The Benefits of Distraction and Overstimulation

Twitter, Adderall, lifehacking, mindful jogging, power browsing, Obama’s BlackBerry, and the benefits of overstimulation.

Over the last several years, the problem of attention has migrated right into the center of our cultural attention. We hunt it in neurology labs, lament its decline on op-ed pages, fetishize it in grassroots quality-of-life movements, diagnose its absence in more and more of our children every year, cultivate it in yoga class twice a week, harness it as the engine of self-help empires, and pump it up to superhuman levels with drugs originally intended to ... Full Story »

Posted by Kaizar Campwala

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Review

Vincent Caminiti
2.5
by Vincent Caminiti - May. 25, 2009

While I'm struggling to understand how this feature article reflects good journalism, the premise seems to be more suited for Psychology Today rather than New York. The voice vacillates between quirky Daschell Hammett one-liners (of which I appreciate) and random statistics from a trove of indistinguishable sources if one doesn't have the Cliff Notes. It is not an easy casual read and I'm afraid it isn't particularly worth the investment with so many other high value 'distractions' from which to chose.

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Vincent's Rating

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2.5

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from 18 answers
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2.7
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4.0
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3.0
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3.0
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1.0
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3.0
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3.0
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4.0
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3.0
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2.0
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3.0
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3.0
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3.0
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2.0
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1.0
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3.0
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