Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Gallagher, Winifred, PUBLISHER: Penguin Press, Winifred Gallagher revolutionizes our understanding of attention and the creation of the interested life In "Rapt," acclaimed behavioral science writer Winifred Gallagher makes the radical argument ong>thatong> the quality of ong>youong>r life largely depends on what ong>youong> choose to pay attention to and how ong>youong> choose to ong>doong> it. Gallagher grapples with provocative questionsaCan we train our focus? Whatas different about the way creative people pay attention? Why ong>doong> we often zero in on the wrong factors when making big decisions, like where to move?adriving us to reconsider what we think we know about attention. Gallagher looks beyond sound bites on our proliferating BlackBerries and the increased incidence of ADD in children to the discoveries of neuroscience and psychology and the wisong>doong>m of home truths, profoundly altering and expanding the contemporary conversation on attention and its power. Scienceas major contribution to the study of attention has been the discovery ong>thatong> its basic mechanism is an either/or process of selection. ong>Thatong> we focus may be a biological necessitya research now proves we can process only a little information at a time, or about 173 billion bits over an average lifeabut the good news is ong>thatong> we have much more control over our focus than we think, which gives us a remarkable yet underappreciated capacity to influence our experience. As suggested by the expression apay attention, a this cognitive currency is a finite resource ong>thatong> we must learn to spend wisely. In "Rapt," Gallagher introduces us to a diverse cast of charactersaartists and ranchers, birders and scientistsawho have learned to ong>doong> just ong>thatong> and whose stories are profound lessons in the art of living the interested life. No matter what ong>youong>r quotient of wealth, looks, brains, or fame, increasing ong>youong>r satisfaction means focusing more on what really interests ong>youong> and less on what ong>doong>esnat. In asserting its groundbreaking thesisathe wise investment of ong>youong>r attention is the single most important thing ong>youong> can ong>doong> to improve ong>youong>r well-beinga"Rapt" yields fresh insights into the nature of reality and what it means to be fully alive.