Not Stupid, Just Inattentive

Nicholas Carr’s article on the cognitive style of the Internet has been linked and discussed quite a bit. Ironically, I found that his article was an ostensive refutation of his own point. I liked the article the first time when I skimmed it. But when I read it in detail and thought through it, I think that he was incorrect on most details. I think that the low attention span that he is talking of is actually a manifestation of three factors:

  1. It is difficult to read on screen. People’s eyes hurt.
  2. It is easy to get distracted when you are on the net. This may be related to point one. If you get physically tired when you read an article, it is easy for your mind to wander and look up something else.
  3. People read more actively on the net. Reading paper books is enjoyable. But just because you enjoy something it doesn’t mean that you are thinking. Carr’s article is nicely written and it flows well. If I were reading it on paper, I would be lulled into complacency by the flow. But because I was reading it online, I was also actively thinking about which parts I agree with and which parts I don’t. For example, I was thinking “Hmmm… Jakob Nielsen has written about writing for the web. I should head over to http://www.useit.com to compare.”  It was all I could do to stop myself from giving in to the temptation immediately, thereby proving Carr’s point. (Coincidentally, his current article is on the same topic.)

On the whole, I think that 1 and 2 are bad, while 3 is good – though I suppose that actively thinking without actually reading an article and understanding something is counterproductive.

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Google Spreadsheet Sucks

I have an insanely complex spreadsheet that I use to manage my investments. I decided that I wanted to upload it to Google Spreadsheets so that I don’t have to depend on access to my home laptop. Ran into two problems:

  1. Upload of the .ods doc failed. When I converted the same document to .xls, it uploaded. So much for Open Document support.
  2. It turns out that Google still does not support pivot tables. This is insane. How can you claim to be a serious competitor to Microsoft Excel if you don’t support pivot tables?

The second problem is a showstopper for me. Sigh.