Information Intelligence - The Scacity of Attention
The Scacity of Attention
One of my friends noticed an interesting phenomenon while lifting weights at the gym. When he listens to a podcast in his native language, he can lift heavier maximum weights than when he listens to a podcast in a foreign language. This is a common and fascinating situation where our attention system’s capacity limits what our mind and body can achieve. There are similar enquiries. Parents and teachers wonder why some kids have a longer focus span. Piano hobbyists wonder why they sometimes learn quickly and at other times struggle to master a piece. Understanding how attention works can help us unlock information intelligence. Before we answer my friend’s questions, let’s take a closer look at what precisely the brain’s attention system is.
Our brain is made up of approximately 100 billion neurons, interconnected into regions. Some of these regions work closely together, allowing our brain to deploy and sustain cognitive resources to selected information while blocking distractions. The collaborating regions form our attention system, directly deciding what information we consciously perceive, process, and respond to. For example, right now I am writing these sentences on a computer. My attention system focuses on the computer screen and keyboard, allowing my eyes and fingers to coordinate to type and enabling me to record my thoughts. My attention system also blocks (or at least attempts to block) irrelevant information, both external disturbances (such as the dishwasher and washing machine noise, plus my daughter asking a third time if she can have frog chocolate) and internal thoughts (what was the real estate market trend recently? Did I forget to recharge the car battery?).
Many brain regions are considered part of the attention system. The prefrontal cortex (PFC), our executive centre, is directly responsible for where we focus our attention. When we feel bored and pick up a magazine, the PFC tells us to concentrate on the pictures and articles. When we are tired at 5 pm but still face a report due and force ourselves to continue working on it, it is the PFC that directs and sustains attention to the report. Known as executive function, the PFC is quite like the chief executive officer of a company: technically, it has all the power, but in reality, many factors beyond its control influence it. Accumbens (the brain’s reward centre), amygdala (the quick and raw emotion centre), or fatigue in other parts of the brain can easily sway the PFC’s decisions. Just as a CEO sometimes has to compromise rather than command, the PFC can make decisions influenced by other regions.
Apart from the PFC, the Thalamus and Basal Ganglia are also crucial components of the attention system. The Thalamus functions as a buffer and filter before information reaches the PFC. At any given moment, thousands of signals perceived by our sensory system—both external (temperature, sound, light, smell, skin pressure, etc.) and internal (peristaltic movements, blood pressure, adrenaline and insulin secretion, pain and soreness, etc.)—are processed. If all this information were sent directly to the PFC, our consciousness would become overwhelmed. The Thalamus acts as a buffer and filter, selecting only the most essential information and sending it at controlled speeds to the PFC. It’s similar to an experienced assistant to the CEO, only reporting the top five most critical matters out of 100.
Meanwhile, the Basal Ganglia has two functions related to attention. First, together with the accumbens, it amplifies signals that might relate to reward or novelty. In other words, it increases the likelihood that the PFC will notice new or rewarding stimuli that evolutionarily signal resources such as food. Second, the Basal Ganglia assist the PFC in shifting attention. This shift is akin to an assistant knocking on the CEO’s meeting room door to signal it’s time to move to the next appointment or focus on another matter. Studies show a positive correlation between ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) and abnormalities in the Basal Ganglia. Third, the Basal Ganglia acts as a routine storage. When a routine is repeated frequently and attentively, the Basal Ganglia loads the routine, allowing us to perform it with reduced consciousness. For example, when we drive in a new suburb, we have to pay close attention to road signs, traffic conditions, parking, etc. When we drive in this area multiple times, we find it requires less attention, and our hands seem to know when to turn the steering wheel. This is a clear example of the Basal Ganglia storing the “drive in this suburb on this particular road” task, freeing up the PFC’s capacity to focus on other things. Another example of the Basal Ganglia loading routines is piano practice. After repeating a musical phrase many times, the finger movements required to play it are stored in the Basal Ganglia, allowing the PFC, or our conscious mind, to focus on other aspects, such as further articulation of the music by varying dynamics.
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It is safe to say that entire civilisations result from conscious attention. Every musical note from the Baroque to Romantic eras, and every word in books from ancient Egypt to New York bestsellers, are driven by fully focused attention systems. However, these attention systems are in short supply at the individual level, for a few reasons.
Firstly, attention is metabolically costly. In simple terms, the energy needed to maintain attention is more expensive than most other bodily functions. The brain, which makes up only 2% of the body’s weight, uses about 20% of the total energy at rest. Of this, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) consumes around 10%, even though it accounts for only 4% to 5% of the brain’s total volume. If we think of the human body as a city, the brain is the CBD—the busiest and most energy-draining part. Within this CBD, the PFC is like the tallest and largest building, using more power than other structures. Because the brain and PFC are so energy-hungry, they suffer the most when energy supply is low or unstable, which often leads to attention issues. This explains why we tend to have a few productive hours after breakfast and lunch—assuming the meal isn’t too large or high in quick-digesting sugars, a topic we’ll explore in Chapter 5, Nutrition Intelligence.
To optimise our brain’s attention supply and enhance our information intelligence, we should purposefully allocate tasks that demand intense focus—such as learning new skills, understanding complex concepts, performing highly accurate tasks like surgery, or engaging in fast-paced activities like sports, debating, or high-stakes negotiations—during hours when we are full of energy. If we must perform attention-intensive tasks at less-than-ideal times, like an interview at 4:30 pm, a quick snack can help boost ATP supply to the brain.
Second, attention is limited because of its poor multitasking ability. The PFC is good at processing information, whether creating, recalling memories, or making connections, but it can only handle a very few tasks at once. The well-known saying that working memory can hold only 5 to 9 items, with seven often cited as the ideal number, comes from a 1956 study by George Miller. Modern psychology has even narrowed that range from 5-9 to 3-4. If the task is complicated enough, the number quickly drops to one. In ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow,’ Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman concluded that our brain power drops to 70% when processing two tasks, and falls below 30% with more than three. In other words, when we multitask, we are effectively dumb. We can use this ‘reduced computing power when multitasking’ to consciously choose which tasks to multitask on, thereby improving our information intelligence. There are always a few things in life that require only about 30% of our brainpower, and if we are confident, we can accept the potential risk of errors and certainly multitask. I often think about what to write in the next chapter of this book while washing dishes, and I plan my day while jogging in the morning (as long as it’s not HIIT running, which demands much more attention). There are also meetings I need to attend, but don’t add value or get information from, so I usually check the ‘have a look when you have time’ section of my work instant messenger.
Third, attention is a limited resource because switching attention also causes fatigue. In other words, shifting focus from one task to another consumes the same energy needed to sustain and direct attention. To illustrate this, let’s assume there are three tasks called A, B, and C. Each task requires 10 minutes of full focus to complete. If a person completes these three tasks consecutively—A (10 mins), B (10 mins), C (10 mins)—they can finish them all. However, if the person splits this into shorter periods—A (5 mins), B (5 mins), C (5 mins), then A (5 mins), B (5 mins), C (5 mins)—they might find it harder to complete the tasks. This is precisely why, in management and personal productivity training, we always recommend avoiding context switching, as it physically strains the attention reserve. For those familiar with computer systems, context switching is much like swapping memory — I mean, the computer memory stored in circuits as binary bits — between cache and the hard disk. It is slow, costly, and clunky.
To boost our information intelligence, we should use our attention budget wisely by grouping related tasks to reduce context switching. For example, a manager could dedicate a day to all people management tasks, such as coaching, hiring, and 1-on-1s; another day for project meetings like risk analysis, progress reports, dependency negotiations, and scope creep mitigation; and a different day for managing-up meetings to report progress, seek strategic alignment, and request resources. This way, the manager minimises the need to switch between meetings and tasks in a single day, thereby improving overall attention span and increasing work quality and efficiency. Another quick way to reduce context switching is to limit mobile browsing. Most apps, especially social media, are designed to deliver quick snippets of information—or, to be precise, noise. Even just five minutes of browsing can cause our brains to switch contexts dozens of times. This is the worst kind of attention drain, rapidly depleting our valuable brain power on things we nearly forget right away. If you recall the “Phone Down, Eyes Up” section in the Relationship Intelligence chapter, this is another good reason to put your phone down.
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I would later suggest my friend try something else to test the context-switching taxing effect of the attention system, in a safe way such as being spotted by another person. If my friend listens to a frequently changed podcast (like a new podcast every 10 seconds) in a foreign language, I bet he would lift even lower max weight.
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