Goal of the day: 161 words. Written: 483.
This book is presented as a pocket tool for attention management. And it is, in fact, just that - a pocket (very short)... thing... for attention management.
I'm not sure if it's a tool. It's more like a short booklet, which could be one longer article or 6 shorter ones. In places, parts of this book seem to have been written in the style of the short Martyrs' Joyce articles.
You won't find much scientific knowledge here. I haven't seen a single new study, reference or literature source. But perhaps this short book will help you to look at your working methods, the reasons for your work and to focus on what matters most.
(Similar to "The Sloth Manifesto"!)
(Aha - that's shameless self-promotion.)
Well, let's get to the overview.
Rating if you're not going to read on:
- For me, personally, the interestingness of the topic(s): 9/10
- Writing style and words: 6/10
- Consistency of information: 3/10
- Overall: 6/10
My discoveries...
This is what I learned from reading Jocius' "Transformations of Attention":
- It turns out that about 15 A4 sheets text written in standard university font can be expanded to 95 sheets, reducing the number of leaves to 10×10 cm format and with citations.
- An audio version with a .pdf book is a damn good idea. I really enjoy reading and listening to the voiceover at the same time - it's a good experience and not for nothing in my book.
- Our attention and its field can be imagined as the field of view of a camera. This is a very good metaphor, which I read for the first time in this book by Martin.
- It's a shame that the instructions "University of California USA" did the research... They were not very inspiring or useful. What should I do with this knowledge? Because there are more than a few universities out there.
- It turns out that the most productive times of the day are between 8 and 11 hours. No matter what kind of person you are or what time of year it is. The most productive, period. (Yes, I'm being sarcastic in this moment.)
- Towards the end of the book, I started thinking increasingly be sarcastic.
Observations and comments to the author:
- The audiobook version is actually quite good. The background music may have been a bit disturbing in places, but it was very enjoyable. You said that the .pdf version is only a supplement to the audiobook for a reason.
- Research. Something like. Martyn, have you ever heard of this? Why should I believe a word you say if your biggest argument is "research has found"?
- To be honest, I doubt if get up 5am is really healthy. But that's it, here I haven't yet gathered the material myselfto back up my words.
- I don't know who Osho is, but I liked what you quoted him as saying: "The Zen attitude is that there is nothing that needs to be done. There is nothing to do. There is nothing to do, nothing to be." The last part of the book on inner silence and peace was really nice. Soothing. Although not particularly helpful, it at least coincided with what I a philosophy of simplicity.
- "Here I end my story and I welcome the opportunity to share knowledge and, most importantly, to help shift the focus and consolidate the essentials." It was a very unexpected and abrupt end.
- I liked the cover design of the book. On the design side, that was the best part.
- If this was a new edition of the booklet, as it says in the presentation, then... what did the first one look like? Was it even shorter??
After reading effect:
I feel like I'm reading a free book. But... It was definitely worth paying the 7 euros for the audiobook version! As an audio product, it is a really enjoyable piece to remind or enjoy. Especially, say, when driving from home to work.
Focusing attention,
Daniel