Saving You From Yourself, Only You Can Do It (But, Why, Really?)

October 25th, 2005 · 1 Comment
by Booksquare

Today, we were given the day off. Well, really, it was the afternoon off. Or, as we clearly recall, it was the afternoon off after we drove 50 miles. Snowstorms and molasses may have been involved, we can’t recall. All we know is that email never stops coming, cool stories are written every minute, and we are devotees of Short Attention Span Theater. An afternoon off is really just another afternoon once you’ve caught up on the world.

Author Paul Ford is no stranger to the world of distractions. He’s not what we like to call a Luddite (said with a derisive drawl; a smoking jacket and half-sneer do just as well). Yet he has — brace yourself — reverted to WordPerfect for DOS. Those of you who recall this program will not consider this strange — you are among those who lament the demise of real Reveal Codes, not the almost-but-not-quite version in Windows XP. Is it so hard to create a word processor that doesn’t make decisions for you — and when it does, doesn’t make it hard to undecide? All we wanted was to number a page. But noooo…

Ford is trying to save his life, and we applaud that. We realized things were out of control when we bought a new physical inbox and was six inches tall. It’s not a box, it’s a room. He’s also test driving the AlphaSmart Neo (nice, but you can’t obsessively check your email every twelve seconds via this device).

This all leads to divisions of distractions — narrow and wide. You know wide. That’s why you’re reading this entire post instead of moving on. And you’ll click on the link and follow it and any other possible link (you were meaning to learn more about kittens) until you forgot why you came here in the first place. We’re sorry to see you go, but China is nice this time of year.

File Under: Square Pegs

1 response so far ↓

  • Lorra // Oct 26, 2005 at 5:18 am

    Sprechen Sie gobbledigook?

    Based on this posting, Booksquare would excel at writing the instruction manuals enclosed with most of today’s complex electronic devices.

    I had no idea brains could turn to mush in an area of the country where the sun shines so persistently – we in the midwest at least have an excuse for our addle-brain-ed-ist.