Meh.
There’s a scene in Seven (or Se7en, if you want to be nerdy about it, which I do) where Somerset and Mills, played by Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, are discussing how bad the city has gotten. Somerset mentions that people don’t even seem to care about the crime anymore, saying: “Hell, I sympathize with them. Apathy is a solution.” (Emphasis mine.)
He goes on to say that it’s easier to beat a child than love it, or to steal something rather than earn it — to be clear, I don’t agree with that sentiment. But apathy as a solution? There are plenty of situations were I totally agree with that.
On the Men in Gorilla Suits podcast that posted today, Christopher and I get into a conversation about piracy, and piracy of our own works. I, shockingly (or perhaps not) don’t really care that there are several sites out there offering free copies of 47 Echo and Supercritical. My logic is that people who feel the need to pirate a sub-$5 ebook were never going to buy it anyway. I could spend my time fuming about illegal downloads, raise my blood pressure freaking out about “lost sales” (though really, it’s not like they were money in the bank to begin with)… or I could just not give a damn. Apathy is easier, and healthier. There’s not a lot I could do about piracy even if I had a good head of steam to go out and fight it, so why bother?
Piracy isn’t the only thing I’m apathetic about. Work politics? Don’t care. Bad Reviews? Don’t care. Someone said something awful about me? Don’t care. Schedules got messed up? Don’t care.
I’m not saying that I’m apathetic about everything, but I do make an attempt to prioritize. I try to see what stuff matters, and what stuff I can just let slide. And most of the things I deal with on a day-to-day basis get lumped into the second category.
So what could you stop caring about today that wouldn’t hurt you in the slightest to let go?
47 Echo 
For me, I’d probably be happer if I didn’t give a crap about other people’s work here (People who don’t care about data normalization of databases, don’t care if they’re not consistent with their data type A char here, int here, etc.)
It takes me SOOOOOOO much control to NOT tear them new ones when I see their “code” or “db structures”…
I like that you mention priority. That’s the thing with me, as we’ve discussed. So much of my life is all about priorities with me. I like video games, but rarely play them because…there are other things I’d rather do. Why would I want to sit for hours playing a game and getting stiff shoulders when I can be out hiking or juggling with my wife for a couple hours and MOVING my shoulders. It’s not that I judge those who game for hours a day — we’ve discussed on the podcast a few times that the best part of adulthood is doing what you want, so more power to those who like gaming for hours a day. But for me, it’s priority.
And I’m like that with not caring. Do I care about someone’s cryptic Facebook post, wondering if they’re talking about ME when they aren’t, or do I care about making time to write? If 8 people like something I wrote, why let the 2 that hated it win my feelings and make me feel like I’m a failure when 80% of the people liked it? If someone says something bad about me, all I need to do is look at all the badass people in my life and know that I’m probably not what some angry person (who probably DOESN’T have a bunch of badass people in their life) said I am.
So that kind of apathy…I love it because it totally disarms the things that get to some and just not even become a thing in your life. Sounds like something to work into one of the next podcasts (the yet-to-be-recorded positive/negative podcast).