The Archive

Notes, essays, and occasional detours.

A running collection of Francis Sopper’s writing on cognition, attention, work, relationships, and the curious ways our minds make sense of the world.

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Francis Sopper Francis Sopper

Stress Test

Travel is stress testing my cognitive processes.

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Robert Brown Robert Brown

Hey Siri

Hey Siri!

We met some time ago. I had to train myself not to say please and thank you, even though you were trained to say, you're welcome.

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Robert Brown Robert Brown

ADHD LMNOP QRS TUV

Labels help distinguish fertilizer from herbicide on the shelf at the garden supplies store. In the garden store, there's not a shelf with containers of mostly fertilizer on one side with some herbicide along a continuum of containers with gradually more herbicide to fertilizer until at the far end of the shelf, there's a container for mostly herbicide with some fertilizer.

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Robert Brown Robert Brown

Getting It Done

"Meg, if I could make a system work, I wouldn't need a system." Meg Edwards was my former colleague from Landmark College.

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Robert Brown Robert Brown

Warning: Labels

"Are you a Republican or a Democrat?" I asked, hoping to surprise my grandfather with how clever I was. I can look back now and realize the social media of the day, black and white television, was full of news and discussion around the upcoming presidential election of 1964.

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