Smart stones

A spring commute, nightshade and quantum sleeping.

Sleep shall neither night nor day hang upon his pent-house lid.

He shall live a man forbid.

A riff on a classic ukiyo-e … Kuniyoshi’s whale, in a city and bleeding.

Come with me on my commute to London this morning.

I get up early, while it’s still dark. My new watch buzzes me awake at the wrist without waking Joel.

I’m trying to minimise how much I use my phone. The watch is an experiment in digital minimalism — except it’s a digital watch, so all I’m really doing is shifting attention from one device to another.

Joel spends a lot of time on his phone. To him, it’s a useful tool that helps him focus on the things he’s most interested in.

“It’s amazing we can store all of this stuff on stones. Smart phones are just smart stones.” He says, quoting Jobs.

To me, it’s a distraction glass, pluming out smoke and mirrors, conjuring up empty tasks that get in the way of fruitfulness.

It hurts my cramped, rigid hand to hold it for so many hours of the day. I imagine in a few years there will be som…