Publisher Description

From 'one of the most influential thinkers of our time' (Sunday Times)- how to respond to today's demands on our attentionIn this brilliant follow-up to The Case for Working with Your Hands, Matthew Crawford investigates the challenge of mastering one's own mind. With ever-increasing demands on our attention, and with capitalism increasingly invading every space, how do we focus on what's really important in our lives?Exploring the intense focus of ice-hockey players, the flow of a cook in their element, and the inherited craft of building pipe organs, Crawford argues that in order to flourish, we need to return to lives where we establish meaningful connections with objects and the people around us.

Notes

The follow-up to The Case For Working With Your Hands, this is a deeply insightful and witty guide to the modern age of distraction. Explains how we can reconnect with the real world, with a range of cultural references.

Author Biography

Matthew Crawford is a philosopher and mechanic. He has a PhD in political philosophy from the University of Chicago and served as a postdoctoral fellow on its Committee on Social Thought. Currently a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, he also runs Shockoe Moto, a motorcycle repair shop.

Review

Absolutely superb: elegant, surprising, hard-hitting and very important -- Guy Claxton, author of 'Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind'
Both impassioned and profound * Washington Post *
Very entertaining . . . [with] many interesting insights * The Times *
Crawford makes the crucial point that this is a political problem. The creators of smartphones, social networks designed to hook us, the firms buying ads on escalator handrails and media organizations desperate for your clicks and shares are all helping themselves to something that's ours - the limited resource of our attention - to try to turn a profit -- Oliver Burkeman * Guardian *
There are now many books reminding us to pay attention but Crawford also reminds us of how we lost attention in the first place - and putting the problem in its historical context makes the case more compelling -- Michael Foley, author of 'The Age of Absurdity'

Promotional

Drawing on moral philosophy, cognitive science, the work lessons of craftsmen and his own life lessons as an academic and mechanic, he shows how each of us can learn to live in the world around us.

Review Text

Absolutely superb: elegant, surprising, hard-hitting and very important

Review Quote

Absolutely superb: elegant, surprising, hard-hitting and very important

Promotional "Headline"

From 'one of the most influential thinkers of our time' ( Sunday Times )- how to respond to today's demands on our attention

Details