 20060211 My recent bet
Just about a month ago, I agreed to a bet with my friend and co-worker Kunal Shah. We challenged each other to go without television, movies, and video games of any kind. We only included games just to round it out, but neither of us play video or computer games so it wasn't an issue anyway.The first one to crack, we agreed, would cook the other breakfast for a week, and the menu would be determined by the winner. At first, it was startling how much of a conscious effort was needed to avoid these things. For example, the bus I take upstate to go snowboarding shows movies on 6 different TV's spread throughout the cabin. (It ended up not being so hard because, as it turns out, it's easy to sleep before and after a long day of riding.) As two and three weeks passed, the prospect of this bet lasting for years seemed most likely. Kunal and I are uniquely stubborn and competitive, and it quickly became obvious that neither of us feared a week of making omelets, but we were driven to simply not lose. The pride for having gone the longest in isolation from the most entertaining and popular media would be supreme! In sacrifice, Kunal and I were suddenly removed from the possibility of enjoying the most common social situations. Personally, I couldn't watch The OC or Lost with my usual group, and I couldn't watch ACC basketball with the rest of the guys at Brother Jimmys (For this reason alone, I am thankful that Wake has a losing record because I'm not missing out on much). And, what made everyone we knew call us crazy was that we weren't going to a Superbowl Party, a celebration of the year's most watched television event. Instead, we spent the entire Sunday at the Village Chess Shop on Thompson Street. Just try to imagine the kind of people who aren't in a can't-watch-tv bet who skip the Superbowl to play chess ... Conspiracy theorists! Clincally crazy people! And, there we were, Kunal and I, completely happy to be with them -- strangely alone with them, segmented from the remaining population addicted to television. We played match after match for 8 hours, and over the course of the night, we related to each other how much this bet was changing our lives, especially for the better. With so many extra hours per week, we were surprised to learn that both of us were using our newfound free-time for earnest attempts at self-improvement. Besides polishing his chess game, Kunal frequently took bike rides, including to and from work (Park Slope to Manhattan). Besides sitting helplessly while Kunal put my king in check, I built a staircase with my friend Paul, and I picked up a pair of snowshoes on sale, determined to go snowshoeing around the city. Unfortunately, it still hasn't snowed yet. It's arguable whether we would do these things anyway, but I am certain it's not so for me. There have just been so many moments when, like a junkie, I start getting manic for a fix -- for basic downtime, when I could sit and be passively entertained by a DVD I netflixed. In these moments, I forced myself to sit still and collect my thoughts. I would brainstorm on the spot and think about how I could use my time constructively. This backfired last Sunday morning when I thought it would be brilliant to spraypaint my cellphone with metallic gold paint. The phone is nearly ruined. But, beyond that, most often, I end up reading a book or calling a friend to say hello. With every day without TV, etc, the bet seemed like it would go on for infinity plus one more. In the meantime, Kunal and I started to obsess over chess, now playing not only in those extra idle notches of time, but also during our lunch breaks. I even bought one of those two-button clocks that the Russians at the chess shop have, so that we could time our matches, too. While I waited for him to make a move, I would often, rudely, interrupt him to suggest that we make the bet more difficult by banning meat from our diets, and he in turn would recommend that we not allow music -- which made me shudder at the thought. This became a joke between us, constantly proposing new regulations that would make the bet unbearable and force us out further in outcast from society. More often, we would talk about what would happen if the bet suddenly ended. Would we watch TV again? "I would just watch DVD's, but no TV," I swore. Kunal said he wouldn't place restrictions on himself, he would just be mindful of the experience he'd had throughout the bet. Good thing, too, because sometime last week, Kunal slipped up. Once, as we walked from the office to get lunch, he said offhandedly, "I played chess against the computer last night. It was a challenge." "You mean, you played a computer game?" I replied in half disbelief and half sadness, as we both realized in that moment that Kunal had lost the bet that neither of us wanted to end, that neither of us thought could be ended. We even delayed a few hours before calling the bet over. He played measly game of chess on his computer, I thought. There's no harm in that! But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this bet could only end because of a technicality. I asked everyone in the office for their advice and they all agreed: there was no way one of us was going to simply cave. And, so that's that. It was over. *** I have no motive for writing this post other than to just let everyone know what's up -- there's no moral -- I never stopped thinking Discovery HD and HBO were incredible. Since the bet ended, I've watched three parts of Band of Brothers because I now have a sudden obsession with knowing more about World War 2 after my buddy Pete explained the D-Day timeline to me at a bar. I am going to make an effort to not idly watch anything, but I admit I am thankful that the bet ended just a few days before the Winter Olympics started. I'm pretty excited to watch the hockey games. Aside, if you were ever into chess before, consider playing again. I've found that with a little bit more age, it has become even more complex. Before these past four weeks, I hadn't played since I was a little kid, learning with my grandma's pewter set. I'm not very apt and am troubled by a lack of patience, but otherwise I find the game dynamic and thrilling. If you haven't been to any of the three shops right next to each other on Thompson, you should swing by sometime. The people there are very kind and eccentric, and always arguing over whether or not we landed on the moon, etc. Even if you don't sit down to play a game, they're fun to be around. In fact, I am going to make it a Sunday-after-brunch tradition because, really, there's nothing better on TV. 20
Comments:
Rawfood said... I started off thinking this would be a weird post. Not that it wasn't, but I'm so happy I read it. I think I'll challenge my buddies to this same bet. Good stuff. 10:17 PM Austin said... really well-written anecdote, zach. good work. 10:31 PM said... Nice post, very cool. For a different take on the same subject, check out this book: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/05/14/everything_bad_is_go.html Author was on the tele too: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3508405896369554947&q=steven++johnson+charlie+rose It's always seemed that the most detrimental part of television was that I'd end up watching some stupid shit just because I had 30 minutes to kill before leaving the house or whatever. Moving to 100% time shifted commerical free-content (dvd, tivo, torrent) gets rid of that completely. 10:46 PM Jakob Lodwick said... Zach, this was a great post. Your writing has gotten closer to how you actually talk. It doesn't sound like you're trying to impress anyone. You're just communication. But you said "conscience" instead of "conscious", and "Scarface" instead of "sacrifice". 10:55 PM Jakob Lodwick said... I said "communication" instead of "communicating". 10:55 PM Lou said... I am pretty sure I am going to challenge my friends with this. It sounds really interesting. 11:14 PM Janine Recio said... This is nuts, man, because I just started a project a week or so ago that has to do with chess. I was going to write a post about my progress with that last night, but I fell asleep. Then I was going to write a post about it today, but I started to make a shirt. So I think it's wild that you posted about chess instead. 11:23 PM said... Very impressive challenge, and a great entry. I can't accurately comment on it's closeness to your verbal communication, but I can say that I loved the style of writing. I felt like you told the story while really showing us how you were feeling through it. Rock on with your bad self Zach. Angelina 12:06 AM said... Zach, you should definitely take it upon yourself, if not in the form of a bet then simply as a personal challenge, to strike all meat products out of your diet. Not only is it an environmentally friendly and, done correctly, a healthly lifestyle choice, but much as you noticed your range of activity broaden by cutting out television, you will notice a definitive expansion in the scope of your diet. I guarantee you will feel better (again, if you eat well and don't stick simply to tofu and bread), and you will begin to discover more of the wonderful culinary options the world has to offer. 1:04 AM said... Sometimes you don't appreciate what else is really out there until you're forced to - I'm glad the bet took you to such extremes and I really enjoyed reading it! 1:33 AM John said... Well done narrative, Zach. Well done bet, too. It seems good things can come from deprivation. Just ask a monk. 8:16 AM Nick said... Yeah, thanks for a good Sunday morning read! (I think everybody is saying the same thing because your typical posts are a line or two long with a cool link or comment, and this one caught us all off-guard.) 8:50 AM Greg P said... Nicely written. I love changing aspects of my life to see the effects. I'm going Google-free for a week right now to discover other ways of finding info... I've recently struck up a fascination with WWII as well - check out "Battle of Wits." It's a great book about codebreakers and encryption during the war. 12:33 PM Cior said... What's on the menu for breakfast? I need to know. 1:26 PM Fabian Töpel said... Nice Job Zach, since I'm in Budapest I haven't watched TV at all, besides a few football games in the bar. TV is a waste most of the time, especially the lack of interaction bothers me when I watch TV with my parents at home. I've been playing chess regularly the last two years and it's great to see the progress you make after a while. Playing with different partners makes it even more interesting. We should have played here in Budapest, I remember beating you quite easily back in Fort Wayne five years ago, so I would like to see how you are doing now. 1:48 PM meg said... Most of the people I know in Portland rarely, if ever, watch television. Actually, all you've got to do is take a look at craigslist posts for "roommates/house-shares" to get a feel for it. A ton of them state something like, "We don't watch T.V. and if you do, you probably won't fit in here." Movies are still acceptable, though, apparently. I like it (the lack of T.V. watching, not the snobbiness). 1:47 AM Jess Jams said... Zach, I'm pleased to hear you held out for so long but that you got more good out of the experience than bad. Two things I wanted to say: Firstly, World War 2 is one of my great passions. I am definitely not one for history AT ALL, but I am so fascinated by the whole "Hitler thinks he's the greatest guy in the world" thing. Also very intrigued by the holocaust and extermination camps and such. I've actually done voluntary research on the subject, and have been to the Jewish Museum here in sydney which is basically all about World War 2. I could have stayed there for hours. Enough about that, I'm so boring. Secondly, I wanted to ask if you've watched Spirited Away yet! Get your ass into gear Zach Klein! 3:06 AM raul said... Dare you to give up non-work related internet for the same amount of time... :) 8:16 AM mk said... fantastic read zach! since last october when I moved into a place with only basic cable and no DVR, I hardly watch any television anymore. it's cleared up a lot of time to partake in more productive things, like sunsets & sex. 11:25 AM felixmolter said... i am truly impressed. felix 6:55 AM Post a Comment |
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 Hi, I'm Zach. I grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana and graduated from Wake Forest. After college, I moved to Manhattan to get serious about a company I ran with friends. We sold it to Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp in 2006. I just wrapped up with a project I co-founded called Vimeo and left CV to focus on being a twenty-five year old. I have another blog called Copy and Taste, where I post about learning to cook. I live in Brooklyn now.  Del.icio.us My Flickr Me on Flickr Last.fm Linked in MySpace Netflix History Vimeo  Amir Blumenfeld Chris Bodenner Mareen Fischinger Fort Wayne Observed Nick Gray Hype Machine Jake and Amir Jakob Lodwick Oh My Rockness Jonathan Marcus Youngna Park Megan Scheminske Eliot Shepard Shorpy Signal vs. Noise Alex Soth Stereogum Ricky Van Veen Khoi Vinh Eugene Wyatt   Postal Skype SMS (via AIM) |