<iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-K3L4M3" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden">

More from Books

Don’t listen to Johann Hari to help your attention span

5 February 2022

9:00 AM

5 February 2022

9:00 AM

Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention Johann Hari

Bloomsbury, pp.368, 20

Mindwandering: How to Improve Your Mood and Boost Your Creativity Moshe Bar

Bloomsbury, pp.272, 18.99

In 1887, Friedrich Nietzsche made a complaint about the modern world, writing in The Gay Science:

Even now one is ashamed of resting, and prolonged reflection almost gives one a bad conscience. One thinks with a watch in one’s hand, even as one eats one’s midday meal while reading the latest news on the stock market; one lives as if one always ‘might miss out on something’.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Black Friday sale

Subscribe today and get 10 weeks of The Spectator Australia for just $1

  • Unlimited access to spectator.com.au and app
  • The weekly edition on the Spectator Australia app
  • Spectator podcasts and newsletters
  • Full access to spectator.co.uk
Or

Unlock this article

REGISTER

You might disagree with half of it, but you’ll enjoy reading all of it. Try your first month for free, then just $2 a week for the remainder of your first year.


Comments

Black Friday sale

Subscribe today and get 10 weeks of The Spectator Australia for just $1

Already a subscriber? Log in

Close