This book is the product of many years of conversation and collaboration with many people who have served as my teachers, guides, colleagues, and fellow investigators. I am deeply grateful to all of them, and to the institutions that have made this inquiry possible.
The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society has played a huge role, granting me the fellowship to teach the course on which this book is based and stimulating a broad investigation into the place of contemplative practices in higher education from which I have greatly benefited. It has also created a global community of scholars and teachers from whom I have learned so much. I am particularly grateful to Mirabai Bush, Arthur Zajonc, Daniel Barbezat, Sharon Parks, and Carrie Bergman.
The Puget Sound group on Sustainability and Contemplative Practice, founded and led by Jean MacGregor, has been a tremendous source of intellectual and personal support. The gatherings of this group of local academics at the Whidbey Institute, and the friendships formed through them, have inspired and challenged me, demonstrating to me what it means to be involved in “the great work.”
I have been extremely fortunate in the support I’ve received from my home institution, the Information School at the University of Washington—from the faculty, staff, and students. Special thanks to Deans Mike Eisenberg and Harry Bruce, who trusted me and respected this work before it was recognized within the academy. And a warm embrace to the students who have enthusiastically joined with me in exploring a more contemplative relationship with the digital realm.
I am deeply indebted to my collaborators on the study of meditation and multitasking: to Jacob Wobbrock, Alfred Kaszniak, Marilyn Ostergren, Cynthia Kear, Michelle Fokos, and Darlene Cohen (1942–2011). Without Darlene’s enthusiastic participation, in what turned out to be the last years of her life, this study would never have come about. Thanks too to the National Science Foundation (and to Ephraim Glinert) for funding the study (grant IIS-0942646), and to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (and to Elspeth Revere and Kathy Im, in particular) for helping to support the initial workshops and conferences from which this work emerged.
I am grateful to those friends and teachers who have continued to teach and inspire me, and whose influence is reflected in this book: Ewan Clayton, Norman Fischer, Mike Gillespie, Julie Jacobs, Alfred Kaszniak, David Loy, Cheryl Metoyer, Ruth Ozeki, and Kimberly Richardson Sensei. A special thanks to Deborah Tannen for her friendship and wise counsel.
I extend deep appreciation as well to those who read and commented on the manuscript: to Daniel Barbezat, Hilarie Cash, Ewan Clayton, Katie Davis, Mike Gillespie, Alfred Kaszniak, Ted McCarthy, and Zari Weiss; and to the three anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback.
I gratefully acknowledge the help of my agent, Lindsay Edgecombe, and my editor at Yale University Press, Jennifer Banks.
Finally, for their ongoing support and guidance, I say thank you to my friend Ewan Clayton and to my life partner, Zari Weiss. Thank you to Ewan for more than thirty years of conversation and collaboration, and for his extensive feedback on this book. Thank you to Zari for our shared life, b’ahavah rabbah.