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

This is not the book I was expected. It was far more valuable. I bought it in hopes of gaining a better understanding of some displeasing personal habits I've newly developed (which it has), but more importantly, it's helped me gain a deeper understanding as to why and how our world has arrived at our current, alarming circumstance. Unlike self-help books that offer over-simplistic, doomed-to-fail hacks to regain one's focus, STOLEN FOCUS takes a deep dive into the topic, exploring the vast range of human functions and joys dependent on our capacity to focus, how a dearth of it (within ourselves and society at large) impacts our lives, plus, how and why our capacity to focus has diminished over time. Only when we understand the how and why, can we begin to tackle the question: what must we do to restore it? Granted, the author does not offer fast and easy resolutions, primarily because there are none. However, knowledge is power, and even though he tackles the subject with the gravity it deserves, he presents this wake-up call with wisdom, compassion and caring. To boot, it's a riveting page-turner and hauntingly prescient. Published back in 2022, the book foretells so much of what has since happened to our society. However, that's not to suggest it ends on a negative note. Throughout the book,the author uses practical solutions from history to show how current problems may be overcome. As such, I finished the book with greater incentive to protect my focus from the many who aim to steal it, and it's working. 3 months later, I find myself way less distractable and feeling oddly empowered. Seeing the world from a clearer perspective doesn't fix the myriad problems around us, but it makes it easier to determine where we might best focus our energies and where we best not. This makes an excellent companion piece to Charles Duhigg's THE POWER OF HABIT (published in 2012 but even more resonant now) and Kate Murphy's YOU'RE NOT LISTENING.I wish everybody would read these 3 books (oh, and also the 2008 classic Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.") if these were required reading for everybody in the world, the world would be a much happier, pleasanter place.

This is one of those books that I can't say I enjoyed, but I'm very glad I read it.Like most people, I have problems focusing and staying on task at times. The ubiquitous allure of social media being just a click away is an ever-present temptation that often becomes a self-imposed distraction. I fight it, but I often lose the battle.In this incredibly researched, yet easy to read, book, author and journalist Johann Hari explains many of the reasons almost all of society is struggling with this issue. Along the way I learned a few new terms like "switch cost effect" and "surveillance capitalism" that will help me improve my focus.Some of his solutions seem a bit extreme to me (and even scary - no way I want the government taking over Facebook!) but he throws them out for consideration and to get the reader thinking about this issue and how we can individually, and even collectively, reclaim our attention. I specifically like how he tied our problems with focusing on fixing climate change with our attention crisis. In that, I think Hari makes his best points.I'd recommend this book to anyone who'd like to reclaim some of their focus. And I'd urge any parent with young children (or anyone dreaming of becoming a parent one day) to give this a read as he spends a lot of time on ADHD and ways we can improve children's attention without drugs.Hari quotes someone as saying "You don't get what you don't fight for" and in that I think we can all agree. Whether or not you think fighting for your attention (and for society to regain its ability to focus) is up to you. I'd encourage you to read this book before deciding either way.

I wrote a review for this book a few days ago and then deleted it because I felt something was missing. I didn't do justice in writing that review because I wrote it without processing much information in the book.The author says, "There's going to be a class of people that are very aware of the risks to their attention and find ways to live within their limits, and then there will be the rest of the society with fewer resources to resist the manipulation, and they're going to be living more and more inside their computers, being manipulated more and more ."In time, I had overcome my habit of frequently checking emails/SMS/social media feeds, etc. So, I initially rejected the claims made in this book. It wasn't fair to say big tech is to blame for our stolen focus. We, as individuals, have a responsibility to guard our focus.I felt I had read enough. We need to have more self-control.I realized my resistance to accepting the author's claims stemmed from a delusion that I controlled my life, thoughts, feelings, ambitions, etc. Like me, if you continue reading the book, the author calls this mental state - cruel optimism. And this state of mind is on the rise collectively. The question one needs to begin asking here is whether - the problems that society is facing right now are to be resolved at an individual or societal level.Imagine you are working on a numerical problem, and whenever you are about to finish summing up those numbers, someone around you comes and starts telling you about their day. You could ask them to stop interrupting you. They are your family and respect your wishes. How many people can interrupt you on social media?A term that stuck with me is "surveillance capitalism." It is a business model that wants to maximize our screen time, not life time." If you enjoy hate, the algorithms prioritize hate in your feed, and if you enjoy attention, you begin to bond with likes/retweets, etc.The author makes a few recommendations for breaking away from "surveillance capitalism." He also cites a few examples from the past where perceived advances collectively led to deterioration in the quality of life for individuals.An analogy from this book that struck a giant cord with me:"Your ability to develop deep focus is, I have come to believe, like a plant. To grow and flourish to its full potential, your focus needs certain things to be present: play for children and flow states for adults, to read books, to discover meaningful activities that you want to focus on, to have space to let your mind wander so you can make sense of your life, to exercise, to sleep properly, to eat nutritious food that makes it possible for you to develop a healthy brain, and to have a sense of safety. And there are certain things you need to protect your attention from because they will sicken or stunt it: too much speed, too much switching, too many stimuli, intrusive technology designed to hack and hook you, stress, exhaustion, processed food pumped with dyes that amp you up........"