NICHOLAS CARR: The Case for Adding Friction

About this episode

Nicholas Carr discusses the trade-offs of modern productivity and the impact of technology on attention and meaningful work.

We’ve never had more access to information or more tools to make work faster and easier. But according to Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows and Superbloom , speed and efficiency come with trade-offs we rarely stop to examine. In this episode, Michael and Megan talk with Carr about the paradox of modern productivity: the very systems that help us scale our work can fragment our attention and erode the depth that makes that work meaningful. If you’ve felt stretched thin or subtly less present than you want to be, this conversation will help you re-evaluate your technology—and the life you’re building with it. Memorable Quotes “Many people have this sense that as everything speeds up, we seem to be able to do more. But actually our attention gets fragmented and we're not thinking as straight as we used to…The basic mistake at a personal level is the assumption that human attention, human thought, human communication always gets better as it gets more efficient.” “At a certain point, we simply overload our natural mental and psychological capacity to communicate, to process information, to make coherent thoughts. And at that point, a reversal takes place in faster communication…

People in this episode

Hosts: Michael Hyatt, Megan Hyatt-Miller

Guest: Nicholas Carr

Topics covered

• productivity
• technology
• attention
• information overload
• work-life balance

Keywords

• productivity
• technology
• attention fragmentation
• information overload
• work efficiency

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Shallows, Superbloom

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