After gesturing toward efficiency increases in offices, houses, and cars, Laird hazards “a personal question”: “Have you given as much attention to your personal mental efficiency? Are you laying your mental bricks with eighteen movements or with five?” The book is shot through with the cultural moment’s fixation on speed, mastery, and a single-minded mission to cut out the useless. After a section that tests you on speed-reading, Laird urges you to “avoid excessive eye movements” while reading and offers this rather puzzling advice: “Do not read on trains, cars, or busses. Nor should you look
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