Stolen Focus
by Johann Hari · first published 2022
58% recommend38% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Explains why attention is fragmented, tracing it to tech design and wider societal and environmental factors rather than personal weakness. Suits people struggling with phones and social media who want context.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Is your ability to focus and pay attention in free fall? You are not alone. The average office worker now focuses on any one task for just three minutes. But it's not your fault. Your attention didn't collapse. It has been stolen. Internationally bestselling author Johann Hari shows twelve deep factors harming our focus. Once we understand them, together, we can take back our minds.
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You should read Stolen Focus by Johann Hari[0]. People all over the world today are struggling with focus and attention, not because they're not virtuous enough but because tech companies have been intentionally hacking our brains…
on “E Ink Gallery 3” ↗If you want to get your life back, read Stolen Focus. It has all these tips and tricks but it does a lot more - it explains why our focus is shot, and dissects the forces behind it. It's much more sinister than most people suspect. https://www.amazon.com/Stolen-Focus-Attention-Think-Deeply/d...…
on “How I regained concentration and focus” ↗…content and advertisement, there are entire teams of people working hard to make that distinction not only blurry, but also irrelevant from the consumers perspective. I really enjoyed Johann Hari's book "Stolen Focus" [2], where he explains the point of a medium (books vs TV vs twitter vs instagram) is actually more important in how the content is shaped and how your brain process it, than the actual content being…
on “Ask HN: Why are today's consumers not discerning what is ad and what is not?” ↗Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again, by Johann Hari Time and time again I made up my mind to focus, but it wasn't until I read this book that I actually did it.
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life?” ↗This highlights what bothers me most about today's [mobile] culture. There are reams of other things to say about the damage being done (I'd recommend Johann Hari's book Stolen Focus [0] for a great, if severely worrying, overview) - but to me the ability to spend time doing nothing, being with oneself, being alone, living with one's thoughts - this is a hugely important thing. Other…
on “How to Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself (2014)” ↗The irony of spending time on an article about attention that covers no new ground and is all noise, very little signal... If you do want a take on attention that is pretty interesting I'd recommend Stolen Focus[1] by Johann Hari. Hari suggests there are lots of factors at play - he claims some of them are in our control, but many aren't. He looks into tech dark patterns, context switching, ADHD, sleep and a…
on “Our attention span is being robbed” ↗…to return. To a point where it feels more like an addiction, with my body now responding with physical discomforts and a relapse of anxiety that I have not felt for years. This is the core problem in Stolen Focus by Johann Hari, probably a bunch of other books too. It's an unfair fight: you vs the behemoth companies that produce the addictive feeds. Worth a read IMO
on “Getting Out of a Rut” ↗…nice thing is we are not alone and rarely the first. The goal is to create and not consume. Write lots like this comment and revisit and review it. Add to it mindfully. You might like this books called Stolen Focus: https://www.amazon.ca/Stolen-Focus-Attention-Think-Deeply/dp... To help break the distraction cycles to finish a book, there are more and more resources out there for disrupting the novelty seeking…
on “YouTube Addiction” ↗…other than figuring out ways to manipulate you to steal and keep your attention, in order to maximise their engagement metrics/ad dollars. It's an incredibly difficult and unfair fight. I'd recommend Stolen Focus by Johann Hari, I've found it personally really helpful.
on “YouTube Addiction” ↗There’s quite a bit of data. The early chapters of Stolen Focus by Johann Hari provides a good overview of the research, which shows that people are increasingly switching their attention from one thing to another (both in longitudinal research studies and by analyzing…
on “Think Screens Stole Our Attention? Medieval Monks Were Distracted Too” ↗I listened to this podcast over the weekend on NPR's "How I Build This" (tho it's from early to mid 2022). It's an interview with Johann Hari, the author of "Stolen Focus". The book sounds like it's worth a go, even at close to 400 pages!??!? https://wondery.com/shows/how-i-built-this/episode/10386-hib... https://stolenfocusbook.com/
on “Have Attention Spans Been Declining? – Yes, 65%” ↗Stolen Focus (the book this article is an excerpt of) is a solid - if meandering - overview of society's rapidly declining attention span, featuring insight from behavioral psychologists, senior FAANG engineers, etc.…
on “Attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen (2022)” ↗…his cheesy and simple presentation style is kind of his secret sauce. If you want a nuanced take on how difficult it is to stay off your phone and social media, there are other places you can get that (Stolen Focus by Johann Hari for example). I really admire his efforts to formalize his thinking about these topics into systems that readers and listeners can implement step-by-step. His emphasis on capture systems,…
on “Cal Newport: Overstimulation Is Ruining Your Life” ↗…stop checking LI? Uninstall the app from your phone, and check LI whenever you need something from your network. Otherwise, all social networks are pretty harmful to our attention and well-being (read Stolen Focus [0] for more context). [0] https://www.amazon.com/LOST-FOCUS/dp/1526620162
on “Why Resumes Are Dead and How Indeed.com Keeps Killing the Job Market” ↗So I'll advocate "Stolen Focus" by Johann Hari [0] and my "Digtal Vegan" [1] Johann's book has some surprises toward the end, that go way deeper into environmental and cultural factors. He ultimately sees it as a collective/societal…
on “Teens inundated with phone prompts day and night, research finds” ↗