Modes of Attention : A mental model

Directive Attention

There is this book called The Master Game by Robert S. de Ropp. I don’t know how I stumbled upon this book. I read it a long time back, but one part of the book has stayed with me. The author talks about three modes of attention. The mental model continues to help me choose things that I should spend time on.

1. The dispersed attention : This happens when your thoughts are always dispersed. You are out doing a different thing everyday. You switch your attention too quickly for anything to register. Mindless scrolling on website/apps is one instance of dispersed attention. At the end of an hour, your mind is exhausted, having accomplished nothing real.
2. The enslaved attention : This is when you have suspend control on your attention. The feeling you get after you binge-watch a series, or just watch videos whole day. You just don’t apply yourself and your mind. Slowly, and subtly, your mind gets into habit of finding these hooks to shake loose of attention. It becomes harder to sit down and direct your thoughts when it’s much easier to just watch a movie and surrender your attention. On a more subtle level, you start living by the book and downloaded worldview/perspectives, and become boring.
3. The directive attention : This is when you are working with your mind, towards accomplishing a goal, small or big. You are in sync with your mind as you evaluate things, make plans and execute them. When you read a book, learn something new, do anything creative, work on a project, out in the nature, you are in directive attention.

How does the mental model help?

We live in a dynamic world, with short, self-reinforcing and magnifying feedback loops. The heuristics and algorithms that influence our consumption of digital content is skewed towards capturing our attention. If we don’t proactively measure and adjust our digital behaviour, we’re bound to gradually wander away from directive attention.

We need to pay attention to make things work. Work, relationships, hobbies, projects, communities all depend on you paying attention. More worrying is the consequence to kids growing up now. If they are growing up with all the devices, apps and content around them, there’s a risk of spending more and more time in dispersed/enslaved attention.