Distracted by our own devices
I’ve become the sort of person who checks her phone constantly. I did not have to go this way.
In Review
Deep Work
Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
I evolved gradually into the person who checked her e-mail on her phone almost every hour of the day. Who could spend a mindless hour searching for who-knows-what on social media. Who was willing to be interrupted at nearly every moment by a small “ping.” Who consulted the vagaries of the Internet to tell her what to do next.
I did not have to go this way. In college I fell in love with Simone Weil’s awkwardly titled 1942 essay “Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God.” Weil begins with the assertion that studying is an opportunity to cultivate prayer. Prayer “consists of attention,” and studying hones the practice of deep attention. I memorized these lines: “The quality of attention counts for much in the quality of prayer. Warmth of heart cannot make up for it.”
I thought frequently of this essay as I was reading Deep Work, though it has none of Weil’s spiritual intentions. It’s a business and technology self-help book written in the style of a TED talk. But Cal Newport is interested in cultivating the same capacity that Weil writes about.
