”Pay attention. It’s the first thing Erik taught me. You have to be present. And you have to pay attention to yourself. What am I thinking? What am I experiencing? How am I seeing this situation? What biases am I bringing to bear on this? How do other people see me? Being mindful, being present, are really hard. Our brains are really bad at paying attention. The brain’s default mode network undermines us at every step. It makes us creative and does wonderful things. But we’re just constantly scanning the environment. It’s hard to focus. Focus is not our default state. Our default state is mind-wandering. That’s why modern technology is so addictive. It’s junk food for our brain because it’s what our brain wants.”
— Maria Konnikova interviewed by Kevin Berger, The Things We Can’t Control Are Beautiful
