The distracted mind
Adam Gazzaley and Larry Rosen--a neuroscientist and a psychologist--explain why our brains aren't built for multitasking and suggest better ways to live in a high-tech world without giving up our modern technology. They explain that our brains are limited in their ability to pay attention. We don't really multitask but rather switch rapidly between tasks. Distractions and interruptions, often technology-related--referred to by the authors as interference--collide with our goal-setting abilities.
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3recommend
9mentions
3people
2017–2024years
100% recommend
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- You could do worse than read "The distracted mind", by neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley. It gave me deeper insight into the human-specific additions to my monkey brain.
- I play this game.
Duke replicated Gazzaley's results.
The first section of his book is good at explaining attention:
https://www.amazon.com/Distracted-Mind-Ancient-Brains-High-T...
- This is only tangential, but Adam Gazzaley's The Distracted Mind (2016, MIT Press) provides an excellent anatomy of focus and attention, working memory, goal management and overall cognitive control, then places them in the context of modern technology to discuss how people can fight distraction.
https://www.amazon.com/Distracted-Mind-Ancient-Brains-High-T...
It's the first time I read someone properly explain all the parts and tasks involved in attentional control in the service of achieving goals.
- Evolution. Information == survival. There’s a good scientific overview of how our hunter-gatherer brains evolved to put a huge value on novel bits of information in the book, “The Distracted Mind”.
- The book “The Distracted Mind” is a pretty good overview of the science behind this. In terms of how to alleviate distraction, they recommend taking restorative breaks like walking in nature, standing up, making tea, etc. Even looking at pictures of nature can be effective. If you can substitute these breaks for the constant need to flip over to some other novel stimulus, over time you can build up your attention span. (Also, for me, I find meditation can really help build your focus over time. You can start with concentrating fully on your breathing for ten breaths, and work up gradually from there. Even a few very “mindful” breaths can be very effective.)
- There was some interesting research in the book, “The Distracted Mind”, which showed that looking at nature could help relieve a distracted mental state — and that looking at pictures of nature could offer similar restorative benefits.
I know for me, personally, that few things come close to sitting under a tree at the park when I’m feeling drained.
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