HIBT Lab! Stolen Focus: Johann Hari

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Like so many of us, author Johann Hari noticed that the more time he spent looking at screens and switching from device to device, the harder it became for him to concentrate and achieve his goals. After talking to more than 200 doctors, researchers, and neuroscientists around the world, Johann came to a sobering conclusion: the human race is in the middle of an attention crisis. He examines this societal challenge in his new book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again.

This week on How I Built This Lab, Johann and Guy discuss the factors chipping away at our ability to focus, and what we can do to reclaim our attention. They also talk about flow states – how we get into them, and why everyone in the business world should be working to achieve them.

Check out Johann’s book here: https://amzn.to/3L3wsMC

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.0	Hello and welcome to How I Built This Lab.
0:11.5	I'm Guy Roz.
0:12.5	This is the place where we break format and experiment with ideas and stories that you
0:17.1	might not hear on our Monday episode.
0:19.7	So have you ever sat in front of a book for 10 or 20 minutes only to discover that you
0:25.2	haven't paid attention to the meaning of the words that you've just read them, but
0:29.7	not really paid attention?
0:31.6	And when that happens, do you, like me, feel really bad?
0:35.4	Like you've failed that you've allowed yourself to get distracted by thoughts.
0:39.5	Well, you are not alone, and according to my guest today, Johan Hari, our species is
0:45.8	in the middle of an attention crisis.
0:48.8	And it has everything to do with powerful forces all around us.
0:52.6	Your attention is a commodity, and everyone and everything around you is vying for it.
0:57.3	If you're building a business or trying to change something inside of your company, that
1:02.1	requires focus.
1:03.7	And so for many of us, that's become really, really hard to maintain.
1:07.8	Johan Hari is a longtime journalist and bestselling author.
1:11.1	His two previous books tackled depression and addiction.
1:15.1	This new one is called Stolen Focus.
1:17.6	Why you can't pay attention and how to think deeply again.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Guy Raz | Wondery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Guy Raz | Wondery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.