Comments
  1. You must read the article before you can comment on it.
    • bill
      Top reader of all time
      5 years ago

      Wow.

      Digital distraction isn’t an accident. It’s a business strategy.**

      I believe that one reason podcasts have exploded is that they carry so much friction: They’re long and messy, they often take weeks or months to produce, they’re hard to clip and share and skim — and as a result, they’re calmer, more human, more judicious, less crazy-making.

      This is Ezra at his best:

      But these technological wonders do not seem to have made our lives or societies more wonderful. Depression, anxiety, loneliness, drug overdoses, and suicide are rising. Productivity growth has slowed. Income inequality has skyrocketed. Politics is more bitter and more tribal. Donald Trump is president of the United States. Something is wrong.

      Writing, by contrast, is full of friction. It’s hard and slow, and the words on the page fall short of the music and clarity I imagined they’d have. But it is, in the end, rewarding. It’s where I have at least a chance to create something worth creating. The work is worth it.

      I wish he wrote about reading. On the one hand, it's a friction filled activity. On the other, it's all kinds of friction that prevents us from doing it.

      I loved the Cal Newport. That's guy is great, I've read some of his stuff. He's a professor at Georgetown who doesn't use any social media at all.