Exactly. I know several startup founders who ended up managing their time better by having only one machine for work and one for play -- and the machine for pl

Exactly. I know several startup founders who ended up managing their time better by having only one machine for work and one for play -- and the machine for play they kept in a separate room. It wasn't a capabilities question, it was a mental discipline question. When they went into the other room they mentally switched gears to have some fun and recreation. Over time the physical separation allowed them to separate the goals in their minds as well. The machine or tech had nothing to do with it. Likewise I've been fortunate to work with some higher-level folks in traditional work in the 90s and 00s. They had their emails printed and read to them. It wasn't because they lacked computer skill. The physical act of requiring that the emails be printed and read to them limited the flow and increased the time they spent considering each reply. By limiting the time they spent on correspondence, it then created a small amount of extremely high-value correspondence where otherwise they could have easily spent all day slacking or whatnot. (I have no idea if that strategy works or not, I was simply fascinated that what originally looked like some kind of weird, old-fashioned luddite philosophy was actually based on increasing quality.) The physicality of how we accomplish various tasks can have a great amount of impact on how well we do them.