The Importance of Reading a Book

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I thought a lot about what is the message hidden in the medium of the book versus the messages hidden in social media. I think it's partly because there's a message implicit in the printed book, right? And I realized in some deep sense, I don't agree with the messages implicit in the mediums of Twitter and Facebook,. Actually, very few things that are worth saying can be said in two hundred and eighty characters. In fact, most things worth saying will not be agreed with immediately. Probably, if everyone agrees with you straight away, what you're saying didn't need to be said, right? But this is a way of putting my mind to be shaped like a novel,

Johann Hari is a writer and journalist. He has written for the New York Times, Le Monde, the Guardian, and other newspapers and his TED talks have been viewed over seventy million times. His work has been praised by a broad range of people, from Oprah Winfrey to Noam Chomsky to Joe Rogan.

Eric and Johann discuss his book, Stolen Focus Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again

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Johann Hari and I Discuss Stolen Focus and Attention and…

His book, Stolen Focus Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again
His experience of spending 3 months with no internet or smartphone
The negative effects of consuming too much of social media
How the evidence is showing we are in an attention crisis
The deep forces at work that are damaging our attention
Understanding the two levels of response to the attention crisis; individual and collective
Cruel optimism is offering a simple solution to complex problems that may not work
The alternative to cruel optimism is bringing awareness to the many layers of the problem
How the human brain can only think about one thing at a time
The negative effects of multitasking, or the switch cost-effect
The debate between being “pro” tech and “anti” tech
The damaging effects of the current business models of social media designed to steal people’s attention
How technology could be used to heal and aid your attention rather than steal it
How the current model of economic growth contributes to dwindling attention
His thoughts on the need for an attention movement to resist the forces invading our attention

Johann Hari Links:

Stolen Focus Book Website

Johann’s Website

Twitter

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If you enjoyed this conversation with Johann Hari you might also enjoy these other episodes:

Johann Hari (2015 Interview)

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