A critique of minimalist word processors
While looking for a replacement for Ecto (which I've used for years, but which has now become unacceptably unstable), I stumbled upon this attack on WriteRoom and the
“Maybe I’ll be smarter when I have more distractions”
This is great: click for the full size version Personally I find an open workspace great for some kinds of work, but I'm very much the type who
Technology vs. the brain: Susan Greenfield on distraction, cognition, socialization, privacy
The Mark, a Canadian magazine publishing on technology and culture, has an interview with Baroness Susan Greenfield, director of the Oxford Institute for the Future of the Mind
Stefan Sagmeister: “It’s much easier to return emails than to actually think about something new”
Artist Stefan Sagmeister is famous for taking a year-long sabbatical every seven years (what is he, an academic or something?). In this brief interview, he talks about that
“Luke- you’ve switched off your targeting computer.”
This XKCD cartoon will have to be part of the book.
Fracture and embodiment
Instinct says there's a link I can make between the embodied cognition literature (exemplified for me by the work of Andy Clark) and firsthand accounts of distraction, partial
Writing
Not much blogging the next couple days, as I'm working on an actual article. More later.
Distraction versus mind-wandering
A writer at text2cloud (honestly, I've looked for an author credit, but turn up empty-handed) argues for a distinction between distraction and mind-wandering. I greatly admire Gilbert’s Stumbling on Happiness,
Wandering minds, distraction, and happiness: The Track Your Happiness study
Klint Finley points me to an answer to my question about the relationship between distraction and happiness: the Track Your Happiness study, conducted by Harvard scientists Daniel Gilbert and