No Stupid Questions

220. Is Your Attention Span Shrinking?


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Does a surplus of information create a shortage of attention? Are today’s young people really unable to focus? And do goldfish need better PR? 

 

  • SOURCES:
    • Neil Bradbury, professor of physiology at Rosalind Franklin University.
    • Nicholas Carr, writer and journalist.
    • Johann Hari, writer and journalist.
    • Charles Howard, University Chaplain and Vice President for Social Equity & Community at the University of Pennsylvania.
    • Felicity Huntingford, emeritus professor of functional ecology at the university of Glasgow.
    • Gloria Mark, professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine.
    • Rick Rubin, music producer and record executive.
    • Herbert Simon, professor of computer science and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University.

 

  • RESOURCES:
    • Uncovering Your Path: Spiritual Reflections for Finding Your Purpose, by Charles Lattimore Howard (forthcoming 2025).
    • Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity, by Gloria Mark (2023).
    • The Creative Act: A Way of Being, by Rick Rubin (2023).
    • Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention — and How to Think Deeply Again, by Johann Hari (2022).
    • "Quibi’s Founder and CEO Explain What Went Wrong," by Jessica Bursztynsky (CNBC, 2020).
    • "Digital Democracy Survey, Eleventh Edition," by Deloitte (2017).
    • "Busting the Attention Span Myth," by Simon Maybin (BBC News, 2017).
    • "Attention Span During Lectures: 8 Seconds, 10 Minutes, or More?" by Neil Bradbury (Advances in Physiology Education, 2016).
    • "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" by Nicholas Carr (The Atlantic, 2008).
    • "Designing Organizations for an Information-Rich World," by Herbert Simon (Computers, Communications, and the Public Interest, 1971).

 

  • EXTRAS:
    • "Multitasking Doesn’t Work. So Why Do We Keep Trying?" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
    • "Rick Rubin on How to Make Something Great," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).

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