Unrelenting algorithms
Food stripped of nutrition
Constant notifications
Outrage drives recommendations

Feeling like your brain is fried
Constants tweets of genocides
Solve it with a 4 day work week
But don't forget your snapchat streak

We didn't start the fire....
(Only we did, and it's climate change, and it's literally all tied together).

I hope you enjoyed my little song at least half as much as I enjoyed listening to this book. Both inspiring and terrifying, Johann paints a grim portrait of the 2020s and what's to come. He experiments upon himself with a 3 month detox, talks to scientists studying attention from all perspectives (think nutrition, pollution, ADHD, persuasive technology, economics), and calls on us all for a revolution.

Because when the average adult is distracted every 3 minutes, we can't tackle the actual real issues. We can't find ourselves in a state of flow to enjoy life, connect with others, and reach out creative potentials. We can't think complexly about problems and their multi-faceted solutions. And given the general state of things...that's far from ideal.

And let's not get started on how badly we're screwing up the youths (am I still a fellow youth?). The whole "silicon valley giants don't let their kids near the tech they work on" is a thing for a reason.

Highly recommended, but especially if you are interested in how multiple factors can converge to facilitate the frightening modern phenomenon of extreme inattention, are frustrated with your inability to step away from your phone, are crippled by feelings of unfulfilment, etc etc... And are all right with there not being any immediate easy answers. The audiobook is stellar and I hope you read it soon so that we (and the big collective We) can talk about it.


More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/CQjXPtxuYVo