[HN Gopher] 'Weird and Daunting': 7k Readers Told Us How It Felt...
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'Weird and Daunting': 7k Readers Told Us How It Felt to Focus
Author : gumby
Score : 59 points
Date : 2024-08-01 11:09 UTC (5 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
| brudgers wrote:
| https://archive.ph/3FtOo/again?url=https://www.nytimes.com/2...
| standardUser wrote:
| Many of the responses mention meditation, which I think is
| exactly what this is. With meditation we usually think of certain
| ways of managing our thoughts or breath or using some sort of
| mantra (I've never tried that last one), but I think any exercise
| that is challenging our ability to focus is functioning as
| mediation.
|
| It also reminded me of "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar" which
| is one of four Roald Dahl stories that Wes Anderson made into
| short films for Netflix.
| Void_ wrote:
| That would make deep work meditation as well.
| hkxer wrote:
| I tried this exercise just after finishing the article. Feels
| silly to say, but really a remarkable experience.
|
| I recently left tech to go back to school, but the program that I
| got into is very different than what I had envisioned.
|
| As I reflected on this recent negative event, my perception
| changed in those ten minutes, reframing the challenge as an
| opportunity.
| sdwr wrote:
| I've noticed a similar feeling recently. Like I'm operating at
| max capacity without realizing it, and just a few minutes is
| enough time to unwind and reframe.
| smokel wrote:
| The test appears to have been implemented as a JavaScript button
| with a timer.
|
| How many people would have simply set a timer for 10 minutes,
| then wait for a bit and return to the page to see if they had won
| a prize?
| throwanem wrote:
| The Page Visibility API has been around for quite a while:
| https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Page_Visibi...
|
| That said, as far as I can tell they aren't actually using it,
| although it is pretty hard to tell - I don't find any mention
| of it (as the string "visibilitychange", or "hidden" as an
| object prop, in the minified code) in the page or the linked
| sources. The timer did disappear after I had had the tab
| backgrounded for a little while, but clicking "I Quit" only
| pops a premium upsell sheet, so who knows.
|
| In entire fairness, though, I don't think they're really
| treating it as a particularly rigorous experiment in the first
| place. Assuming good faith on participants' part in the general
| case seems reasonable, especially given that it _is_ paywalled
| and thus not too susceptible to widespread gaming of the 4chan
| stripe. And they are using Sentry and DD RUM on the experiment
| page, so if it really meant that much to them, they probably
| could filter out at least some confounders.
|
| (edit: On reflection, they'd have done well to support the
| fullscreen API here, which in its modern iteration I believe
| can be used with any block-scoped element, or maybe just any
| element. But it looks like the UI for this had to be put
| together in a hurry and maybe mostly outside the confines of
| their CMS, so I don't suppose I can really blame whoever wrote
| it for the omission.)
| scotty79 wrote:
| or you could stand up and go grab a coffee ... or look at your
| phone or other device instead
| photonthug wrote:
| > You might think of this chart as the shape of attention. After
| clicking to start, thousands rapidly exited, some immediately,
| some after a minute or two. But if you could make it past three
| minutes, you were more likely to finish than to give up. And once
| you hit five minutes, your odds of completing the exercise were
| very high. A quarter who started made it to the 10-minute mark.
|
| This is interesting but the whole experiment is completely
| undermined by the fact that one cannot choose the painting, or at
| least choose from a list of paintings. Personally I clicked
| through to see what it was, then left after 10s because I didn't
| like what I found. I do like impressionism but not the out of
| focus and "about to go blind" cataract kind, which actually gives
| me a headache. For me at least, a blank wall would be preferable
| to a fogged up scene, assuming a 10 minute timer and a computer
| screen.
| chemeril wrote:
| What you've described is part of the experiment, which asks the
| question "can/will you focus for ten minutes on something that
| you did not choose and may not immediately tickle your
| neurons?". For most the answer is 'no'. The lack of choice is
| by design.
| sandspar wrote:
| This is a form of brainwashing.
|
| Cult leader: "Will you repeat the word 'Love' 10,000 times
| out loud?"
|
| Why?
|
| Leader: "Asking 'Why' means you've failed and shall be
| liquidated."
|
| It's a way of forcing people to commit to you while
| simultaneously demolishing their critical capacity.
| voltaireodactyl wrote:
| Certainly true, but boredom is also the foundation of
| creativity so there is some middle ground worth seeking
| out.
| gumby wrote:
| Perhaps also a good way to explore why so many kids are
| bored in school.
| cootsnuck wrote:
| It's a voluntary experiment on a website. It's not that
| serious.
| photonthug wrote:
| They based the exercise on one where choice was not
| eliminated:
|
| > Our exercise is based on an assignment that Jennifer
| Roberts, an art history professor at Harvard, gives to her
| students. She asks them to go to a museum, pick one work of
| art, and look at only that for three full hours.
|
| Since what they have described as the "shape of attention" is
| more measuring how willing I am to endure a headache for no
| good reason, I would say it's a poorly designed experiment.
|
| The goal for the journalists here is to show something about
| the "fried attention span" of the twitter generation I'm
| sure, whereas the goal for the original educator was to get
| people to deeply engage with art that already spoke to them
| somewhat. Attention can and should be directed, but in
| general not by others, so this just doesn't measure what it
| claims to.
|
| And for what it's worth, I say this as someone who is more
| interested in art than the average person. I've not only
| looked at a piece of art for 10+ minutes before, but the last
| time was less than a week ago.
|
| Edit to add: What really is the difference between something
| you don't like & didn't choose vs say an advertisement? Does
| leaving the room during ads imply anything good or bad about
| the attention span of the public?
| Enginerrrd wrote:
| In my case, it was broken and no art appeared. Only a black
| screen with the text overlayed and the "I quit" button.
| ...Makes me wonder about the validity of their data.
| scotty79 wrote:
| I think the point was to suffer. And then either quit of find
| bliss in surrendering to suffering.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Am I a bad person for starting this exercise, then immediately
| alt-tabbing over to type this comment into HN? (The counter
| appears to still run when the window is not in focused.)
| SoftTalker wrote:
| I didn't see any breakdown by age and I was wondering if people
| who grew up without phones had an easier time of it.
|
| I can sit down for 30 minutes outside on my porch with my phone
| inside and just look at the trees. It's calming and not difficult
| at all.
| Tade0 wrote:
| I've seen this referred to as "raw dogging reality" in an
| anecdote about a man who brought nothing to a 10h flight - not
| even a book.
|
| Personally since the moment I learned that people stare at
| screens to avoid processing emotions, it's become much easier
| for me to just stare at the sky.
|
| In such moments I feel a lot like an ape released after years
| of captivity.
| thefaux wrote:
| Yeah, I have noticed this effect. I use my phone less than
| most people in public, but I often have the instinct to reach
| for it to avoid something about my environment that is at
| least mildly uncomfortable.
| aatd86 wrote:
| I would be interested in knowing what a fMRI would show and also
| how it affects people's bodily sensations/nervous system. Why is
| it so hard for some people?
| blueyes wrote:
| This is only tangential, but Adam Gazzaley's The Distracted Mind
| (2016, MIT Press) provides an excellent anatomy of focus and
| attention, working memory, goal management and overall cognitive
| control, then places them in the context of modern technology to
| discuss how people can fight distraction.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Distracted-Mind-Ancient-Brains-High-T...
|
| It's the first time I read someone properly explain all the parts
| and tasks involved in attentional control in the service of
| achieving goals.
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