what? nothing new…but…

oh yeah…this guy Brian Appleyard is ironically trying to concentrate on reading a book called Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age by Maggie Jackson while thinking about all the distractions in life and work.

The theory he talks about is scary: “Chronic distraction, from which we all now suffer, kills you more slowly [than smoking]….[T]here is evidence that people in chronically distracted jobs are, in early middle age, appearing with the same symptoms of burn-out as air traffic controllers. They might have stress-related diseases, even irreversible brain damage. But the damage is not caused by overwork, it’s caused by multiple distracted work.”

I am freaked because that is the essence of what librarians do — jump from one request to the next, switching gears and brain lobes and whatnot.  It is all too, too…what was I going to say?  Anyway, just read it for yourself, here.