

Matthew Crawford and How to Survive Brain-Eating Distractions - bkudria
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/books/matthew-crawford-and-how-to-survive-brain-eating-distractions.html

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keithpeter
[http://us.macmillan.com/excerpt?isbn=9780374292980](http://us.macmillan.com/excerpt?isbn=9780374292980)

Pre-ordered here in the sunny UK Midlands. Good catch, I'm writing this in the
kitchen, surrounded by small 'category 3' workshop businesses and low density
residential.

[The lads running the sign making shop round the corner (see posts a few
months ago) have graduated to iMacs and have built themselves a huge (7m by
2m) table for cutting and printing on the laminates.]

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XorNot
Was briefly confused as why we had an HN article about zombies.

I'm very much skeptical of this line of argument: it is generally another spin
on how "the good old days" are better then today, joining the lines of every
single person who's made that argument since probably the dawn of conscious
human thought and definitely since the Romans and ancient Greeks.

~~~
nothrabannosir
Well, for about a millennium, they were right.

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ctchocula
I've been seeing the name of Nicholas Carr's book "The Shallows" pop up
several times now in recent weeks. The content seems to be interesting and one
that follows the footsteps of Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman. While Postman
only limited the thrust of his argument to the impact of radio and television
on public debate on politics, Carr seems to discuss how distractions of modern
technology is taking away our ability for contemplation and concentration.
I'll definitely be adding it to my reading stack.

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makeitsuckless
Definitely going to read it, but for once I would like someone like that to
have experience with programming before they start lecturing on what is "real"
and the praising superiority of the physical experience. Not everything
digital is a mere distraction.

~~~
borgia
>Definitely going to read it, but for once I would like someone like that to
have experience with programming before they start lecturing on what is "real"
and the praising superiority of the physical experience. Not everything
digital is a mere distraction.

You're absolutely right. These things seem to make the assumption that you
can't get the same satisfaction from crafting something digitally as you can
from say working on a motorbike.

I would be interested to see a study, if it's not already available, on the
psychological experience between people carrying out both, and the sense of
satisfaction received when they determine a "job well done" in either medium.

But that's not to say I don't agree with him in many ways. I'm a software
developer and often, and as I'm getting towards my 30s now, feel like I've
totally surrounded myself in the digital and have put the physical on a shelf
that is only continuing to gather dust.

I find myself yearning for something more "substantial" and to be able to come
to old age knowing I've done more than written a few programs or whatever but
then I find myself so distracted when it comes to actually seeking out things
of substance, often simply falling back on the comfort of the digital.

I've a massive stack of books I've been trying to get through and can see
myself adding more to it with this, and probably some similar books like "The
Shallows" and "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".

I'm glad to see this sort of content appearing on HN regularly though, as it's
a sign I'm not alone in how I'm feeling and that others are working through
the same issues.

Between things like this, the massive growth in interest in craft beers, the
middle class worker fueling an interest in things like drinking in warehouses,
farmers markets, etc. there is obviously a significant amount of people in the
rat race who are grasping for something of "substance" and not the bland, mass
produced, formulated and heavily marketed lifestyle we've somewhat fallen into
in the last few decades.

~~~
keithpeter
I think the craft process can work both in the digital and material domains.
The key is individual responsibility for a piece of work, and feedback from
the materials.

Another book for your list...

 _The Craftsman_ by Richard Sennett (Sociology professor, musician and
sometime Linux user).

