Reclaiming Deep Focus

The ability to focus deeply is becoming rare and therefore increasingly valuable. Cal Newport argues in Deep Work that sustained concentration is the most economically valuable skill in the modern economy - and it is disappearing precisely because the attention economy profits from destroying it.

The famous claim that human attention fell below a goldfish's has been widely circulated, but its original evidence is not traceable enough to teach as a research finding. The underlying worry is still fair: we are training our brains for constant distraction. Rebuilding focus takes deliberate, repeated practice.