The article “Later” by James Surowiecki depicts the idea of procrastination as something we all struggle with sometimes. Something I found confusing is when the author illustrates McClellan’s struggles with procrastination during the Civil War. He states: “In 1862, despite an excellent opportunity to take Richmond from Robert E. Lee’s men, with another Union army attacking in a pincer move, he dilly-dallied, convinced that he was blocked by hordes of Confederate soldiers, and missed his chance.” I had to re-read this sentence about two or three times to understand the description that the author was trying to convey. I think this is a very good example that the author uses to show how even war leaders and generals struggled with procrastination. Sometimes complex contexts like war and words that were used in the past might be hard to understand. Another thing that I found difficult to comprehend was when the author depicts Ulysses’ experience on the ship. The author states: “Ulysses knows that when he hears the Sirens he will be too weak to resist steering the ship onto the rocks in pursuit of them, so he has his men bind him, thereby forcing him to adhere to his long-term aims”. I was able to comprehend the imagery and description used by the author but it was difficult to relate it to his main point of the paragraph, which is that we should rely on external tools to help with procrastination.
