November 30, 2020

#226 — The Price of Distraction | Adam Gazzaley on Making Sense with Sam Harris

Check out the Making Sense Podcast Page & Episode Notes

Key Takeaways

• “We are constantly fragmenting our limited attentional focus with both external and internal distractions and multiple tasks, and there’s cost to this” Adam Gazzaley
  • We are usually not aware of the switching costs of diverting our attention away and then bringing it back
• The abundance of available information creates a strong fear of missing out, which causes us to continuously switch to new websites, articles, etc.
  • Easily available information also severely decreased our tolerance for boredom
    • When in line at the grocery, even for a minute, we feel the need to intake more information
• Ways to improve focus
  • Limit accessibility of distractions in your environment
  • Consciously practicing single-tasking and sustained attention
  • Take healthy “breaks” before going back to your task
  • As an attention-training practice, meditation is a great way to improve our ability to focus
• The brain has the capacity to modify itself at every level in response to experiences
  • “You’re making yourself based on what you’re doing with your attention” Sam Harris
• Technology is harming our attention, but it can also help us improve it
  • The idea of “Digital Medicine” – Technologies that help us improve the functions of our brains

Key Products Mentioned

• Adam’s book, The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World (The MIT Press)

Intro

• Adam Gazzaley M.D., Ph.D. (@adamgazz) is a Professor in Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco, and the Founding Director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center, Neuroscape Lab, and the Gazzaley Lab
  • Check out Adam’s website
• Host: Sam Harris (@SamHarrisOrg)
• In this chat, Adam and Sam discuss ways in which technology is changing us and what we can do to protect and improve our focus

Information Overload

• Humans are information-seeking creatures
  • Evolutionarily we thrived due to our brains’ capacity to process complex information
• But we don’t have unlimited information-processing capacity
  • “Information is key to how we survive and thrive, but there’s a breaking point and all sorts of consequences” Adam Gazzaley
  • If the information-processing system is overloaded it breaks

Can We Multi-Task?

• The term “multi-tasking” is confusing
• We all feel capable of doing different tasks at the same time
  • We’re drawn to it and we feel we can get better at it
• In reality, our brain is not able to “parallel process” two demanding tasks at once
  • Brain scans show that while multi-tasking, we continuously shift attention from one task to the other
  • If one of the tasks does not require attention, then we can do more than one thing
    • For example, driving is mostly unconscious so we can listen to a podcast in the meantime
    • If all of a sudden driving demands our full attention, our brain will stop paying attention to the podcast

Bottom-up and Top-down Attention

• Human attention can be divided into two alternating forces
• Bottom-up Attention
  • Activated by “external” stimuli (loud sounds, flashes of lights, your name, etc.)
    • This is an ancient part of our attention system, critical for our (and any animal’s) survival
• Top-down Attention (Goal-directed)
  • You make a conscious decision to direct attention towards something

How our Top-down Attention Gets Disrupted

• Today, we are incapable to sustain our attention for a long time
  • In addition to external stimuli distracting us, we also do it ourselves
• Three different ways we get distracted
  • External bottom-up stimuli pull our attention (phone vibrating)
    • Tech companies are aware of this and use it to direct our attention to our devices
  • There are also internal bottom-up stimuli (body pain or stomach rumbles)
  • We also (consciously or subconsciously) divert our top-down attention to different things
    • Emotions such as anxiety and boredom drive us to look for new stimuli
• “We are constantly fragmenting our limited attentional focus with both external and internal distractions and multiple tasks, and there’s cost to this” Adam Gazzaley
  • We are usually not aware of the switching costs of diverting our attention away and then bringing it back
  • Every time we switch:
    • We lose time as we have to remember where we were in our task
    • There’s an emotional cost, as we get stuck in a loop of increasing anxiety

Information Foraging and Boredom

• Adam compares how humans look for information to the way animals forage food
• Once a squirrel has foraged 50% of the nuts in a tree, he will decide whether to continue foraging in the tree or jump to a new one
  • If there are many trees available nearby he will be strongly tempted to continuously jump to new trees
• In the same way, now, humans are capable to easily acquire new information all the time
  • This creates a strong fear of missing out, which causes us to continuously switch to new websites, articles, etc.
• On one level, the overabundance of information has almost eliminated boredom
  • We have access to so much information and entertainment
  • There is no friction to consuming more content
• However, we easily feel bored as our tolerance for boredom declines
  • As soon as we finish consuming, we immediately want new content
  • When in line at a grocery store, even for a minute, we feel the need to intake more information
• We can practice getting familiar and becoming more tolerant of boredom
  • We all have moments throughout the day in which we are forced to stop (in line at the grocery store or at a traffic light)
    • We can observe the onset of boredom and the urge to pick up the phone

How to Live More Focused Lives?

• Once you see the pressures that make you distracted, you have the framework to reverse that habit and become more focused
• Limit accessibility of distractions in your environment
  • For example, close Slack or distracting browser tabs while working, to make them less accessible
• Consciously practicing single-tasking and sustained attention
  • Start with short periods of time
  • Feel and understand the boredom and anxiety that come up
  • Take healthy “breaks” before going back to your task
    • Avoid social media
    • Do some light stretches
    • Meditate
    • Look at Nature
• At first, it will be difficult, but with time it becomes enjoyable to practice sustained attention
• As an attention-training practice, meditation is a great way to improve our ability to focus

Neuroplasticity, Technology and Meditation

• The brain has the capacity to modify itself at every level in response to experiences
  • This phenomenon is known as “Neuroplasticity”, which is the key to learning
    • Neuroplasticity doesn’t stop in adulthood
• “What you do with your brain winds up physically changing your brain” Sam Harris
  • People are often surprised when hearing claims that meditation can physically change the brain
  • In reality, everything we do changes our brain
    • For this reason, it is even more important to be careful about what we pay attention to
    • “You’re making yourself based on what you’re doing with your attention” Sam Harris
• Technology is harming our attention, but it can also help us improve it
  • Idea of “Digital Medicine” – Technologies that help us improve the functions of our brains
• If we challenge the brain in a targeted way and align reward systems appropriately, we can optimize neural systems
  • Meditation is a perfect, ancient example of this
  • Similar experiences can be delivered digitally

Making Sense with Sam Harris : focus, meditation, technology
Notes By Giorgio Parlato