#439. Why You Can’t Pay Attention - And How to Think Deeply Again | Johann Hari

What is it about modern life that is completely disrupting our ability to focus, and how much of it is our fault? 

Turns out, not a lot. A number of factors from technology to our sleep habits, and even air pollution, play a role in what causes us to have about the same attention regulation skills as a kitten. In this first episode of our two-part series on focus, guest Johann Hari breaks down why our ability to pay attention is collapsing, and what we can do about it. 

Johann Hari is the author of Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again. His first book, Chasing the Scream: the First and Last Days of the War on Drugs was adapted into the Oscar nominated film The United States Vs Billie Holiday as well as a documentary series. 

Johann is also the author of Lost Connections: Uncovering The Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions which was featured in a previous episode, and his TED Talks have been viewed more than 80 million times.   

In this episode we talk about: 

• Johann’s notion that there are twelve factors draining our focus
• His argument for the importance of both collective and individual action to reclaim our attention
• What he learned from a self-imposed three-month internet-free experiment
• How this impacts our children, and what we might do about it 

Where to find Johann Hari online: 

Website: https://johannhari.com/

Book Mentioned:

• Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again

Other Resources Mentioned:

• Dr. Joel Nigg, leading expert on ADHD and child development
• Guy Claxton, Emeritus Professor of the Learning Sciences, University of Winchester
• Prof. Earl K. Miller, Neuroscience, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Michael Posner, Professor Emeritus, Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon
• Prof. Adam Gazzaley, University of California, San Francisco; founder, Neuroscape 
• Dale Pinnock, leading UK nutritionist 
• Dr. Charles Czeisler, Dir. of the Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medicine School
• Dr. Roxanne Prichard, Prof. of Neuroscience and Psychology, Univ. of St. Thomas
• Barbara Demeneix, Professor Emeritus, National Natural History Museum (France)
• Prof. Barbara Maher, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University 
• Tristan Harris, President/Co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology
• Dr. James Williams, former Google employee and design ethics researcher
• Aza Raskin, co-founder of The Center for Humane Technology
• Sean Parker, founding president of Facebook
• Dr. Alice Hamilton, pioneer in the field of toxicology
• Shoshana Zuboff, Professor Emerita, Harvard Business School
• Frances Haugen, advocate for accountability and transparency in social media
• Facebook Australia: PM Scott Morrison 'will not be intimidated' by tech giant (BBC)
• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, psychologist known as the Father of ‘Flow’
• Lenore Skenazy and the Let Grow organization
• Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard 
• Sune Lehmann, Prof. of Complexity and Network Science at the Technical University of Denmark