Cadence and depth

The canonical wisdom amongst financial planners is that when consumers have multiple pools of debt, they should concentrate on eliminating the ones with the highest interest rates first. Then along comes pundit Dave Ramsey with the suggestion that in fact people should first work on taking out the smallest pockets of debt to gain momentum and confidence in themselves. And lo and behold, empirical research backs up this so-called "snowball" method of debt retirement: people taking this advice do move forward more quickly.

Something similar works with me and books. In the middle of bigger, weightier books I often have to take time out to read lighter, quicker books. Which gives me a feeling of flow and accomplishment which helps me go back to the fatties. Sometimes. So it has been with this little volume of Lee Smith stories giving me a little respite from McPhee's lengthy meanderings through mid-70s Alaska.

But might this not be something analogous to Stephen Covey's four quadrants, where the easy things feel good but are less fruitful? (click on image to make it bigger)

It calls for ongoing reflection. Sometimes the easy things are just fluff, sometimes they're not.