More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Johann Hari
Read between
May 8 - May 31, 2022
A different study by Gloria Mark, professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine—who I interviewed—observed how long on average an adult working in an office stays on one task. It was three minutes.
It said that we are, collectively, experiencing “a more rapid exhaustion of attention resources.”
“In general, we want to take the easy way out, but what makes us happy is doing the thing that’s a little bit difficult. What’s happening with our cellphones is that we put a thing in our pocket that’s with us all the time that always offers an easy thing to do, rather than the important thing.”
In our normal lives, many of us try to seek relief from distraction simply by crashing—we try to recover from a day of overload by collapsing in front of the TV. But if you only break away from distraction into rest—if you don’t replace it with a positive goal you are striving toward—you will always be pulled back to distraction sooner or later. The more powerful path out of distraction is to find your flow.
“The best experiences in life that I had, when I thought back on it, came from times when I had been in the mountains climbing…climbing and doing something really kind of difficult and dangerous—but within the scope of what I could do.” When you are approaching death, I thought, you won’t think about your reinforcements—the likes and retweets—you’ll think about your moments of flow.
The proportion of Americans who read books for pleasure is now at its lowest level ever recorded. The American Time Use Survey—which studies a representative sample of 26,000 Americans—found that between 2004 and 2017 the proportion of men reading for pleasure had fallen by 40 percent, while for women, it was down by 29 percent. The opinion-poll company Gallup found that the proportion of Americans who never read a book in any given year tripled between 1978 and 2014. Some 57 percent of Americans now do not read a single book in a typical year.
When they got the results, they were clear. The more novels you read, the better you were at reading other people’s emotions. It was a huge effect. This wasn’t just a sign that you were better educated—because reading nonfiction books, by contrast, had no effect on your empathy.
In situations of low stress and safety, mind-wandering will be a gift, a pleasure, a creative force. In situations of high stress or danger, mind-wandering will be a torment.
the top causes of stress in the U.S. have been identified by scientists at Stanford Graduate School of Business in a major study. They are “a lack of health insurance, the constant threat of lay-offs, lack of discretion and autonomy in decision-making, long working hours, low levels of organizational justice, and unrealistic demands.”
I ask: What could you do now to get into a flow state, and access your mind’s own ability to focus deeply? I remember what Mihaly taught me are the main components of flow, and I say to myself: What would be something meaningful to me that I could do now? What is at the edge of my abilities? How can I do something that matches these criteria now? Seeking out flow, I learned, is far more effective than self-punishing shame.
ON FIGHTING TO CHANGE HOW THE INTERNET WORKS Center for Humane Technology: humanetech.com The Avaaz campaign to detoxify the algorithms: secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/detox_the_algorithm_loc Stop Hate for Profit: stophateforprofit.org/backup-week-of-action-toolkit
ON FIGHTING FOR A FOUR-DAY WEEK Andrew Barnes and Charlotte Lockhart have co-founded this group: 4dayweek.com In Europe, the New Economics Foundation is fighting for this: neweconomics.org/campaigns/euro-working-time Four Day Week Ireland: fourdayweek.ie
ON CHILDREN BEING ALLOWED TO PLAY Let Grow: letgrow.org Let Our Kids Be Kids: letthekidsbekids.wordpress.com The Daily Mile: thedailymile.co.uk The Less Testing, More Learning Campaign: citizensforpublicschools.org/less-testing-more-learning-ma-campaign/sign-the-less-testing-more-learning-petition-today More Than a Score (opposing overtesting in the U.K.): morethanascore.org.uk; www.facebook.com/parentssupportteachers Keeping Early Years Unique: keyu.co.uk Upstart Scotland: upstart.scot ON PROTECTING KIDS FROM GETTING HOOKED ON TECH WHEN THEY ARE YOUNG Turning Life On: turninglifeon.org
ON CHANGING OUR FOOD SUPPLY Alliance for a Healthier Generation: healthiergeneration.org Healthy Food America: healthyfoodamerica.org Healthy Schools Campaign: healthyschoolscampaign.org/issues/school-food Better Food Britain, and the Children’s Food Campaign: sustainweb.org/projectsandcampaigns; sustainweb.org/childrensfoodcampaign School Food Matters: schoolfoodmatters.org/campaigns Henry: henry.org.uk
ON RESISTING POLLUTANTS THAT CAN DAMAGE ATTENTION Little Things Matter: littlethingsmatter.ca Client Earth: clientearth.org BreatheLife Campaign: ccacoalition.org/en/activity/breathelife-campaign; breathelife2030.org Healthy Air Campaign: healthyair.org.uk Endocrine Society (ES): endocrine.org European Society of Endocrinology (ESE): ese-hormones.org Health and Environmental Alliance (HEAL): env-health.org
A UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME Citizen’s Basic Income Trust: citizensincome.org Basic Income: basicincome.org.uk
