This article was an attention torture. The author tricks you in the beginning to grab your full attention to just go on and blah-blah-chat about things he learned or heard about attention, bottom line being that we can only hope neuroplasticity will save us.

What seemed like the most sensible thing in the article was that inability to focus is a result of depression or lost interest in the job. Good news indeed.

I found it quite a nice read. It's long, but well written. Certainly better than your average blog post.

Then again, I'm obsessed with productivity and focus (because I'm neither productive nor focused).

EDIT: typo.

Kinda ironic, a 6000 word essay entitled, "The Poverty of Attention." By OP's definition, no one will ever be able to finish it. Please tweet me a summary.

Seriously. I read about 10 words and then gave up.

Highlight of the article for me: "This is what the web-threatened punditry often fails to recognize: Focus is a paradox—it has distraction built into it. The two are symbiotic; they’re the systole and diastole of consciousness." I recall an article describing research done, in response to driving with cellphone in use that claimed that essentially people could not multi task. My take on the topic is at http://www.ciexinc.com/blogs/daily/080601.html

Source: http://nymag.com/news/features/56793/