I’ve spent the better part of this Saturday afternoon writing in the Central Library. The building is totally dysfunctional, but beautiful. Just like Seattle. At least the tourists snapping photos seem happy.

I’m writing here because my desk is utterly useless for the task—despite working in the brand new UW research building in the South Lake Union neighborhood. Open spaces, accessibility to others, a total lack of quiet writing or reading spaces—all darlings of contemporary lab designers—are disastrous when trying to concentrate on a difficult task. Have building designers not read PeopleWare? After a thirty second interruption, it will take me about 15 minutes to drag everything I need back into short term memory—at least 15 minutes before I can be productive again. Architects, apparently, view graduate students and post-docs as vermin.