Why can't people understand
I've got a short attention span
Short attention spaaa-aan
—Short Attention Span by the Fizzy Bangers1
After eight years of being an Internet nerd, I've finally completely lost the ability to concentrate on one thing at a time. I'm so used to having the web browser open in one window, IRC in another, an open IDE, the TV on (sometimes with the sound muted so I can listen to the radio or mp3s). I really need to rediscover my ability to focus, to turn off everything else and go back to a single thing for a significant period of time.
I'm fine when I'm forced. When I'm in a cinema or the theatre, there are no distractions and I can concentrate. But put me in an environment where I can multi-task, and that's exactly what I'll be doing.
A cow-orker lent me a DVD. Another cow-orker lent me a small pile of books. I'm having trouble with both of them, because they both require me to do just that: drop everything and just read, or just watch TV.
I need to fix this. It's bad.
1 Yes, that's the whole song. It's about ten seconds long. It came on a CD called Short Music for Short People which is a really fun collection of 101 30-seconds-or-less punk rock songs.
As an interesting aside, if you remember Apple's original Rip, Mix, Burn adverts, they featured the (conveniently advertisement-length) track by The Ataris, The Radio Still Sucks, but with lyrics significantly toned-down from the original.
