Attention leads to Mail Sort of? So I've been waist deep in school work for the past month and both my reading lists and thesis topic have changed and morphed. What I was previously calling attention is really information overload and I have settled on email as the channel to examine.
An Utter Lack of Things My bedroom is sparse. It contains a bed, two small, plain bedside tables, two other very plain tables and a coat rack. It is also my favorite room in my apartment. It is a simple room and because of this I'm able to keep the room very tidy. Because I can easily keep the room tidy, the space itself can breathe in a way that my other spaces do not or can not. Although simplicity (or minimalism in how I'm thinking of it–a lack of brick-a-brack and possessions) isn't always so easy or possible, it's how I best enjoy my personal space. So simplicity in this sense is purely an aesthetic choice. In my thesis project, however, this is not the case.
Simplicity, I intuit, is a necessity. I could be wrong as I feel I haven't done enough research (and will likely always feel that way) but I find resonance in the idea that too much information erodes attention.
We presented our nascent thesis ideas today and it was pointed out to me that the reasons for choosing simplicity as a goal were unclear. It isn't exactly that simplicity itself is the goal but rather, the goal is attentive focus through whatever means exist or can be invented... or barring full focus, the lack of distraction. That being said I don't *think* it will be too difficult to draw a line between simplicity and deeper focus. And in that light, I think I should rewrite the above sentence to say that I find resonance in the idea that too much information from too many sources erodes attention.
UPDATE: I dreamt about this topic last night (of course, my dreams have turned from the Wikipedia randomness of the summer to school stress) and I think even using the word "simplicity" is inaccurate. What I think I really mean is clarity and simplicity might be one strategy for achieving clarity. The best visualizations, for example, do not remotely approach simple but are always very clear.
I also had a dream that I cursed all the way through my thesis presentation so I should work on NOT doing that so much.
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