For some weeks now I've been struggling with William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's The Difference Engine. It's over 400 pages long, I'm 300 in, and it's just going nowhere. It's just a romp, using historical names, it's own quirky, earthy English dialect and a vision of an ornately dressed London of the 1850s in a world where technological and political history flowed differently, but it's not doing anything for me. I have to put it down.
This is hard for me. I was taught to finish things, but I need to learn when to walk away from unimportant things that are failing me and sucking energy out of me so I can focus on things that are productive and energy-giving for me, my family and my clients. I am reminded of a little book by Seth Godin called The Dip: A Little Book that Teaches You When to Quit. I read a good chunk of it while standing in the Bookstore on Franklin St before putting it back on the shelf because in general Godin's books are too expensive per unit of insight. Or at least they seem to be. This one was maybe $10 used for 80 pages. But at the time I thought I was taking Godin's message to heart pretty effectively.
Anyway, I think I've made my point and probably would be better off getting on with my day. Another thing I should probably draw from this is that I know now that I am a fan of William Gibson, though like most authors he's not perfect and this just isn't his best. But probably not Bruce Sterling.
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