Ommwriter and the effort to create distraction-free software
I'm starting to look at software that bills itself as distraction-free, Zen or otherwise protecting your ability to concentrate. I've used a Mac word processor called Write Room
Csikszentmihalyi on memory and flow
From Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Flow: All forms of mental flow depend on memory, either directly or indirectly. (121)... As far back as there are records of human intelligence, the
Reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow
This weekend I started reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Flow. First published in the early 1990s, it's now considered something of a classic in psychology, and has influenced scientists in
Joshua Lederberg on the sociability of computer centers
Something brought to mind Joshua Lederberg's description of his early computing efforts at Stanford, and the way that the computer center became a meeting-ground for all kinds of
The literary undergrowl of the old regime*
When I first got into arguments about “what the Web is doing to our culture and our brains,” I was manging editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. It was
Reading and contemplation
I've seen this in two recent essays. First, David Ulin, in a widely-circulated essay on "The Lost Art of Reading," which draws a link between reading and contemplation. He