I just finished reading an absolutely stunning article about Joshua Bell, one of the leading violinists of the world. I am cheating by posting this article on here because I know it doesn’t strictly have to do with Jobs, except I like to think that one, Joshua is in fact “working” (he is playing his violin) and two, the mastery of the writing of this article makes me want to be a better writer (which is my job.) The old saying goes, “If I could write half as good as he does, I would be set for life!” Let me tell you now, I will never write half as good as Gene Weingarten does.
The story is an amazing one, and doesn’t end at all how you think it will. I don’t want to say too much to ruin the story for you, but I will say I was surprised by what happened.
The article talks about people listening to their music via their iPods, and missing out because they are too involved in their music, their own world, to pay any attention to what is happening around them. Which makes me ask myself, “Am I like this?” The answer is a resounding yes. I am quite often preoccupied in my little world, my own thoughts, and I have a hard time concentrating on anything else. I just got home from a meeting, and I’ll admit, I fidgeted through it, not paying attention to much that was said, because I had a list of things I wanted to write down, and no piece of paper or pencil to write it with. I was distracted and not willing to pay attention.
I wish I could say confidently that if I were there that morning, I would have done paid attention to Joshua, but I can’t. After reading the article, I would love to have my readers come back and answer this question for me:
What would you have done?