Writing novels is hard, and requires vast, unbroken slabs of time. Four quiet hours is a resource that I can put to good use. Two slabs of time, each two hours long, might add up to the same four hours, but are not nearly as productive as an unbroken four. If I know that I am going to be interrupted, I can’t concentrate, and if I suspect that I... See more

To Give A Damn About Some Things, You Can’t Give A Damn About Everything

The Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman said that scientists, writers, programmers, mathematicians, consultants, engineers, entrepreneurs—anyone doing cognitive work—need one thing above all else to be able to do great work: “absolutely solid lengths of time.”... See more

in some vague way, but specifically to ringfence three or four hours of undisturbed focus