Now Will is working on this Blog Post

Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher from 500 BC. Philosophy in Pythagoras day was different than it is today. A philosopher was a "lover of wisdom" and a natural scientist interested in math, cosmology, and physics. Time and historical events create an almost unbridgeable distance from modernity. Some of his ideas and practices have proven false and are of no value to living a rich life. Pythagorus discovered a few mathematical and scientific principles that have stood the test of time and are used today. He established a language of mathematics, introduced a new cosmic harmony, and discovered the famous Pythagorean theorem. A friend of mine shared what we interpreted as a mantra used by Pythagoras and his followers to focus attention.

Written records from this era are sketchy, and this mantra may or may not have anything to do with Pythagoras. But the story calls attention to a lost skill. Here is the mantra as told by my friend.

Suppose you want to focus on X. Repeat, or think to yourself, "Now Will is working on X." To maintain some distance from yourself, refer to yourself by name and not by the first person singular pronoun "I." Why? To cultivate the habit of a watchful mind. The moment Will stops working on X. You want to know about it.

Keep a watchful eye and constantly compare your plan with what you are doing. Be vigilant in noticing where you're spending your attention. Checking in with what is happening to be sure you haven't gone off the rails and started wilfing in Internet land.

It is easy to beat yourself up, letting self-talk go too far. Don't beat yourself up. Instead, start again, gently aligning your focus to the planned task. Dilution of attention is a genuine and often unacknowledged problem.

This begs the question, "Who is watching who?" "Which "who" is the true who?" But those are questions for another day.

Pythagoras mantra keeps us focused on where our attention is directed.

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