Happy full moon, everybody!
Do you feel like the world today -- our culture today -- is pulling us further and further away from things that matter? Like deep in-person, real-life, human connections. Like the ability to focus on things that require deep thought, care, and time -- like reading books. Are you feeling yourself sucked into the algorithmic abyss -- where endless dings and pings and alerts and notifications pull us into echo chambers that prey on biological tendencies beyond our comprehension?
You may remember our chat on 3 Books six chapters ago with Dr. Gabor Maté who calls our culture today "toxic" and the record-levels of anxiety, depression, loneliness, and suicide rates we have today. So what do we do about it?
Well, our guest today is Johann Hari who will help me, help you, help all of us rekindle what is important in our life. How? By taking back our focus and our attention.
Some history: I first heard about Johann back on Chapter 49 with Dr. Andrea Sereda. One of her 3 most formative books was CHASING THE SCREAM by Johann Hari. I read it cover to cover and it was a deep, nuanced book about the war on drugs and our cultural history and relationship with drugs. I made it one of my top books of the year.
So I reached out to Johann and we eventually sat down to get his 3 most formative books.
Who is Johann Hari?
He was born in Glasgow in 1979 and when he was a year old his family moved to London where he lived most of his life. He studied social and political science at Cambridge and is now the author of three massive bestsellers: CHASING THE SCREAM, LOST CONNECTIONS, and his newest out in 2022 called STOLEN FOCUS: Why You Can't Pay Attention. His work has been lauded by everybody from Bono to Oprah and he's been named national newspaper journalist of the year by Amnesty International twice.
Listen as we talk about: regaining our attention, kSafes, reading as resistance, negative bias, amygdala hijacks, managing intelligence, French burnout laws, and, of course, Johann's 3 most formative books...
I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.
Let's flip the page into Chapter 121 now...
Chapter 121: Johann Hari on deleting devious dogma and discovering deeper designs
What You'll Learn:
What does reading offer?
What is happening to our ability to focus?
What are some practical ways to improve our focus?
What is the French burnout law?
What is the fallacy of multitasking?
What is negativity bias?
What can we do to counter the power of money-making algorithms?
Where is the power of the public in the tech debate?
Why is propaganda more crucial in free societies compared to others?
How can we maintain unity without propaganda?
How can we stay properly informed today?
Why is nuance so critical?
Why is it so important to delve into complexity?
Why is a black-and-white perspective so destructive?
Notable quotes from Johann
CONNECT WITH Johann
Johann’s 3 books
Johann’s first book (41:52)
Johann’s second book (1:08:08)
Johann’s third book (1:28:23)
notable links
French law that says workers not obliged to answer emails after work
The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice by Christopher Hitchens
Noam Chomsky - attack of Johann Hari’s column’s on pro Iraq war stance
