The Biggest Threat to Our Society...of All

This post, as most of my posts do, started with an observation and irritation, which is this: I've noticed, and am getting really tired of, emails and blog posts with a string of one sentence paragraphs in them. Seriously - who taught these people how to write? The Road Runner? This led me to thinking about one of the comments that a recent guest made on my podcast as well regarding our attention spans, which are now shorter than a goldfish's. Yes friends, the goldfish pictured above can actually pay attention longer than the average human now. (This is not something to aspire to, BTW.)

The issue at hand I'm beginning to think is one of the biggest threats of all to our society as a whole--more than climate change, the economic disparity between rich and poor, globalization, tariffs, or even AI taking our jobs. What is that issue? The biggest threat to ourselves right now is our attention, or the lack thereof. No longer are commodities the most precious thing, nor even industrialization. The most important, precious and limited resource right now...is literally our attention.

Garyvee discusses the fact that we are in an attention based economy. The companies, products and devices that garner our attention now win. We pick up our cell phones hundreds of times a day. We write and communicate in short sentences and bulleted lists. The average human checks out between 6-8 seconds. I watched someone cross the centerline of a road yesterday on the way to work and nearly hit someone because she was distracted.

Let me state here for the record: I'm not a fan of tl;dr. And while I don't fully agree with Cal Newport just yet on all of his suggestions in Deep Work (particularly the part about social media, because I do think there is some value in social media, if used properly), I'm starting to see and agree with his major point: that we as humans are no longer doing complex, intricate tasks...and furthermore, the ability to focus on intricate, complex ideas and work is no longer a skill set even valued in our society by the masses.

However, the most well-compensated and highly valued members of society tend to be masters of deep work. I want my neurosurgeon to be detail-oriented, thanks. I want my pharmacist to pay attention to refilling my script. I want my accountant to be detail-oriented on preparing my tax return. I want the pilot on my flight to be vigilant. I want my lawyer to create a very detailed contract. I'm grateful for Einstein! Without detail in complex jobs, or even non-complex jobs, you'll never find the best and brightest of any profession. All you'll find with the squirrel-unicorn-glitter attention-deficit are shallow thought, lack of detail, and NOTHING that stands out. Ever.

If you happen to work in a detail-oriented profession, or were trained in one, congratulations. You actually already have the (super rare and shrinking) ability to focus and do the deep work. In pharmacy and law for me, words and details DO matter, and I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to think, write, and publish "long-winded" tombs about ideas that matter. However, I worry for all of us that we need to be sure to check ourselves when our attention spans are waning. At work, are you focused on the important stuff, or are you caught in the squirrel-unicorn-glitter attention deficit of urgent? Are you focused on the urgent, or the important?

If you're the detail oriented, deep thinking worker on your team, and find yourself with colleagues who don't value or discount your skill set and doing deep work, I would urge you to discount their ignorance of not being detail-oriented as well. "That email was tl;dr - can you give us the summary?" is something you should walk away from...the 'getting the puppets out' mentality is just the thing that is wrecking us. It is the heroin of the masses for our time.

If you're an employee, or just someone who wants to level up on your work, be careful of what you pay attention to, or do not pay attention to, and whatever you choose to do, continually ask yourself - is it what matters? Is it important? Track it. If you're a leader or manager at your organization and find yourself in the 'squirrel summary' mode - think twice about that and check yourself. Your deep knowledge workers who do not feel appreciated and ignored will eventually walk on to places where these skills are HIGHLY VALUED and appreciated.

Words matter. Details matter. Deep work matters. Maybe I'll read some Tolstoy this weekend, and skip the garbage emails full of one sentence paragraphs....

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Erin L. Albert appreciates deep work. Opinions here are her own.

Here's a podcast on NPR with Cal Newport on distraction and deep work.