An interactive about attention · 2 minutes
Surface Tension
You can spend a whole day busy and end it with almost nothing to show. This is about why that happens, and why it isn't your fault.
You're about to try to stay with one thing for about a minute. How many times do you think you'll come up for air?
This part is interactive and needs JavaScript. The short version: the longer you stay down, the deeper you get. Every time you come up, you start the climb over, and you never quite get back to where you were.
You were busy the whole time.
Why a quick look costs so much
Getting back down always costs more than the glance did. A quick look can cost you the whole climb back. Switch slowly and you still get deep. Past a certain pace, the deep work stops, even though you never stop working.
What tires you is the climb back to it.
About half the times you come up, no one makes you. You do it yourself. That's normal. A mind that notices things is working the way minds work, and the surface is built to glitter. Focus isn't a switch you flip. You sink to it, and every time you come up, yours or theirs, you start the sink over. You've just been paying a cost no one ever named.