## Metadata - Author: [[Alex Soojung-Kim Pang]] - Full Title:: The Distraction Addiction - Category:: #📚Books - Read date:: [[2023-02-02]] ## Highlights > Csikszentmihalyi and his colleagues in the field of positive psychology—essentially, the science of happiness—have discovered that people are happiest when they are absorbed in difficult tasks, not when they’re diverted by sybaritic pleasures. “The best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times,” Csikszentmihalyi writes. They “occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.” ([Location 658](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=658)) - Note: Felicidad= volverte loca del coño con una tarea. Felicidad= mi jefe! > Reading at a desk crowded with books and monitors while struggling to braid together several ideas is a challenge, but one that’s absorbing and rewarding. These kinds of multitasking encourage flow. But the multitasking we do when we split our attention among several devices or media is something else entirely. ([Location 878](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=878)) > These separate activities don’t ([Location 882](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=882)) > add up to a single grand intellectual challenge. They’re just different things I try to do simultaneously. ([Location 882](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=882)) > You’re also less creative when you switch-task. It’s easy to believe that multitasking raises the odds of making novel associations between ideas, and it does—when the different activities are directed toward a single goal. ([Location 917](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=917)) > Yet, in a sad twist, compulsive switch-taskers think they do it well. There’s something about switch-tasking that makes one overestimate his own ([Location 923](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=923)) > One of the most important skills meditators must develop is the capacity to continue practicing in the face of constant failure. ([Location 1229](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1229)) > Monks’ and nuns’ personal time online tends to be tightly bounded. The rhythms of monastic life put limits on when they’re online. “I’m very busy and simply have other priorities; I can’t afford to sit and watch cute cats indefinitely,” one says. ([Location 1388](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1388)) > Web site What Buddha Said; ([Location 1411](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1411)) > Of course, plenty of people would describe themselves as addicted to their devices—the nickname “CrackBerry” didn’t come out of nowhere—but in Buddhism, craving (or tanha, which literally means “thirst”) is at the root of suffering. As the Buddha put it, craving “is bound up with impassioned appetite,” and it “seeks fresh pleasure now here and now there.” Feeding such desires temporarily sates them, but they return with a vengeance, hungrier than ever. ([Location 1446](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1446)) > The fact that Yuttadhammo connects distraction and depression isn’t surprising; one of the symptoms of clinical depression is an inability to concentrate. ([Location 1469](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1469)) > It’s wrong to assume that “distraction comes from outside influences rather than inner mental conditions,” she explains. If you start with a distracted mind, the ping of your cell phone and the buzz of the Web will tug at that distraction, ([Location 1495](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1495)) > “How much contentment do distractions yield?” ([Location 1517](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1517)) > A mind like a mirror doesn’t need cat videos. ([Location 1520](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1520)) > mirroring subtly but powerfully affects one’s opinion of other people’s attentiveness, attractiveness, and persuasiveness. ([Location 1669](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1669)) > psychologist Daryl Bem observed that people’s attitudes about themselves were defined in part by what they believed others thought of them. ([Location 1670](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1670)) > Height and good looks give people confidence because they assume others find them attractive. ([Location 1674](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1674)) > Yee and Bailenson saw “dramatic and almost instantaneous” changes in behavior when people saw themselves as taller or prettier. ([Location 1675](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1675)) > can change how that person thinks about her future self ([Location 1678](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1678)) > “Watching ourselves work has some physiological arousal that motivates us to exercise,” ([Location 1718](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1718)) > As Oxford University philosopher Derek Parfit notes, if we regard our future selves as strangers, we’re reluctant to sacrifice on their behalf ([Location 1726](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1726)) > the ability of large numbers of semi-intelligent agents to create very intelligent systems. ([Location 1830](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1830)) > we’ve accidentally recalibrated our ideas about human work and worth. “People degrade themselves ([Location 1833](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1833)) > seems to imply that what’s valuable about humans are their numbers and flexibility, not their intelligence. ([Location 1835](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1835)) > Students who think they succeed because of raw talent treat failure as an event that establishes the extent of their abilities. When they’re exposed to research showing that intelligence is flexible rather than fixed and that practice is a more powerful determinant of success than innate ability, these students ([Location 1954](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1954)) > learn to treat failure as a challenge rather than a defeat, and their long-term success improves. Knowing about such effects, though, can let subjects resist them. ([Location 1956](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=1956)) > I cannot retain enough of what I read on Kindle to use it for things I will have to work to master.” ([Location 2147](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=2147)) > the chief technology officer of VMWare, concurs. He’ll take his Kindle on the road, but “I tend to print out deeper articles from the web if I know I’ll need to think more about them.” ([Location 2148](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=2148)) > Tweeting mindfully means knowing your intentions; knowing why you’re online right now and asking yourself if you’re on for the right reasons. ([Location 2307](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=2307)) > you shouldn’t be afraid to unfollow people when your interests or lives diverge ([Location 2312](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=2312)) > You should always be mindful that you’re interacting with people, ([Location 2313](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=2313)) > The digital sangha lives first and tweets later. This means you shouldn’t feel the need to provide a play-by-play of everything you’re doing, even if it’s novel or interesting. Indeed, there are pleasures and insights that can emerge from crafting a story out of episodes in your life, and distance can give clarity and meaning to events; ([Location 2321](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=2321)) > Having experiences worth writing about and thinking enough about them to make the writing worthwhile is more important than saying a lot quickly. ([Location 2325](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=2325)) > I’m on social media a lot less often, but a lot more purposefully. ([Location 2337](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=2337)) > When you give up trying to follow all your friends all the time, you need to accept that you’re just going to miss some fascinating things. ([Location 2350](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=2350)) > At best, staying on top of my Twitter and Facebook feeds is like trying to stay involved in a dozen fascinating conversations at a party. As stimulating as that can be, it’s too much to keep track of if I ever want to have my own thoughts. ([Location 2352](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=2352)) > Walking stimulates thinking because it offers a break from the hard focused work of writing, composing, or calculating but doesn’t completely distract the mind. ([Location 2639](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=2639)) > Tammy started her digital Sabbaths when she felt herself using e-mail and the Web to “avoid hard work, or the fear that ‘OMG my writing sucks, I’m a failure.’ ” ([Location 2873](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=2873)) > “You don’t need to tell people you’re going offline, because that gives them a chance to object,” ([Location 2907](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=2907)) > The aim of a digital Sabbath is not for you to be irresponsibly inaccessible but for you to filter out unnecessary distractions, ([Location 2911](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=2911)) > Distracting yourself with anxiety over being unreachable is no better than distracting yourself with the latest LOLcat picture. ([Location 2913](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=2913)) > “If you think you have to constantly, instantly react, rest and contemplation and deliberation—the ability to think about what you’re doing—disappears.” Relentless, constant exposure to real time, he argues, “destroys both decision-making and contemplative ability.” ([Location 2998](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=2998)) > Personally, I prefer to take notes during events—to stay attentive by writing, just like my tweeting colleagues—and publish something later after I’ve had time to reflect. ([Location 3203](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=3203)) > Concentration is like strength: it can be developed with practice, but it’s depleted with overuse ([Location 3216](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=3216)) > Things that offer a mix of fascination, a sense of your being away, boundlessness, and compatibility are most likely to let the conscious mind recharge. ([Location 3220](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=3220)) > Connection is inevitable. Distraction is a choice. ([Location 3255](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00FOQRPR6&location=3255))