• Concentration vs. distractibility
• Attention Must Be Paid - But How?

You'd think that moving thousands of miles away would reduce distractions; unfortunately as long as my laptop is turned on I have the potential to spiral off into the Merely Interesting. Field work is a good antidote.

One of the links references a book called Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life which seems dedicated to showing that "we have much more control over our focus than we think". Not a viewpoint I've seen in the literature, so I'm curious.