E169. Johann Hari Wants Us To Take Back Our Minds

Johann Hari, author of Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention, is back to discuss the collapse of our ability to pay attention and the 12 factors that are causing it. He and Bridget discuss how being chronically distracted is twice as bad for your intelligence than being stoned, living in a perfect storm of cognitive degradation, the loss of our ability to focus on deep things, the privilege of being able to disconnect, and why it's not a coincidence that our attention has collapsed at the same time we're finding it impossible to solve our problems as a society. They also cover how to get into a flow state, what's going to happen 20 or 30 years from now if we don't restore children's attention, the pleasures of reconnecting, how social media was designed to destroy your attention and why it does not have to work the way it does right now, the way the incentives change when the business model changes, and why Johann thinks Bridget owes Brad Pitt an apology. Learn more about Johann at johannhari.com.