11–20 of 458 posts
There is a veritable war going on for your attention, and the battlefields are your eyeballs, your ears and ultimately your brain. Psychologists have been enlisted, as they are in every war to try to win it for 'their side', be it one of the big silos or some dying TV or newspaper era behemoth, there is no reasonable way in which you can withstand that kind of frontal onslaught. The only way to really deal with this…
"The only winning move is not to play."
This is a major reason why I am bearish about online learning. I do love the accessibility of MOOCs, but I have to watch the videos multiple times to deeply understand the concepts, and I have to print out the assignments in order to really play with the ideas and solve them in a way that makes me grow. I prefer whenever possible to buy books. I'm not a bibliophile; I just do MUCH better when the target of my attenti…
Personally I also prefer books and written articles for learning, but for some reason, many people seem to prefer videos.
This for me is key, these sorts of problems cannot just be solved on an individual level. They are systemic. "Individual abstinence is “not the solution, for the same reason that wearing a gas mask for two days a week outside isn’t the answer to pollution. It might, for a short period of time, keep certain effects at bay, but it’s not sustainable, and it doesn’t address the systemic issues.” He said that our attentio…
Except I have no choice but to walk through an area which might be polluted. I do have a choice to not read news sites for four hours a day. The article fails to define both the problem and the solution. How exactly this “attention theft” causes significant negative societary consequences is defined extremely vaguely, and almost exclusively through personal anecdotes. The offered solutions, forcing employers to respe…
The author also seems to be very "unlucky" to have a relative who supposedly can't cope with normal live because of all the distractions.
This for me is key, these sorts of problems cannot just be solved on an individual level. They are systemic. "Individual abstinence is “not the solution, for the same reason that wearing a gas mask for two days a week outside isn’t the answer to pollution. It might, for a short period of time, keep certain effects at bay, but it’s not sustainable, and it doesn’t address the systemic issues.” He said that our attentio…
This is a major reason why I am bearish about online learning. I do love the accessibility of MOOCs, but I have to watch the videos multiple times to deeply understand the concepts, and I have to print out the assignments in order to really play with the ideas and solve them in a way that makes me grow. I prefer whenever possible to buy books. I'm not a bibliophile; I just do MUCH better when the target of my attenti…
Have you tried sitting in a classroom? That can be very boring, too, and there is no way to rewind. Personally I also prefer books and written articles for learning, but for some reason, many people seem to prefer videos.
The problem isn't as much that social media is addictive. The issue is that people aren't happy with their other options of what to do. If you have a draining job and don't have energy to put into a hobby, or you don't have lots of friends to hang out with, you're much more likely to waste time on something addictive.
These kind of traps are addictive to even otherwise happy and well-connected people; there are basically no subcultures on earth that has produced individuals who voluntarily abstain from social media (only cultures where such technology is banned entirely, like the Amish).
Also, going from 8 hrs of sleep a night + 1 hr of intensive sport a day to 4-5 hrs of sleep a night and 1 hr of sport a year is an absolute mind killer.
When I was younger I could never imagine going into management, as I'm "not a multitasker". Turns out all I needed to do was to never focus on anything for more than 1 minute..
I’ve said for years that the 20th century saw humanity for the first time having to learn to live in a world of infinite sugar, fat and salt. The 21st century will be about learning to live in a world of infinite information. We will all have to be mindful of whether we are consuming the mental equivalent of broccoli, donuts or anthrax.
There is a veritable war going on for your attention, and the battlefields are your eyeballs, your ears and ultimately your brain. Psychologists have been enlisted, as they are in every war to try to win it for 'their side', be it one of the big silos or some dying TV or newspaper era behemoth, there is no reasonable way in which you can withstand that kind of frontal onslaught. The only way to really deal with this…