Reads

A waiting room is a space designed to be forgotten. No one decorates their memory with the chairs they sat in before a dentist appointment. And yet the experience of waiting — suspended, purposeless, slightly anxious — is one of the most universal human states.

Busyness has become a status signal. The person who says 'I've been slammed' is not complaining — they're announcing their importance. But the economy of attention doesn't work like money. Spending it doesn't make you richer.

There's a productivity cult around reading — track your books, hit your annual target, optimize your retention. All of it misses the point. Some books are meant to be lived with for months, half-read, returned to. The unfinished book is not a failure.