Attention & The Focused Life

Important Takeaways To Improve Our Quality of Life

This a newsletter about information saturation and it is necessarily interested in “attention.” Specifically, in a culture of too-much information, how do we harness and deploy our attention? How do we conserve it? How do we expand it? How do we protect it from tech companies but still take advantage of the wonders of widely accessible information?

In today’s post, I will share my Takeaways from the book, “Rapt: Attention and The Focused Life” by Winifred Gallagher and I’m confident they can help improve your quality of life — a tall claim but I stand by it. Again, disclaimer, this is not a summary of the book. These are my thoughts on top of the scaffolding provided by Gallagher.

Rapt by Gallagher

Previously, writing about the dangers of computers, I said: People say ‘time’ is our most valuable resource. But attention, the ability of our brain to filter out certain stimuli, and only concentrate on stimuli relevant to the task at hand, dictates our use of time.

Top-Down & Bottom-Up Attention

According to the researchers Gallagher spoke with, attention can be divided broadly into these two categories. Let me illustrate with an example. Let’s say you go to an antiques shop and see a big stuffed Lion; it’s grotesque and fascinating and it captures your attention. This is bottom-up attention. Naturally, it’s a predator and it’s large and it commands our attention. But you return to that store with a friend who is a stamp collector. They are not distracted by the stuffed lion because they have entered the store with the intent to search for stamps and they are overjoyed to find a rare one. They are directing their attention — this is top-down attention.

The implication in an information-saturated culture is immense. If you wade into a new environment unprepared, your attention will be captured but what’s biggest and brightest. But if you prepare with the following: 1) a particular intention 2) relevant subject-matter knowledge — you can remain the master of your attention for longer. Also, this vocabulary can allow you to differentiate and stop yourself when you find yourself giving into bottom-up attention, clickbait headlines, thumbnails, captions, for example.

Duration or Quiet Eye

We massively underrate duration.

The composer John Cage said: "If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.”

When we say — “pay attention” — we erroneously think that means “staying still.” But actually, it’s probing. Let’s say you are staring at the palm of your hand. You may be still but your mind is moving, seeing colors, textures, comparisons. If you look at any one thing, you begin to see more and more.

This actually dovetails with something I’ve noticed with writing; when fatigued or bored, instead of taking a break, it’s possible to get more energy simply by going deeper, ironically, by “boring” into something.

This could mean literally paying physical attention to each of my fingers as they strike the keys. It’s amazing how this going deeper can revitalize focus.

When I say “quiet eye”, I’m going off-script. Gallagher does not write about Quiet Eye but it’s a sports term that I have been investigating. It’s basically the duration of time spent on the target. When measured, the duration of Quiet Eye is a very good predictor of how good someone is at a particular skill, shooting a free throw for example. Critically, with practice, Quiet Eye can be trained for ludicrous gains. Which brings me to my next point.

Mind-Training Is Underutilized

I envision a world where the way we work out our bodies every day, we will also do daily ‘mind-training.’ I’ve been trying to incorporate them, too. I have a lot more to say on this subject. I will try and get it written down soon.

Remembering vs. Experiencing

According to Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman, we often expend more attention i.e. have more thoughts “thinking about living” than living itself — this is because we have two selves, an experiencing self and remembering self. For example, in the seventh mile of a ten mile run, you may be hating how it feels but when you’re having a beer afterwards, you recall the entire experience differently.

Sometimes, the remembering self or the storytelling self is wonderful. It allows us to enjoy memories and also to anticipate future happiness. This is because, according to Kahneman, anticipation is actually a form of remembering something that hasn’t actually happened yet.

But, if you start thinking too much about your life, you enter the “remembering” self and this can lead to thoughts like “I would be much happier if….” or “if only X external event were to happen, then Y…” even though most of day-to-day life and happiness is lived by the experiencing self. It’s the cup of coffee in our hands, the quality of light through the windows, the quality and duration of our attention to our flow state, whether that’s during work or recreation. In such cases, cognition, like computers, can occasionally become the enemy, and as I’ve written about in my posts on Krishnamurti, over-cognition can hurt us.

I write this only half-facetiously: If you find yourself thinking about how your life could be better, how you could be happier, and what external events you need to bring into existence to make that future come true, don’t bother actioning all those plans. Instead, do yourself a favor, stop thinking and, instead look at what’s in front of you longer, harder, and it will reveal itself to you.

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