"The reason it’s hard to focus on a conversation with your spouse isn’t that you’re surreptitiously checking your phone beneath the dinner table. **On the contrary, “surreptitiously checking your phone beneath the dinner table” is what you do because it’s hard to focus on the conversation—because listening takes effort and patience and a spirit of surrender, and because what you hear might upset you**, so checking your phone is naturally more pleasant." --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[acceptance]], [[attention]], [[distraction]], [[character]] **Source** -- [[202410130434 - B - Four Thousand Weeks]]