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The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

theguardian.com

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Re: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

#91

Post by afarrell »

sundvor wrote: post #55
afarrell wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Piggy-backing off of this to add the things I find useful: - Mindfulness medidation, same as you. It is hard and when you first try it feels like you are failing. But Yoda is wrong: trying is very valuable and builds the mindfulness muscle. - Website blocking software like SelfControl.app and Freedom.io —- some might ridicule these as being a crutch, but that is a silly reason not to use them. If you are trying to ch…

I also find it hard to concentrate. Exercise is a big one (needs to be just the right amount though), and so is sleep. I struggle with chatter noise in my work environment being the thing that derails me, so a pair of noise cancelling headphones is an absolute must to quiet the mind; currently waiting for the new Sony one..

I've found it useful to have a pair of earplugs underneath my noise-cancelling headphones.

Re: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

#92

Post by afarrell »

gregknicholson wrote: post #80
teekert wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, for starters, you seem to have learned a great deal of useful stuff about life, stuff that takes years to accumulate. So to me you already seem like someone I could have engaging conversations with. That said, I have no trouble talking to strangers but a colleague of mine once said he found "The Tao of Badass" [0] a useful book. It didn't fix the fact that he was always completely disinterested in what others d…

From [0] above: > The Tao of Badass by Joshua Pellicer > Josh Pellicer is a leading expert on female psychology, body language and the art of seduction. His seduction system, The Tao Of Badass, is the best-selling seduction system in the World. Well this is creepy as fuck.

> creepy as fuck

This is probably true. And there is indeed a lot of attracting-people-to-you advice which fails to respect people, much less their bodily autonomy. Certainly, calling a book which calls itself "Badass" doesn't strike me as particularly conducive to building healthy relationships. The cover also doesn't do it any favors.

-------------------------------------------

However, I think it is an error to equate creepiness with trying to better understand how sexual attraction works and how to be more successful at the social skills involved in sexual situations. Creepiness is fundamentally about a lack of respect for someone else's autonomy and interests. Trying to get better at social skills isn't creepy.

If someone is born into circumstances where society expects them to play the active role in sexual situations, and they want to have a healthy sex life, then they shouldn't feel shame for wanting to better understand how to play that role. It is certainly better for someone like that to work toward their goal of a fulfilling sexual/romantic relationship than for them to feel trapped and lonely. I think it would be a better world if there were lots of attraction learning resources which weren't full of misogynistic rubbish and successfully taught useful mental models and mindsets.

Re: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

#93

Post by derangedHorse »

leggomylibro wrote: post #4

It seems like nowadays, we wring our hands about the effects of constant access to the internet on a near-daily basis. And isn't it kind of odd that the people working on these products in an 'individual contributor' capacity are often the same ones encouraging others to stay away from their platforms? Maybe that should tell us something. Anecdotally, most of the things that this article recommends are things that I…

I think a big contributor to these types of feelings is the fact that a lot of us don't know how to spend our time meaningfully. When enjoyment isn't a means to an end, we dismiss our usual pastimes in favor of something with impact. The thing is, a lot of us don't know what will have impact and eventually everything seems like a waste of time.

I believe a side effect of this connected world is making everyone seem unspectacular, and therefore everything we do (compared to what we observe around on the net) unspectacular. Maybe the real detriment of the internet's influence is that it makes everyone feel like we're wasting time when their may not be a way to spend it in a way that makes us happier.

Re: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

#94

Post by trouble »

bitexploder wrote: post #68
tiniuclx wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deep Work ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracte... ) concisely sums up many feelings I've had about distractions and how this always connected world affects the way I think. I believe the teachings of this book are especially applicable to knowledge workers.

I can’t recommend this book enough. It is one of the most important ideas in my life. The book is good, but the ideas and observations are critical. It really helps me manage my ADHD. A lot more goes into it, but the basic notion is: more deep work hours = more productivity = moving the needle in my universe more.

I'm also a big fan of this book, for the same reasons (ADHD management). Understanding the value of setting aside big chunks of time to work deeply and prioritising that time has had an enormous positive impact on how I get things done.

Re: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

#95

Post by bitexploder »

maroonblazer wrote: post #75
bitexploder wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is what I think. Do you have something you really want to achieve? Writing a book? Learning something new to advance your career? Whatever it is you must carve our deep work time for it. Waking up early, etc. How to select your “whatever it is”. Don’t start small. Think about it every day. I think this will prime your brain to help you find it. Keep a journal focused on this. It probably won’t take too long. If…

Lately it's been fashionable to downplay the idea of "passion" (try Googling "don't follow your passion"), but I think it's critical to having any chance of success at tackling a big problem. Several years ago I took up jazz drumming and purchased a DVD by the jazz drummer John Riley. Amidst all the technical lessons that comprise 99% of the disc he inserted a brief, 1 minute long sidebar on the idea of being "gifted…

Passion is almost a Zen concept to me. Follow your passion is great, but, fly too close to the Sun and you get burned. Passion can be learned in the sense that you can explore new things and find you have a passion for them. And you won’t know if you have a passion for some topics until you are deep into them. I think most smart people can learn to have passion for almost any area where they have mastery and purpose to achieve. It can be a bit of voodoo “finding your passion” and you can learn to be passionate about almost anything if it scratches the right itch, IMO. It is all about expanding horizons. Getting a job in a hobby or passion can be the worst thing for that passion.

Re: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

#96

Post by bitexploder »

trouble wrote: post #94
bitexploder wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t recommend this book enough. It is one of the most important ideas in my life. The book is good, but the ideas and observations are critical. It really helps me manage my ADHD. A lot more goes into it, but the basic notion is: more deep work hours = more productivity = moving the needle in my universe more.

I'm also a big fan of this book, for the same reasons (ADHD management). Understanding the value of setting aside big chunks of time to work deeply and prioritising that time has had an enormous positive impact on how I get things done.

I have tried (legally prescribed) amphetamines. I found without a structure and a plan I would be intensely focused on /something/, but maybe not what was most important every day. And with good time management, diet, and most important, exercise, I didn’t need anything else. So, seconded there on the impact :)

Re: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

#97

Post by trouble »

bitexploder wrote: post #96
trouble wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also a big fan of this book, for the same reasons (ADHD management). Understanding the value of setting aside big chunks of time to work deeply and prioritising that time has had an enormous positive impact on how I get things done.

I have tried (legally prescribed) amphetamines. I found without a structure and a plan I would be intensely focused on /something/, but maybe not what was most important every day. And with good time management, diet, and most important, exercise, I didn’t need anything else. So, seconded there on the impact :)

I've had a pretty similar experience. Get exercise, sleep, food and hydration under control, then (in my case) medication helps me make the most of that structure.

I actually just wrote a giant post [1] about what I've learned about managing ADHD so far. It focuses on the core stuff, but I want to follow it up with a breakdown of how books like Deep Work (e.g. Flow; Farsighted; Thinking, Fast and Slow; How Not to be Wrong) have made a difference for me.

[1] https://medium.com/@sashacollecutt/life-with-adhd-a61cae5a5b...

Re: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

#100

Post by octygen »

tostadora wrote: post #53
octygen wrote: post #49

Three things helped me: 1) Mindfulness training so I could see myself in the moment NOT concentrating and stop myself. Still not at 100% with this but have been getting a lot better since I first took https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/mindfulness-wellbeing-pe... a couple of years ago. 2) Thinking of my mobile in the way marketers think of it. As a cache for mobile minutes. Each marketing dept is like a little gnome…

The Michener essay is a great read. Thank you for the link. It has made me think about a problem, though: how to select that huge task in which to pour your energy. For him, it was his novels; but being in a 9 to 5 office job like I am, I'm wondering what are my options.

"You do not need to have a great idea before you can begin working; you need to begin working before you can have a great idea. //Josh Collinsworth"

Just the quote from this week's Hacker Newsletter

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