Paul Stone writes, "Right now, I'm reading," and
goes on to list a tiny library.
Can most of you guys do this? I'm so much of a
mono-tasker that I can only read one book at a
time. If I have several books going at once, it
usually means that I don't like any of them but am
unwilling to give up on them, or will soon discard
all but one and finish that one book.
Given the tendency to make virtues of limitations,
I have come to see multitasking as a vice, symptom
of a horrible distraction, of restlessness, of
less than full concentration. Business has praised
multitasking, I sometimes assume, because they
want one person to do the job of several people,
and forcing divided attention on their employees,
make tolerance of divided attention a virtue.
On the other hand, looking at any one thing
discloses the multiple things going on
simultaneously inside it. Else we would lose the
violin concerto for the solo violin, and the
candle would conceal Guernica.
I'm reading _Resuscitation of a Hanged Man_ by
Denis Johnson. Well, not right now. Right now, I'm
typing this post. Just this post. Well, not this
post. Just this sentence. This word. This
individual letter, and at the end, a period.
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