Attention & Concentration —Coping in an Eight Second Goldfish World

5 min readMar 30, 2022

Are we suffering a crisis of attention? or is this multi-tasking progress of the future? How is it affecting our worlds? What does the research say? What are our ways to cope?

Craft-Building Series — Episode#18

Here is a recording of our Guild’s first-ever Twitter Spaces chat that occurred earlier today March 28th, 2022 and some of the background below to go along with it: twitter.com/i/spaces/1kvJpAQgkLZxE

The Format:

Opening Quotes:

Inspiration on this topic comes from the psychology & neuroscience behind attention, how companies try to use that against us and what strategies can we use to improve our own and defend against unethical or unwanted calls for attention.

Visual Openers:

Some thoughts around education, our temptation to use attention-getting memes despite their shallowness, our short collective attentions plans, our personal forgetfulness and growing distraction & impatience.

Limited Tolerance for Long Thinking, Emails and Conversations

The Great, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly:

Are shortening attention plans and declining concentration levels necessarily a bad thing. Let’s see what the research says.

Grey Swan Context:

Our Guild’s attenrion to the world’s wicked challenges and concentrations on the next Grey Swans is germane to our discussion.

Read us/Join Us: https://www.greyswanguild.org/

Good News:

Look at the #2 silver lining from the pandemic — maybe COVID has been a good thing for our concentartion.

Opening Perspectives & Burning Questions:

So many different facets and applications to this discussion. Depending on who you ask, we are approaching a crisis or this is evolution.

Discovery— Topics Worthy of Pursuit:

What remains as an underserved, underrated or overlooked part of the subject of attention and concentrarion.

The Debate — Choose Side:

Is it new external influences like frenetic technology and media driving our attention deficits or our own shifts in personal values and personality craving smarter, faster, more efficient.

Lead Approaches. Tools & Tips:

Spotted in the world to help understand the topic more

slow and fast thinking (and the difference)
AGILE learning effectiveness
Strategies for Learners
UX design and 10 strategies for grabbing attention
The biology and machine learning principles behind attention
Components of reflex and reflection of attention
The art of paying attention

Top Resources, Researchm, Nooks and People:

Some great books, exercises and research overview on the whole subject of attetnion. and concentration:

Thinking, Fast & Slow, Daniel Kahneman
The Attention Merchants, Tim Wu
Focus — The Hidden Driver of Excellence, Daniel Goleman
Brief — Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less, Joiseph McCormank
Peak Mind- Find Your Focus, Own Your Attention, Invest 12 Minutes per Day, Amisha Jha