The internet is killing me. I keep surfing the web when I’m supposed to be writing code! Just then, as I sat down to do some work, I “remembered” reading an article on Nicholson Baker which described how he has a Post-It note stuck to his screen reminding him to “ONLY E-MAIL”–and so I decided I had to hunt this down for my quotes file! Another 5 minutes gone!
“He [Nicholson Baker] lost a month of 2003 to his obsession with the news, swore off Google News and blogs–he now has a Post-It on his screen saying ONLY E-MAIL–and finally wrote the first draft of “Checkpoint” in April 2004, during the siege of Fallujah, because he could think about nothing else.”
– David Gates, “Target: The President”, Newsweek, 2004-08-09