Maria Popova on the Difference Between Being and Doing I frequently worry that being productive is the surest way to lull ourselves into a trance of passivity and busyness the greatest distraction from living, as we coast through our lives day after day, showing up for our obligations but being absent from our selves, mistaking the doing for the being. Maria Popova 'The Shortness of Life: Seneca on Busyness and The Art of Living Wide Rather Than Living Long' at Brain Pickings