I'm not sure how to characterize this story from the Style section of the NYT. Is it a harmless fluff piece? Does it accurately capture the zeitgeist of many in the valley? Is it a self help story for those drowning in information? Oh wait, I know -- it is an exercise in total misdirection, where the "hero" of the story, the "4 hour workweek" author and consultant, the guy "helping" all the overstressed underslept execs in the Valley, turns out to be working some pretty incredible hours himself. The key, apparently, to working only four hours per week, is to characterize the rest of the work as something else, in this case, evangelism. Hoo boy.
Even the true lede of the story is buried, here's the quote:
“BlackBerrys and e-mail aren’t inherently bad,” he said. “It’s just like medicine: it’s the dose that makes the poison.”
But that's not a very interesting story, way better to make the flow of information bad, and ignorance good.
There are a few truths that come from the story. First, don't let facts interfere with a good premise. Second, never underestimate the ease by which even technology leaders will turn and say that tech is the root cause of evil. Finally, any Style section story on technology is something to be avoided.