Chapter 175

“I have been a happy man ever since January 1, 1990, when I no longer had an email address. I’d used email since about 1975, and it seems to me that 15 years of email is plenty for one lifetime. Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration.” - Donald Knuth

I am moving steadily toward having my role be on the bottom of things. Because to do what I do well, I need long hours of studying and uninterrupted concentration. But I am not doing my job well. I do not get those long hours, and if I am lucky in my life I get long minutes here and there. I live in a triangle of relationships where silence is abhorred and thinking is never permitted. This is far more my personal challenge than email per se, but the principle is the same. All available mental bandwidth must be wasted on inane conversational noise. 

Concentration is impossible. Focus is out of the question. Studying is not even feasible. 

But email has the same distraction capacity for some as does inane conversation monologues for me. This long term situation has required me to sharpen my focus and intensity, while also reducing my overall work load, because I can’t keep back the ocean and this is as relentless as that. 

Knuth has the right idea, we have to take action to protect our most value asset, our best contributions to the world. What should you eliminate? Or mitigate? Do it now.