I work with three computers on a normal working day. If a history listing were to be taken out from the Firefox browsers at any of these boxes, the most visited website would turn out to be rediff.com. I must visit that website atleast twenty times in twenty-four hours. A neutral observer would be forgiven for thinking that I work for a news aggregation agency rather than a humble chip-design outfit.
We just returned from an awesome, awesome trip to Phuket. While my wife loved the sun, sand, food, people...you name it, my key impression was of an acute withdrawal syndrome. I was happy to board the flight back home and I spent an ecstatic night trawling through all the websites and blogs that I normally haunt (...and then some), catching up on the lost five days.
Which brings me to the point. Where does a distraction, cease to be a distraction and become an obsession?
There were days when our parents used to wake up at dawn, read the newspaper while sipping tea, get on with the day and then come back to catch the nine 'O clock news. Touching base with the world just two times in a day! While I can definitely imagine myself in a life like that, it would be hard.
I guess this transformation has a lot to do with how accessible news has become. You turn on the telly and you get news every hour. You switch to the net and you get news websites that are refreshed at an hourly basis (or even faster). If you are sitting at home, you are stuck to your laptop. At your desk you have your desktop computer. Outside you have your smart-phone. Its simple to open another tab and keep refreshing. Its like following the world as if it were a cricket score...
What it does to your concentration is another matter altogether. A wasted holiday. A half thought out proposal. Lesser time for important people.
All this was brought in focus for me in an article on Time this week. Anyone can see that magazine is struggling to stay afloat. It is palming off advertisements for cover stories. This week it covers an author I have never heard of and his forthcoming book that no one has read. But the key take-away was that he works on a laptop which is not connected to the internet, has no games and only has the barest essentials for him to type out a manuscript. I fell in love with the idea immediately.
Think of it. No games, no facebook notifications, no email client honking at you and ..... no news tab!
With a laptop like that, the only thing you can do is work. You can immerse yourself with whatever you are doing. You do what is important with your full concentration and if you need a break, you take a walk!
Right.... but what do you do while taking a walk? I would need to Google for that....
