Take one earbud out on the walk home. You’d be surprised what your neighborhood sounds like.

Constant audio is a lid on the world. With it on, the walk home is a corridor between two screens. With one ear open it turns back into a place, with birds and engines and somebody’s radio and a conversation across the street. None of that has to be profound; it is simply more than you were getting.

Try it once on the way home this week with one bud out for the whole walk. Find a single sound you had never registered on that route. If it feels strange at first, that is only the lid coming off, and the strangeness fades within a few minutes.