30 April 2017

• Prophylactic: Intended to prevent disease 
• Mindfulness may have a prophylactic effect: it can strengthen the areas that are most susceptible to cognitive decline. (Maria Konnikova)
• Variegated: Varied; diversified; diverse
• Through modifying our practices of thought towards a more Holmes-like concentration, we can build up neural real-state that is better able to deal with the variegated demands of the endlessly multitasking, infinitely connected modern world. (Maria Konnikova)
• Traipse: Walk or move wearily or reluctantly 
• In the time it takes old detective Mac to traipse around all those country towns in search of the missing bicyclist in "The Valley of Fear", Holmes solved the entire crime without leaving the room where the murder occurred. (Maria Konnikova)

27 April 2017

• Paroxysm: A sudden attack or outburst of a particular emotion or activity.
• I also have some issues with over-the-top behavior of Pakistani women-yes, we are hospitable and quite effusive on some occasion but these paroxysms of delight go a little too far too fast for my taste (excuse the awful pun here). (Marylou Andrew) 

26 April 2017

• Stricture: A restriction on a person or activity
• In the 1920s, at the same time Jung was attempting to break away from the strictures of his mentor, Sigmund Freud, he began regular retreats to a rustic stone house he build in the woods outside the small town of Bollingen. (Cal Newport in Deep Work pg. 106) 

25 April 2017

• Desultory: Lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful.
• Rubin's Twitter's profile reveals a steady and somewhat desultory strings of missives, one every two to four days, as if Rubin receives a regular notice from the Times' social media desk (a real thing) reminding her to appease her followers.  (Cal Newport in Deep Work pg. 66) 

24 April 2017

Fungible: (especially of goods) being of such nature or kind as to be freely exchangeable or replaceable, in whole or in part, for another of like nature or kind. 

• And even then, the outcome is fungible, as it's not able to separate out, for example, how much value was produced by this frequent, expensive e-mail use to offset some of its cost.  (Cal Newport in Deep Work pg. 55) 
• These insights are often communicated through fungible artifacts, such as journal articles, slide decks, teaching cases or books that practitioners can consume and apply to their specific context. (AMJ) Added 21 April 2019. 
• Can IT jobs replace the lost manufacturing jobs? No, of course not. These are totally fungible jobs. (Added 7 November 2022)

Simulacrum: a slight, unreal, or superficial likeness or semblance

• Instead of trying to manage their time and obligations themselves, they let the impending meeting each week force them to take some action on a given project and more generally provide a highly visible simulacrum of progress. (Cal Newport in Deep Work pg. 60)