Finite Focus

Since the birth of humans, there has been a relationship which has driven progress and evolution in our family hominidae. It is:

stimulation ∝ work

Evolution of this relationship in particular was essential for proto-human societies in discerning what work is and isn’t:

• The more you hunted and foraged ∝ more food

• The more you had sex ∝ future progeny

• The more you ate ∝ greater psychophysiological performance

• The more you spent time on tools ∝ better tools

• The more you farmed ∝ more produce

• The more you went to war ∝ more space for your tribe

Clearly, the evolutionary relationship between stimulus and work done could also be written like this:

Greater stimulus ∝ more work done

IE; the more you are stimulated by something, the more productive you are

This worked because back then, not a lot of people had the opportunity to be stimulated while not performing any productive tasks — think drugs like Opium, Tobacco, Alcohol et-cetera. Obtaining stimulating substances wasn’t that easy when famine could strike any moment and you could die of a million different diseases which had no cure or vaccine. Eventually, drugs became somewhat accessible and few people fell prey to it, getting addicted to a substance which wasn’t adding much to their lives.

Slowly, it became more common to smoke and do drugs, but it was a limited practice. Society learned that they’re harmful activities and came around to discourage its use. Putting the unnecessary stimulus underneath a veil of social ostracism, discouraging any upcoming stimulated seat-warmers. Doing drugs every now and then was still okay though, but what if some greater stimulus comes along not wearing a veil of ostracism, but one of acceptance? A stimulus described as pure productivity by most.. god I hate the suspense, I hate writing like this. TSDR; You know what it is — it’s your smartphone, laptop, TV or some other gizmo. Pick a device along those lines and I’ll be using it as a reference going on.

No doubt, personal tech has to be the greatest innovation by humankind. It has allowed us to [insert the two billion different things it can do], and so much more! It can also destroy your focus, which is what I’m here to talk about. Remember: stimulus ∝ work? — insert that relationship with say, scrolling through TikTok/Reels, and you get this:

Insane, mind-melting levels of stimulation ∝ a little laugh, if not a deadpan face

We often forget how slow evolution is, our brains haven’t evolved enough to differentiate between the right and wrong stimulus, all it knows is ‘the greater the stimulus, the more work I’m doing’ — and it doesn’t work for the world we live in anymore. We have been acclimated to be surrounded by stimulus enough to kill a proto-human and their tribe. We crave stimulus every second, we’re addicted:

• Going for a walk? - listen to music!

• Doing a mundane task? - here’s this new audiobook!

• Eating a nice meal? - how about some YouTube too?!

• Watching Netflix? - oh you’re so deprived of stimulus, YOU NEED MORE! SCROLL THROUGH TIKTOK.

• Going to sleep? - did I stutter? You need a course of 5 hours of YouTube prior to tire your eyes out + a healthy side of your own thoughts, YOU CAN NEVER BE STIMULATED ENOUGH!

Having fun while not performing any productive tasks is important — it’s called relaxation and it’s vital. It should be done every now and then, sandwiched between productive tasks. What bothers me and drives me insane is that we’re relaxing all the time, and not even properly, it disturbs the living hell out of me that we’re performing simultaneous stimuli at the same time, most of the time. We’re trying to multitask relaxation while relaxing all the time. It’s not productive at all, there is no focus towards anything. Picture example 4:

You’re not able to focus on the TV show you’re watching because of scrolling

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You’re not able to focus on the scrolling media because you’re scrolling too fast

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You’re not able to focus on scrolling at the right time because you’re thinking of something

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You’re not able to focus on you thinking because of the background noise

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You’re not able to focus on the sounds because you’re looking at so many visuals

Your focus is divided into 5 parts. If the focus of a lens were to be divided into 5 blurry parts, it wouldn’t sell — now think of yourself, would you sell in the hyper competitive world with your focus divided into five hazy parts over tasks which aren’t even useful to your personal growth? No! A guy with his focus divided into four and a half hazy parts over tasks which aren’t even useful to his personal growth could one up you easy. Now think of yourself, focusing on only one thing, a thing which isn’t very stimulating but contributes very well to personal growth — imagine how far ahead you will be of others. You’d be superhuman to most, which is funny because the capability of focusing on one task is innate.

The most valuable resource today is your focus. Not a lot of people have it in them to focus on only one thing anymore, those who can focus on only one single thing will sell.

PS:  I speak with no moral high-ground, I wasn’t exempt of the aforementioned examples two months prior, it took me a while to calibrate and re-learn doing one thing only.