Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again

It’s easy to assume most people know about this, but I don’t think it’s true.

the book

Once Facebook was shown—in plain language, by their own people—what they were doing, how did the company’s executives respond? According to the Journal’s in-depth reporting, they mocked the research, calling it an “Eat Your Veggies” approach. They introduced some minor tweaks, but dismissed most of the recommendations.

All the data suggested that, as time passed, we were focusing less on any one individual topic.

Thirdly, it is worth thinking deeply about how other people live and how their minds work.

“like putting rocket fuel into a mini. It would just burn out and bust very quickly—because it can’t handle that.

Henri Poincaré couldn’t have come up with his solution if he had remained narrowly focused on the math problem he was trying to solve, or if he had been totally distracted. It took mind-wandering to get him there.

The world is complex and requires steady focus to be understood; it needs to be thought about and comprehended slowly; and most important truths will be unpopular when they are first articulated.

This is one of the problems with cruel optimism—it takes exceptional cases, usually achieved in exceptional circumstances, and acts as if they can be commonplace.