Here’s a confession: I am a literature professor who is having a hard time reading. It’s not that the words on the page have lost their meaning, but that my ability to sustain focus seems to be slipping away. My students seem to be experiencing this phenomenon as well. “Professor?” they’ll ask. “How should I get my reading done?”

I didn’t find success in a traditional way. My career in the restaurant industry began alongside my brother, with both of us in the back of a kitchen washing dishes.