Haiku 2023–356

my attention span

about as long as it takes

to read this haiku

— —

Fitting for the subject matter, I’ve got all kinds of thoughts about this haiku, but find myself struggling to wrangle any of them into cohesive prose. Let me lean into that and just put all the ideas out there for your consumption.

For twenty-two years, I worked in a job where getting tasks off my screen and moving to the next was not just optimal, but imperative.

If I need to know something, all I have to do is pick up my phone and it can likely be found there.

The amount of friction between me wanting something and Amazon delivering it to me is mind-blowingly minimal.

Need calories? There’s no need to hunt or forage. The local convenience store will sell you five Little Debbie Double Decker Oatmeal Cream Pies which will provide the recommended daily allotment of calories with minimal effort. We’ll ignore the lack of nutritive content because we’re moving on with our day.

I now have a place in my office I call ‘phone jail’. If I absent-mindedly pick up my phone during a virtual meeting, I (supposedly) get up out of my seat and put my phone in phone jail until the meeting is done.

I’m in the middle of reviewing 6,000 resumes as part of a proposal at work. By my estimation, you have about ten seconds to make an impression on me if you’re in that pile. It’s not my choice, but it is my reality.

If you’ve managed to read this far, congratulations to me! By my estimation, I was able to hold your attention for two minutes. I don’t know that I can pay attention to anything for two minutes these days.