About:
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention— and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari tries to examine the reasons and impact society inability to concentrate. Mr. Harri is an award-winning British journalist, playwright, and author.
- 368 pages
- Publisher : Crown
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 0593138511
My rating for Stolen Focus – 5
Buy Stolen Focus from Amazon.com*
More Books by Johann Hari*
Thoughts:
I’ve wanted to read this book ever since it was featured on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Pump Club. Even before that, I noticed that my ability to focus on long term tasks (an hour) has been significantly decrease. Like many, I blamed my phone, which has been on “mute” for the past five years. But I noticed it wasn’t just the phone, this book illuminated some of my assumptions.
Stolen Focus by Johann Hari tries to figure out why we lost our ability to focus. Having a pocket size computer which demands your attention like a toddler is, of course, part of the equation but not all of it. In fact, our ability to focus has been declining for a long time, the Internet just put it in overdrive
Mr. Hari goes on to detail other brain “pollutants” which a vying for people’s attention. From lack of exercise to diet, depression and whole industries employing very smart people to use human nature against you and hack your brain’s focus.
The author is careful to admit that his research is cursory at best. He interviews many interesting experts and professionals, and of course many of them don’t agree with one another. They do; however, all agree that there’s a problem. Whose fault is it, or what to do about it are still divisive.
In the book he discovered something we all knew, and I’m sure he did as well. The tech companies are not interested in your well-being. They’re interested in making you engage with their products, and the best way to do that is to get you feel angry, scared, or upset.
The book does emphasize that the pollutants in the air are also responsible for our rotting brains, as well as the food industry. The solutions sound simple, but they’re not. Prioritize sleeping, something I’ve been trying to do for years, meditating and limiting tech are just a few of them.
Buy Stolen Focus from Amazon.com*
More Books by Johann Hari*
Zohar – Man of la Book
Disclaimer: I bought this book
*Amazon links point to an affiliate account, the money is usually spent on books
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