Research

Research. I need to do more research! I need to know EVERYTHING. I need to be at the frothy forefront of consumerism, up-to-date with the top coolhunts going down, versed in the national papers before 7:30 am. I need to understand everything David Pogue says without reading whatever's in parentheses. I need to have all of the great neorealist films' scenographies memorized. I need to make you think that I hold the key. I need to surprise you when I start talking and you find out that I'm not 18 because I bloviate on culture and how our current predicament is that you have to be polymathic just in order to not make something that you think is new but has actually been done before like 95,000 times.

Or, I could just write about how that's all pretty much pointless, we've reached a cap on knowledge unless you're talking about the medical or micro-worlds, and the academic end of humanities is near. Stagnation in research and theory is the next big thing. If everything new is simply restating or reformatting something that's already been done, then the only new thing is to try not to make any progress at all.