TheFocus.Quest

The delicate business of selling one's attention

If I worked in a factory, say, sewing pants, my body would be bound to certain movements but my thought could wander through landscapes of ideas. Or so I imagine it would happen.

Knowledge work, on the other hand, does not allow that freedom. During work time I am being paid to think about certain problems and to record the conclusions of my thoughts, or to discuss problems with others and come to conclusions together. I cannot think about whatever I want; my mind cannot wander.

There is another thing: once the work is finished, the thinking is seldom really finished. While the movement of the hands doing manual work may cease altogether when we decide, the movement of thought seems to have more inertia.

For example, I may pay attention all day long to the implementation of a certain message queue. Once I close the computer, my mind keeps going around the same issue, even if I don't want to. I may wake up the next day thinking about details I omitted earlier —this happened today.

I don't resent devoting my attention to work: it brings me interesting problems and pays reasonably —which doesn't mean I want to devote my full attention to it either.