Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention

Forward

Humanity Forward Productions

Society & Culture

4.8 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 January 2022

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Johann Hari says your attention didn't suddenly collapse in the last few years -- instead, he argues it was stolen from you. Johann identifies how your attention is being taken away, and how you can take it back. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/BFpVzXmGeTE Stolen Focus - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/634289/stolen-focus-by-johann-hari/ Johann Hari - https://johannhari.com | https://twitter.com/johannhari101 Andrew Yang - https://andrewyang.com | https://twitter.com/andrewyang To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I remember having a moment very early in the research for the book. I went to interview a guy called Professor Roy Balmeister,
0:05.7	who's at the University of Queensland in Australia, and he's the leading expert in the world on Will Power.
0:11.4	He wrote a book called Will Power. I'm sure everyone said of the Marshmallow test. He's the guy who invented that.
0:15.7	So I go to interview him and I said, you know, I'm thinking of writing a book about why people got attention problems,
0:20.8	trying to figure it out. And he said, oh, it's really interesting you say that, because I just find myself these days,
0:26.1	just playing games on my phone all the time. I just find, you know, my own attention isn't very good.
0:30.5	I was like, wait, did you write a book called Will Power? I was like, if you can get your
0:35.6	strongest will person in the world, literally all the scientific evidence about Will Power.
0:42.6	But if you're in an environment that invades you, you're not going to be able to defend yourself to some degree.
0:48.0	And I realized the shifting consciousness, I think we have to make on this issue and this
0:51.9	shifting consciousness on the other 11 issues as well. But on this issue, if you can't focus, if you can't
0:58.7	pay attention, it's not your fault. It's not something wrong with you. There's not something wrong with your children.
1:03.4	We are not medieval peasants begging at the court of King Zuckerberg for a few little crumbs of attention from his table.
1:11.0	We are the free citizens of democracies and we own our own minds and we can reclaim them from the forces that are
1:18.2	systematically degrading them if we want to. But we have to understand this as a systemic problem that requires
1:24.5	systemic solutions as well as to some degree in individual problem that we have to deal with individually.
1:29.8	We have to be by this week on forward the author of stolen focus why you can't pay attention and how you can think more deeply.
1:57.4	Yohon Hari, love this book, love this author this week on forward.
2:02.8	It is my pleasure to welcome to the podcast, the author of stolen focus why you can't pay attention and how you can think more deeply which we all want to do.
2:22.2	Johan Hari, welcome Johan.
2:24.2	Andrew, I was so happy to be with you, especially because you make a cameo appearance in this book.
2:29.0	So, no.
	...

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