Last weekend I was in a place where I depended on trains and subways to get around, and waiting on platforms I noticed the large number of people glued to smartphones. It looked as though, as a society, we have become the opposite of Henry James' ideal of "someone on whom nothing is lost." On us, everything is lost. As a travel writer, I saw this in a positive light. For years now people have been saying there's no longer any need for travel writers because everyone has been everywhere. But, increasingly, they're not seeing what's around them.
