The Greatest Waster of Time

This video is a clever music video composed entirely from mashed up instrumental videos found elsewhere on YouTube. It and others by the same guy (Kutiman) have been circulating around the blogosphere for the past week (thanks Mark!). There is not much more to say about them at this point. They are unabashedly brilliant. But one notion occurred to me:

Making it was a total waste of time that will probably bring the artist immeasurable success.

I am reminded of something that both William Gibson and Stewart Brand said independently, and here I paraphrase in my own words:

The internet is the world’s greatest waster of time, and that is its chief benefit to society.

Oh, and I detect an entire new genre of video here.