Episode 108 - No Such Thing As Wasted Time

I have a spring basket full of good things for you this Easter week. As is appropriate to the season, some are sweet like chocolate, some are wrapped in colourful sleeves and others partake of endings and difficulty, before the beauty of transformation is apparent. I hope you enjoy them.The art, writing and and audio at Uncivil Savant is available to all with no financial barrier to access. Please become a paid subscriber for a while to help me keep this publication going.Mind-weedingA few days ago, a man from USA complained that an article I restacked was verbose, a waste of his and my readers’ time and that I should keep things streamlined and to the point. I politely suggested that we can only waste our own time and that maybe refraining from telling people off on the internet would be a good way to claw some back. He apologised for his initial brusqueness but then doubled down on his critique of the essay, (which I mostly agree with). Substack is less than intuitive, since Notes and all the doodads have been added on, so he clearly didn’t understand that the piece was not written by me but by another man from USA, whose profile link I added to the reply, to help him out. For me, none of this was a waste of ‘my time’, as learning how to disagree or differ with humour, not taking things personally, without immediately ‘blocking and deleting’, and without the grip of fear around my heart, has been the work of many years, even for low-stakes things.For some people, electronic communications are water off a duck’s back, for others, like two of my dearest friends, even a lovely text or email takes huge amounts of energy to engage with, let alone answer. I lie somewhere in the middle of this scale, thankfully moving in the direction of the ducks… This podcast was first published on Substack 2nd April 2026 with full transcript, links, footnotes, images and more. You’ll find links to all the Substacks, books, TV, film and music mentioned in the podcast at the button.My art, music, writing, research, audio and teaching is created without the use of AI. I am part of Writers Against AI. Get full access to Uncivil Savant at carolineross.substack.com/subscribe