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Aug 22, 2011

"[Learning how to think] means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to, and to choose how you construct meaning from experience." --David Foster Wallace

Attention as an Art Form

185 billion bits of information. In an average lifetime, this is what the human brain is capable of processing. With any limited resource, the fact that it's in short supply can quickly create a feeling of scarcity. But it can also motivate wiser use of our attention, one of the fundamental building blocks of human experience. This article breaks attention down into four key aspects: Awareness, the ability to notice all that is happening around and within us more and more consciously; Choice, extending beyond just the domain of our actions, into what and how we think; Engagement, which is a progression from a passive interest to an active curiosity, and finally to enchantment; and Flow, the continuity of attention that allows us to more deeply experience and value what is already in front of us.