Salon.com Books | Why can't we concentrate?

Salon.com Books | Why can't we concentrate?: "But while it's one thing to accommodate more information, it's another to engage with it fundamentally, in a way that allows us to perceive underlying patterns and to take concepts apart so that we can put them back together in new and constructive ways. The early human who was constantly fending off leopards or plucking low-hanging mangoes never got around to figuring out how to build a house. Because leopards and mangoes were for the most part relatively few and far between, most of our ancestors found it easier to summon the kind of attention conducive to completing projects that, in the long term, make life measurably better. Ironically, while immediate threats and fleeting treats are comparatively much rarer in our complex social world, the attention system designed to deal with them has been kept on perpetual alert by both design and happenstance.

As long as we remain only dimly aware of the dueling attention systems within us, the reactive will continue to win out over the reflective. We'll focus on discussion-board trolls, dancing refinancing ads, Hollywood gossip and tweets rather than on that enlightening but lengthy article about the economy or the novel or film that has the potential to ravish our souls. Tracking the shiny is so much easier than digging for gold! Over time, our brains will adapt themselves to these activitie"

Is Google Making Us Stupid? - The Atlantic (July/August 2008)

Is Google Making Us Stupid? - The Atlantic (July/August 2008): "Thanks to the ubiquity of text on the Internet, not to mention the popularity of text-messaging on cell phones, we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s, when television was our medium of choice. But it’s a different kind of reading, and behind it lies a different kind of thinking—perhaps even a new sense of the self. “We are not only what we read,” says Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University and the author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. “We are how we read.” Wolf worries that the style of reading promoted by the Net, a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose commonplace. When we read online, she says, we tend to become “mere decoders of information.” Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged."

Is Google Making Us Stupid? - The Atlantic (July/August 2008)

Is Google Making Us Stupid? - The Atlantic (July/August 2008): "I can feel it, too. Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle."

Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary

Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary: "Quotation of the Day ▼X?
Background:



Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.

John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) Discuss"

Living Longer - Oprah.com

Living Longer - Oprah.com: "Dr. Gupta says Okinawa has the highest concentration of centenarians than any other place in the world for a number of reasons. For starters, they eat a plant-based diet, including lots of tofu and water-rich foods rather than calorie-dense ones.

The Okinawan cultural habit called hara hachi bu, which means you eat only until you are 80 percent full, also plays a big role in longevity, Dr. Gupta says. 'It means you never satiate yourself when you're eating, you never stuff yourself,' he says.

Perhaps the most important component of the Okinawans long life span is the way they approach aging. 'Elders as they get older are actually more respected, more revered, as they get up in years,' Dr. Gupta says. 'Aging is not treated as a disease and you are not discarded when you get to 65. In fact, there is no word for retirement in Japanese.'"

Living Longer - Oprah.com

Living Longer - Oprah.com: "The practice of ikigai, meaning 'sense of purpose,' is a huge part of their philosophy of life that contributes to living longer, Dr. Gupta says. 'As you get older, your sense of purpose becomes more strongly defined. You become a true elder in the community you integrate with younger people all the time.'"

Run Your Personal Finances Like A Business

Run Your Personal Finances Like A Business: "Successful Small Business Owners See the Big Picture
One of the hallmarks of successful small business owners is that they've figured out what works and what they do well. Then, armed with that knowledge, they throw 95% of their energy and resources in that direction. To break it down a little further, small business owners are masters at 'prioritizing, assessing and restraining.' If you can learn to implement these principles in your personal finances, you'll be on your way toward financial independence. (For further reading, see A Corporate Approach To Personal Finance.)"