The word also refers to our physical surroundings. The setting of a story dictates how characters behave; the setting of your daily life dictates how you perform.

[ Physical Setting ] ───► [ Sensory Input ] ───► [ Internal State ] ───► [ Behavior ] The Architecture of Focus

Here’s a short story built around the theme of “settings”:

Let us begin in the most literal and immediate realm: the on our phones, laptops, and applications. This is a space of endless drop-down menus, sliders, and checkboxes. For most of us, it is a land of anxiety. We venture there only when something goes wrong, navigating its arcane pathways with a sense of dread. But these are the true control rooms of the 21st century.