Focus & Attention
Anything and everything related to focus and attention while living in an era characterized by the shortest attention spans
Focus & Attention
It’s almost like boredom doesn’t exist, like difficulty doesn’t exist, scarcity doesn’t exist. And a feeling I’ve been having a lot lately is that scarcity is often what creates meaning. When you’re surrounded by infinite possibilities, when you know around the next corner is another video that might be funnier, you’re never going to sit with the t
... See moreWe’ve all heard the saying about an idle mind, but its true meaning often eludes us. An idle mind is not necessarily indicative of an empty calendar or a lack of to-dos. An idle mind is one that is unaware of its attention’s whereabouts and is incapable of redirecting it
Jen Hitze • Attention, Distraction, and Your Responsibility
Idle mind
Chamath on the importance of slow compounding:
“The faster you build it, that is the half life: it will get destroyed in the same amount of time.”
Things tend to come and go, tip to one side and then the other, tide out and back in, grow and then rot, get created and destroyed, at the same speed.
“Attention isn’t free. It’s the most valuable thing you spend.”
Attention Required! | Cloudflare
Attention along with time → the most valuable thing you would spend
Our entire existence is shaped by the orientation of our attention. Each day unfolds as a culmination of the things we choose to focus on from when we wake up until we fall asleep.
Jen Hitze • Attention, Distraction, and Your Responsibility
What we choose to focus on
The fastest growing sector of the culture economy is distraction . Or call it scrolling or swiping or wasting time or whatever you want. But it’s not art or entertainment, just ceaseless activity.
The key is that each stimulus only lasts a few seconds, and must be repeated.
The key is that each stimulus only lasts a few seconds, and must be repeated.
Ted Gioia • The State of the Culture, 2024
Her class was also less about consumption and more about conversation. Before arriving, we were responsible for reading 10 pages and writing a 750-word reflection on them. Class always began with small group conversations, in which we discussed the reading from the night before. By ungrouping and regrouping into different groups, we gained differen... See more
David Perell • Against 3X Speed - David Perell
The proper response to this situation, we’re often told today, is to render ourselves indistractible in the face of interruptions: to learn the secrets of “relentless focus”—usually involving meditation, web-blocking apps, expensive noise-canceling headphones, and more meditation—so as to win the attentional struggle once and for all. But this is a... See more