I do online with ‘offline’ people, it appears like a lot happens in a compressed period of time. The experience of it happening for me may seem kind of slow: a week’s worth of tiny interactions and steps taken that accumulate into a larger pattern. But from outside it appears fast. In Didion’s first year of grieving, the moments seemed to be so slowly paced because of how invested she was in making the return of her husband something possible. As a reader, that one year seemed nearly infinite, but conversely, a year is a very short period of time in which to grapple with the loss of a husband of 40 years.

    • http://www.expatharem.com/identity-messages/ Anastasia

      Thanks for lending the book to me, Rose!

      Interesting perspective on Didion’s magical thinking as experienced by the reader….perhaps more like in reading the book we see a year’s worth of incantations themselves about something that happened (and happens) in the blink of an eye. Here. Gone. Back again.

  • kari m.

    Oh, I so enjoy reading about what is crossing your minds, and the way you express this is unique. Surely you are well perceiving what is currently very magical in these times, and there are now so many possibilities out there to connect with like-minded wonderful people. The online world connects, builds bridges…

    Would like to add here if I may that at the same time I know all too well that this kind of magic could not excist if it wasn`t grounded in offline reality, or how should I put it… ?? Hmm.

    Online we are offered opportunities to create, participate, access, relate and so on, but what we make out of these opportunites is finally up to each one of us. :-)

    • http://www.retaggr.com/Card/AnastasiaAshman Anastasia M. Ashman

      Hi Kari. If we are not play-acting online — that is, we are taking responsibility for ourselves and our actions and are basically who we represent ourselves to be — I think we might say we are all grounded in offline reality too.

      Bringing the magic we often experience together online into our offline life…that is a worthy goal. I know I’ll meet you in actual life one day (the idea is there, we just need the opportunity).

  • kari m.

    Oh, I so enjoy reading about what is crossing your minds, and the way you express this is unique. Surely you are well perceiving what is currently very magical in these times, and there are now so many possibilities out there to connect with like-minded wonderful people. The online world connects, builds bridges…

    Would like to add here if I may that at the same time I know all too well that this kind of magic could not excist if it wasn`t grounded in offline reality, or how should I put it… ?? Hmm.

    Online we are offered opportunities to create, participate, access, relate and so on, but what we make out of these opportunites is finally up to each one of us. :-)

    • http://www.expatharem.com/identity-messages/ Anastasia

      Hi Kari. If we are not play-acting online — that is, we are taking responsibility for ourselves and our actions and are basically who we represent ourselves to be — I think we might say we are all grounded in offline reality too.

      Bringing the magic we often experience together online into our offline life…that is a worthy goal. I know I’ll meet you in actual life one day (the idea is there, we just need the opportunity).

  • Ahu

    Although I’ve been following your work, this is the first time I felt the urge to comment. Why? Magical connections I decided already lead my life and I better start paying attention to them. Just last night I was at a retirement party honoring one of my former editors (she is 72 and recently lost her husband) and we talked about Didion’s book for a good half hour (the book had touched me deeply even though I couldn’t relate personally). So you see waking up in NYC this morning and reading about you reading the book and wondering about connections, I can’t help but once again be convinced that I need to welcome what the cosmos already in the works for me. These little sparks of people, books, words, places, events and other interconnected moments reveal what life should be all about. All we have to do is pay attention.

    • Anastasia M. Ashman

      Glad to have you unlurk Ahu! I agree, these gossamer connections may be tenuous but the link is there, and with it, some kind of meaning.

  • Ahu

    Although I’ve been following your work, this is the first time I felt the urge to comment. Why? Magical connections I decided already lead my life and I better start paying attention to them. Just last night I was at a retirement party honoring one of my former editors (she is 72 and recently lost her husband) and we talked about Didion’s book for a good half hour (the book had touched me deeply even though I couldn’t relate personally). So you see waking up in NYC this morning and reading about you reading the book and wondering about connections, I can’t help but once again be convinced that I need to welcome what the cosmos already in the works for me. These little sparks of people, books, words, places, events and other interconnected moments reveal what life should be all about. All we have to do is pay attention.

    • http://www.expatharem.com/identity-messages/ Anastasia

      Glad to have you unlurk Ahu! I agree, these gossamer connections may be tenuous but the link is there, and with it, some kind of meaning.

  • http://www.retaggr.com/Card/AnastasiaAshman Anastasia M. Ashman

    Making magic out of reality certainly is an art (and a science!) Tara. I’m looking forward to hearing what you “divine”.

  • http://www.expatharem.com/identity-messages/ Anastasia

    Making magic out of reality certainly is an art (and a science!) Tara. I’m looking forward to hearing what you “divine”.

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/tara.agacayak Tara

    The object of data mining is to take a set of data and divine meaning out of previously unseen connections. At the moment I’m restructuring the way I see my routine to discover how I can do what I’ve been doing differently and hopefully take my work to the next level. I am hoping for magic to be part of that process.

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/tara.agacayak Tara

    The object of data mining is to take a set of data and divine meaning out of previously unseen connections. At the moment I’m restructuring the way I see my routine to discover how I can do what I’ve been doing differently and hopefully take my work to the next level. I am hoping for magic to be part of that process.

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