Focus 2.0: Defending Intelligence

No longer is focusing a singular act of concentration. Simply "not seeking" distraction was at one point good enough, but today we must actively avoid it. New technologies are needed to monitor the presence of technological distractions and keep them at bay, leaving a situation that finds us forced to proactively defend our attention span. Many of our most respected intellectuals, both past and present, recognize that the long periods of contemplation that yielded breakthroughs would have been impossible without an environment that they controlled for distractions.

In the same 2006 Time article from the last post, "Help! I've Lost My Focus," the author notes that:

"Some of the world's most creative and productive individuals simply refuse to subject their brains to excess data streams. When a New York Times reporter interviewed several recent winners of MacArthur 'genius' grants, a striking number said they kept cell phones and iPods off or away when in transit so that they could use the downtime for thinking."

In "The Myth of Multitasking," an article appearing in the latest edition of The New Atlantis, the author talks about a letter from Lord Chesterfield to his son that states:

“There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.” To Chesterfield, singular focus was not merely a practical way to structure one’s time; it was a mark of intelligence. “This steady and undissipated attention to one object, is a sure mark of a superior genius; as hurry, bustle, and agitation, are the never-failing symptoms of a weak and frivolous mind.” (emphasis added)

Later in the article, Christine Rosen mentions that Isaac Newton was asked about his particular genius, responding that "if he made any discoveries, it was 'owing more to patient attention than to any other talent.'"

My favorite line from the article:

"When people do their work only in the “interstices of their mind-wandering,” with crumbs of attention rationed out among many competing tasks, their culture may gain in information, but it will surely weaken in wisdom."

Lasting works of genius and innovative ideas may be spurred by activity and mind-wandering, but bringing them to fruition requires mental discipline and concentration. Knowing which is which might be the defining factor of the 21st century genius.