Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention (Paperback) | Released: 18 Jan 2022

'A really important book . . . Everyone should read it' PHILIPPA PERRY'A beautifully researched and argued exploration of the breakdown of humankind's ability to pay attention'STEPHEN FRY_________________________Why have we lost our ability to focus What are the causes And, most importantly, how do we get it backFor Stolen Focus, internationally bestselling author Johann Hari went on a three-year journey to uncover the reasons why our teenagers now focus on one task for only 65 seconds, and why office workers on average manage only three minutes. He interviewed the leading experts in the world on attention, and learned that everything we think about this subject is wrong. We think our inability to focus is a personal failing - a flaw in each one of us. It is not. This has been done to all of us by powerful external forces. Our focus has been stolen. Johann discovered there are twelve deep cases of this crisis, all of which have robbed some of our attention. He shows us how in a thrilling journey that ranges from Silicon Valley dissidents, to a favela in Rio where attention vanished, to an office in New Zealand that found a remarkable way to restore our attention.Crucially, he learned how - as individuals, and as a society - we can get our focus back, if we are determined to fight for it. Review Johann Hari writes like a dream. He's both lyricist and storyteller - but also an indefatigable investigator of one of the world's greatest problems: the systematic destruction of our attention. Read this book to save your mind -- Susan CainI don't know anyone thinking more deeply, or more holistically, about the crisis of our collective attention than Johann Hari. And this is a crisis that we must address if we are to meet any of the other pressing emergencies we face as a species, whether ecological or social. Which means that this book could not be more vital. Please sit with it, and focus -- Naomi KleinA brilliant book about one of the most important topics of our time -- Dr Rangan ChatterjeeA story that so many of us have felt needs to be told, but whose cause and consequences are hard to capture and articulate without guesswork, prejudice or ideology. Hari not only achieves this and more, but he does so it with the pace, sparkle and energy of the best kind of thriller writer. I can't remember reading a book which made me shout out "yes! That's it!" quite so many times -- Stephen FryThis mind-blowing book explains everything. Read it and be free -- Simon AmstellA highly original and wide-ranging investigation into the causes of our epidemic of flagging attention. Written with Hari's trademark incisive prose, indefatigable search for scientific evidence vividly presented, and illustrated with telling anecdotes,Stolen Focus is a bracing and necessary wake-up call to us all -- Gabor Maté M.D.A fascinating journey into the mind and how it is being manipulated with devastating effects. Hari's subject is something that is affecting us all and this seminal work will be one of the defining books of our era . . . Get off social media, switch off the TV, put down your smart phone and do one thing - read this book' -- Dr Max PembertonStop whatever you're doing and read this book. A deeply researched, disturbing, and yet ultimately hopeful exploration of the primal crisis of our time: our diminishing ability to focus on what really matters -- Rutger Bregman, author of HUMANKINDIf you want to get your attention and focus back, you need to read this remarkable book . . . [Hari] has cracked the code of why we're in this crisis, and how to get out of it. We all need to hear this message -- Arianna Huffington, Founder & CEO, Thrive GlobalThanks to this brilliant book, I have got to know myself and my fellow humans better. It educates and entertains you - the stories will suck any reader in, and then slowly change your mind. Everyone should read it. It has changed my habits - way beyond jus