Mark's Pages

June 28, 2003:

The power of concentration. Or the curse, I suppose. You sit down to focus on some problem, say a piece of writing or some programming task. Work your way through it, make it right. Look up in satisfaction. It's been eleven hours, you haven't eaten or had any fluids, your legs are numb.

This is so much the explanation for your life. You can do well just one thing at a time. You can make a living, or write, or have a relationship, or play music, or take pictures, or be an activist. As soon as you try to balance two or more of these things, everything fails, nothing moves forward, and your dissatisfaction becomes global, and dangerous. At least with monofocus one of these plants blooms.

So that your life is a strange garden, with one green shoot and half dozen brown ones at any given moment.