Quotes About Focus

every question mark adds to our cognitive workload, distracting our attention from the task at hand.

Having something pinned down can have a focusing effect, where a blank canvas with its unlimited options—while it sounds liberating—can have a paralyzing effect.

the main thing it usually ends up doing is revealing that the things they were arguing about weren't all that important. People often test to decide which color drapes are best, only to learn that they forgot to put windows in the room.

FOCUS RUTHLESSLY ON FIXING THE MOST SERIOUS PROBLEMS FIRST

One way to look at design—any kind of design—is that it's essentially about constraints

My most persistent memory of stand - up is of my mouth being in the present and my mind being in the future: the mouth speaking the line, the body delivering the gesture, while the mind looks back, observing, analyzing, judging, worrying, and then deciding when and what to say next. Enjoyment while performing was rare - enjoyment would have been an indulgent loss of focus that comedy cannot afford.

He knows only what is right in front of him; she is aware of every incoming sensation that glances obliquely against her soft, fragile core

Enjoyment while performing was rare—enjoyment would have been an indulgent loss of focus that comedy cannot afford. After the shows, however, I experienced long hours of elation or misery depending on how the show went, because doing comedy alone onstage is the ego's last stand.

Be so good they can't ignore you

Be so good they can't ignore you.

The more independent the subsystems are, the more you make it safe to focus on one bit of complexity at a time. Carefully defined objects separate concerns so that you can focus on one thing at a time. Packages provide the same benefit at a higher level of aggregation.

Encapsulation says that, not only are you allowed to take a simpler view of a complex concept, you are not allowed to look at any of the details of the complex concept. What you see is what you get—it's all you get!

Hurrying to solve a problem is one of the most time-ineffective things you can do.

One key to successful programming is avoiding arbitrary variations so that your brain can be free to focus on the variations that are really needed.

Dijkstra pointed out that no one's skull is really big enough to contain a modern computer program (Dijkstra 1972), which means that we as software developers shouldn't try to cram whole programs into our skulls at once; we should try to organize our programs in such a way that we can safely focus on one part of it at a time.

Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting.

Deliberate practice has three key components: setting specific goals; obtaining immediate feedback; and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome.

Just because you're at the office is no reason to stop thinking.

Whatever problem you're trying to solve, make sure you're not just attacking the noisy part of the problem that happens to capture your attention.

When was the last time you sat for an hour of pure, unadulterated thinking?

una persona que utiliza un ordenador experimenta una «deriva cognitiva» si pasa más de un segundo entre hacer clic con el ratón y ver nuevos datos en la pantalla. Si pasan diez segundos, la mente de la persona está ya en otro sitio.

It is easy to get seduced by complexity; but there is virtue in simplicity too.

When you're that engaged, you'll run circles around other people even if they are more naturally talented.

Here is the broader point: whatever problem you're trying to solve, make sure you're not just attacking the noisy part of the problem that happens to capture your attention. Before spending all your time and resources, it's incredibly important to properly define the problem—or, better yet, redefine the problem.