WEBVTT - #1759 Hyper-Focus - David Gillespie 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.000 I'll get Agarouba's welcome to another installing the new project. 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.040 It's it's bloody twenty twenty five. That's what it is. 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:10.760 It's bloody twenty twenty five. It's January one, and only 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:15.680 losers would record a podcast on January one, on New 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:18.400 Year's Day. And the three losers today are David Gillespie, 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:20.080 Tiffany and called Craig Anthony Harper. 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.880 Hello, Tiv, I'm a winner, mate, I'm a winner. Hello, 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:28.680 Well you are a winner. Dave's winner too, call him Dave. 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:31.080 I feel like, no, I'm not a big fan of 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:31.640 me called Dave. 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:33.879 People do call me that and I never correct them. 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:37.760 But I'm correcting. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm not a fan, 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:40.480 I don't, you know. To all the Daves, I apologize. 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:42.760 But if I was David, I would rather be called David. 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:45.279 Yeah, you know what, I think it's always a good 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:47.800 idea to pay attend to what people call themselves. You know, 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:51.159 if I run around saying introducing myself as Dave, then 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:52.320 feel free to call me Dave. 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:55.720 But I never did, right, right. I think that's probably 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:57.680 a good rule of thumb. I think that's probably a 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:01.760 good social kind of to tick, so you pay attention 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:04.080 to what people call it. A tiff. 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:06.560 For example, I call Tiff, and I'm not certain that's 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:10.119 right because on her screen she has Tiffany. 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:13.800 I was just thinking this. I introduced myself as Tiffany, 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:16.480 but I prefer most people call me Tiff, and I've 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:21.160 just started changing things to tiff, like in written form. 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:25.040 What is that? That's because I mean, you do have 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:29.280 a very fancy spelling of your name, which is two 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:31.440 e's on the end. I don't know that fancy. 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:33.160 I am very fancy. 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:35.880 You're about as fancy as a fucking ug boot. That's 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:37.000 how fancy you are. 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:39.959 You know that my Motorbix called Emily with two e's 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:40.440 on the end. 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:47.920 Now of course, Oh wow, we're anthropomorphizing our vehicles, now, 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:50.440 are we? Although my mum has done. All of her 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:53.480 cars have had names, and they've all been girl cars, 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.640 so I can't say I'm unfamiliar. What's that? 0:01:57.000 --> 0:01:58.840 My first car was Lucy. 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:02.400 I can't. I've heard a lot of people name their cars. 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:04.560 I don't think I ever heard anyone give their current 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:07.680 a man's name. You don't think people referring to their currents. 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:16.160 That's Steve, that's that's Brian the Honda accord. It doesn't 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:21.040 really roll off the tongue, does it. I wonder what 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:24.040 that is. There's some research for you before we talk 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:28.480 about who the fuck knows what without giving away any 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:31.440 family secrets or revealing any data that you don't want to. 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:35.760 What's news even news day look like in the Gillespie 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:39.120 household or for the remaining members? 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:43.760 Well, the remaining members were just my wife and I yesterday, 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:46.360 because you know, with adult children, they've all got something 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:48.280 much better and cooler to do than hang around with 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:54.000 their parents. And yeah, so you know, we're just at 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:57.680 the beach, went down, caught the fireworks that are on 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:02.120 the beach, and today I'm mostly sitting around doing nothing, 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:03.440 which is my idea of a good time. 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:08.720 Well, accuble you write, is this a book we already 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:10.400 know about? Or yeah, I know that's the one we 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.640 already know about. That's the one about adhd Yep. What's 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:18.480 the what's the ETA on publication for that? I don't know. 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:21.880 It really depends, really depends what the publisher thinks of 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:24.320 this manuscript. But we'll see how we go. 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.079 Surely by that now they just go, yeah, whatever, we're 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:30.280 going to publish it. It's not like you. 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:32.520 Yeah, but I like to see a manuscript to know, 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:35.760 you know, where in the year it's going to be published, 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:37.839 you know, all that marketing year. 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:43.320 Is this the one that is that you're building around stories? 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:46.640 No, that was the last one I wrote, which was 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:52.280 the one about the stories about psycho And yeah, I 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:54.040 know that one is the one in the market at 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:59.480 the moment. And now this one is more about talking 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:02.360 about what a lot of people are describing as ADHD, 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:05.160 which is lack of focus and you know, the massive 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:10.480 increase in diagnosis of adult ADHD and all that sort 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.960 of thing, and looking at you know, what's causing that. 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:16.040 And we've talked about bits and pieces of this a 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:21.480 lot over time, but more importantly talking about what to 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:24.440 do about it other than take drugs. 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:28.680 Yeah, what is I mean? Well, this wasn't where we're going, 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:31.640 but it doesn't matter where we go. It's newsday. What 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:35.880 are the common misconceptions around ADHD? 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:40.000 I think one of the really common ones is that 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:41.839 you're born with it and there's nothing you can do 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:44.400 about it, you know, you know, it's just the way 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:45.039 I was born. 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:49.640 But that's just nonsense. It really is. 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:53.120 For the vast majority of ADHD cases, or at least 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:57.880 the things being diagnosed as ADHD. The rates the rates 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:02.520 of this condition have gone through the roof, The rates 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.880 of diagnosis of drugs for this condition have gone through 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:10.520 the roof. If it's something that people are born with, 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:13.520 then it's a pretty weird thing that suddenly the incidence 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:20.280 of it is changing really dramatically. So but the alternative 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:23.120 to that that's often put about is well, if you're 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:25.480 not born with it, then I guess these people are 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:28.279 imagining it, or they're wroarding the health system in some way, 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.479 or you know, or it's just being made up. I 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.279 don't think that's true either. I think the incidence is 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:38.960 actually increasing very rapidly. But the cause of it is 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:43.840 not a birth defect. It's what we're doing in our society, 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:49.000 which is a combination of and massively increase addiction. 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:54.680 And what about Do you think that nutrition plays a 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:59.040 role in ADHD incidents or the prevalence or the growth 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:00.520 in ADHD diagnoses. 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:05.960 I think a partial role, in the sense that sugar 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:12.120 addiction is definitely an underlying base layer to what a 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:16.960 lot of people ultimately become addicted to. So yes, part 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:22.120 of fixing this without drugs is removing sugar, but other 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:22.839 aside from that. 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:27.039 Now, I feel like, and this is not research anyone, 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:30.880 and probably inaccurate, but I feel like for some people 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:37.960 their inability to focus to concentrate is somewhat task or 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:41.360 context dependent. I feel like, you know, for me, there 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.400 are some things that I really struggle to like. Even 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:47.680 with my research, there are bits of it where I'm like, 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:52.039 I cannot like reading a paper that doesn't really interest 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:54.960 me naturally interests me right versus I'm doing a thing 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:57.320 at the moment called a risk of bias assessment for 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.480 one hundred and ten papers. I've got this eight step protocol. 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.680 It sounds horribly boring, but today I did nearly four 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:06.240 hours of it and I was completely engrossed and immersed. 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:07.880 And I looked up and it was four hours, and 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:10.800 I went, where did that go? I feel like, with 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:16.480 certain tasks or in certain capacities, I have amazing focus 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:21.920 and concentration, and with other tasks or in other perhaps settings, 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:23.960 not zero but you know, way less. 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:28.240 Yeah, look absolutely, I mean, And part of the key 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:32.800 to fixing what's being described as ADHD is to find 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:37.239 those areas of what I'm calling in the book hyper focus, 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.040 which is I think I think we're all capable of 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:43.920 hyper focus, as you say, if you find the right thing, 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:47.840 we're all capable of hyperfocus. The troublers at the moment. 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:52.080 The easy thing to direct. Hyper focus is usually an 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:56.800 addictive behavior. So people have the experience you just described 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:01.360 when they're playing computer games, so they're intensely focused on it, 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:04.920 they're un'ntable to leave it alone, and then they look 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:07.200 up and you know, before you know it, four hours 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:09.320 has gone by, which is of course part of the 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:11.440 reason why they don't have clocks and casinos and why 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:16.119 they don't have clocks on screen in computer games. So yes, 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:19.240 there's a hyper focus, and it's both part of the 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:22.560 cause of the problem if it's sent in the wrong direction, 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:28.000 and I say, the cure of the problem. So you know, 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:32.320 my preliminary title for this book is hyper focused, and 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:35.439 it's you know, how to get more done in less time? 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:40.280 And or the subtitle love come up with, and none. 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:41.840 Of these will be kept by the publisher because they 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:43.640 always hate. My marketing ideas. 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:48.160 Is you know how to focus like it's nineteen ninety 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:54.200 and that that's what I propose as part of the cure, 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:59.400 which is find the thing that isn't addictive creates that 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:00.960 state of high focus. 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:06.440 Yes, that is I mean obviously it sounds simple. It 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:09.480 can be both simple and difficult. But yeah, like if 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:11.720 you could find that thing that can get somebody in 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:15.560 that state of where they are focused, they are byper 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:16.480 focused perhaps. 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:21.040 But I'll make a guess about you and this research 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.120 you were doing. When you got to the end of 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:30.520 that four hours, did you feel you know, enlivened, supercharged 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:31.680 or did you feel exhausted? 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:36.880 I felt fucking great. And it's funny because I am 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:41.560 not the best student, right, there's a shock, But when 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:44.840 I'm learning something I want to learn, Like when I 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:47.880 say I'm not, I'm probably actually quite a good student 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:52.679 in certain capacities and environments. But in the traditional traditional 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:57.360 academia kind of or academic setting and academic kind of processes, 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:01.200 some of them they just do my head in because 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:06.240 they're so pointless and inefficient, as you well know, right, no, 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.160 go on, you can, yeah, but I've you know, there 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:11.720 are some things where it took me a while to 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:16.000 understand this particular thing that I have to do in analyzing. 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:18.800 Sorry everyone for boring you. But this is just my day, 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:23.040 the risk of bias assessment for all of these individual 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:26.200 way that individual studies were done, and it's like one 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:28.560 paper sometimes got six studies, so you've got to do 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:34.720 six analysis or assessments in one paper. And you know, anyway, 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:37.760 but I've kind of got into a rhythm and I've 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:40.280 figured it out and I'm clear about what I'm doing, 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.600 So my confidence has gone up my output. Like it 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:47.679 was taking me one hour to do one paper, and 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:51.600 you know, now I'm doing depending on how many studies 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:53.680 are in each paper, but I might do three, four 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:56.800 or five in an hour. It depends. But with that, 0:10:56.920 --> 0:11:00.320 you know, and so yeah, I guess too, when you 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:03.800 feel like you're competent at something or you're actually making 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:07.680 ground or for me anyway, there's a lot more joy 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:09.400 in it. Yeah. 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:13.040 Look, and I think what you just described is exactly 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:16.920 the way someone who can play a musical instrument well feels. 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:19.360 After they have a session. 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:21.880 So they go and they play the instrument for an 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:25.720 hour or whatever, and they experience that hyper focus and 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:29.480 then at the end of it they feel real euphoria, 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:34.439 like someone's giving them drugs. It's not a grind. Whereas 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:36.720 for me. If I tried to do that, I wouldn't 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:40.520 feel euphoria. I'd feel extreme frustration because I can't play 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:45.360 a musical instrument very well at all, and it's a 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:47.960 grind for me. So you've got to find the area 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:53.320 of hyperfocus. Your story actually reminded me of the way 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:57.720 I did university, at least my undergraduate degree is. And 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:00.240 I was often laughed at for this, but it was 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:02.600 the only way I could do it. I never went 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:05.120 to a lecture. This is back in the days when 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:07.040 you were supposed to go to lectures and they can 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:09.000 record them, and the only way to find out what 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:12.360 happened at a lecture was to go to it, and 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:16.480 I never did because I found that an extremely low 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:20.600 bandwidth way to get information and it usually just put 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:24.080 me to sleep. So, and this was in the days 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:27.200 when they used to assess things with sort of seriously 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:29.319 long exams at the end of a year. So year's 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:32.559 worth of lectures with a really long exam at the 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:35.439 end of it, and that was it. And I determined 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.480 that the only real way that I could learn anything 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:44.560 was to do nothing all year, and then in the 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:49.839 two weeks prior to the exam, essentially cram the entire 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:52.720 textbook usually written by the lecturer. So that's probably what 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:57.080 the lecture lectures were about and hope for the best. 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:04.080 But in that period that two weeks, that was two 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:08.400 weeks of hyper focus. That was like really really disciplined. 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:12.000 You read for two hours, then you take a break, 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:13.800 and then you read for another two hours and then 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:14.560 you take a break. 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:17.760 You know. So it was done that way. So I 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:21.040 want to know, by the way, kids don't do what 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:24.640 David did it. Now I've seen my kids in university. 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:28.400 You couldn't do it. They've got NonStop assessments and sign 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:30.280 and all that, you know. 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:34.280 They university is a lot more like high school these 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:36.360 days and the way it's conducted. 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:39.760 So when I did my first degree, which was one 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:42.679 hundred years ago, but you know, so anatomy and physiology 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:45.400 and biomechanics and energy systems and all the stuff that 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:49.680 you actually have to commit to memory. You know, it's 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:52.680 like because you're being assessed on functional anatomy. So we 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.840 have this like a myriad of books. But where I 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:58.480 would read the book, I'd kind of skim it and 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:00.880 then I'd highlight the stuff that I thought I needed 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:05.000 to know I'd do that for every chapter, and then 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:09.680 I would record on CDs, right or floppy discs or whatever. 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:15.000 I would record the stuff that I'd highlighted, and then 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:17.960 I would play that in my car NonStop. You know. 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:21.280 So I'd say, so there's there's four quad muscles, you know, 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:23.080 rectis femeris. 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:24.800 You know. Is that what you do when you don't 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:25.920 have friends at university? 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:30.800 Yeah? Exactly, that is it inserts into the bloody patella tendon, 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:33.480 which inserts into the tibi l tu vorosity or whatever 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.560 it is. Right, I remembered it. I've remembered it. But 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:40.720 I would just memorize all this shit. But then so 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:43.360 it took me a while to download it. But then 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:48.000 nearly everything that I memorized for exams back in the day, 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:52.240 nearly everything I cannot get out of my head. Like, yeah, 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:55.280 but once I learn, like I'm a slow learner, but 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:58.080 once it's learned, I almost never unlearn it. 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:03.360 I once saw us some research somewhere about that audio 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:06.240 learning methodology, and I've tried it a few times myself, 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:08.720 and it kind of works. And I think the research 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:12.280 said you have to hear something seven times and really 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:16.600 focus on it, listen to it seven times and then 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:20.320 it will be memorized. So when I've really needed to 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:24.480 memorize something, I sort of incantation seven. 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:29.280 Yeah right, and it seems to work. Yeah, yeah, yeah almost. Yeah. 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:33.960 I used to create stories around shit so I could 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:39.760 or But this is different, but similar Like with people's names, 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:43.280 if it was a difficult name, I've think of something 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:45.320 that's you know, like a town or a place or 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:49.160 a car or whatever, and I'd associate that image with 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:55.480 that person. So even if I had no idea of 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:59.560 what their name was, just looking at them, I could 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:03.840 recall this image or this whatever association and then I 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:06.320 would know from that because I couldn't remember their name, 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:08.680 but I could remember the image that I had in 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:10.760 my mind that I associated with that person. 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:14.600 What's the image you've got in your mind for Tiffany. 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:19.400 Well, for tiff, I've just got an ug boot for you. 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:25.160 I've got the David and you know which is well, 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:30.280 thank you, I think, which is maybe I don't know 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:34.360 if you should be that platted It's right, I don't know. 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:37.880 So so have you got any I mean, without giving 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:39.560 away the book, because we're all going to buy. The 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:41.560 book is going to be called hyper Focus. 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:46.000 And probably not, because you know, when a publisher's marketing 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:47.480 department gets these things. 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:48.960 I haven't had one yet. I've read. 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:53.720 I've written fourteen books and that have been published by publishers, 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:56.320 and not one of them has come out with the 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:57.480 same title I gave it. 0:16:58.160 --> 0:16:59.760 Tiff, can you look that up and see if there's 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:04.480 a book called Hyperfocus? Please please idea. Yeah, let's check that. 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.400 I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure that's a book. Well, 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:10.280 every time I come up with a new title, I'm like, yeah, 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:13.880 that's that's that's already there, is it there, Tiff. 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:18.320 And someone Chris Bailey, Chris Bailey. 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:21.159 Give us a snapshot, give us a little bit of 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:23.639 a give us a snapshot of that, or a byline 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:24.840 of what that book's about. 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:30.960 Hyperfocus is a practical guy. Me, yeah, let me let 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:35.200 me open the link. Hyperfocus had to be more productive 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:39.760 in a world of distraction. Guide to managing your attention 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:42.640 the most powerful resource you have to get stuff done, 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.520 become more creative, and live a meaningful life. 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:50.480 That sounds way too fluffy for Giles. More science. He 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:55.320 will be a lot more research based respect to that guy, 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:59.960 But it's ye. Dave published Tiffany. 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:03.400 When was it published eighteen? 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:08.000 Old school? Old school up today today? That's historic, that's 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:12.040 pre covid, because that is that even real anymore it's 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.720 in the stone, then it's not going to be called 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:21.280 hyper focus. Are there any tips that you might share 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:24.879 with us for not necessarily exploring the realm of the 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:31.439 hyper but becoming just more focused and more what's the 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:35.040 word effective at managing our attention in general? Well? 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:38.160 Yeah, like one of them is exactly the one you described, 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:43.240 which is to find that thing. And for many people 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:47.040 do have a thing like that, whatever it is, for 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:49.640 a lot of people at sport, and that's perfectly fine too. 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:52.240 It doesn't have to be an intellectual thing. It just 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:56.119 has to be something that when you're doing it, the 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.679 world passes you by entirely, where you're one hundred percent 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:00.920 focus on that thing. 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:02.800 Yes, and. 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:06.800 You finish doing it whatever amount of time it takes, 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:09.320 preferably at least an hour, and you come out of 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:14.280 it almost euphoric from having devoted your entire attention to that. 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:17.400 And the reason for that is that doing that causes 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:21.159 the brain to produce a significant. 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:22.240 Quantity of dopamine. 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:28.680 More probably consistently than even pursuing things which are addictive 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:32.919 that would normally produce dopamine spikes, and in essence, what 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:36.160 this is is sort of like a method owned treatment 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:39.320 for addiction in the sense what you're trying to do 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:48.360 is generate homemade dopamine and to do that using things 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:50.480 that also have other benefits to your life. 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:55.639 Yeah, so home dopamine, that sounds like a good recipe. 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:59.200 Well, all dopa means homemade. But this is self generated, 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:00.520 I guess is a better way. 0:20:01.359 --> 0:20:03.320 It's not externally generated. 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:06.840 Yeah, and and so you know, people might know of 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:09.680 the concept of the runners high. For example, people talk 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:15.159 about the runners high and they're so into running that 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:17.320 they can't even miss a day, like you know, you 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:18.920 know about it. For people who go to the gym, 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:21.240 there are people who will really just get quite upset 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:25.000 if they if they miss a regular gym session that 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:28.520 they're they're keen on going to. And that's not everyone 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.000 by every stretch. I mean, gyms make their money out 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:32.960 of the rest of the population, which are the ones 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:35.800 who buy memberships and go twice and then never go again. 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:38.920 But there are people who very much get their value 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:41.760 for money out of the gym because they can't miss 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:44.600 a day, and they are in essence addicted to that 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:49.679 dopamine rush they get from doing that intensely focused exercise. 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:53.760 You know, it's funny you say this. There's a I'll 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:55.680 just say a young man at once, say his age, 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:57.920 and I'll definitely not say his name. We'll call him. 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:01.560 We'll call him Johane. It's not John. But I literally 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:04.400 had a meeting with this young man two days ago, 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:07.399 sitting in my garden about twenty feet from where I'm talking, 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:10.120 and nobody knows what I'm talking about, so I can 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:17.400 say this bit. He has significant body dysmorphia. He's completely 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:22.639 obsessed with exercise and managing his food and all of 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:26.879 these things like lovely dude, really good dude, but yeah 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:32.040 and that and very smart, like he knows, he knows 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:34.720 what he should be doing, but there's so much fear 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:38.440 and anxiety. Like he trains twice a day, Like he 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:41.440 has a full time job, an important job, smart, makes 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:45.480 lots to do. He has to train twice a day. 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:48.040 And I said to him, like, we have this whole 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:52.440 chat and me, I've been borderline body dysmorphic over the 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:54.960 years with stuff and all the Craig harba bullshit. But 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:57.879 I said to him, all the starting point is that 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:03.520 you just train once a day and just terror. I go, so, 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:05.680 there's what you're comfortable to do, and there's the thing 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:08.160 that you know you should probably do, right, And he goes, yeah, 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:11.120 I know. And I said, look, you know, whatever you're 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:13.680 going to do, you're going to do so this I mean, 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:17.040 this thing it's actually you know, some people call it 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:22.480 athletic andsa, this predisposition, or this addiction to not being 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:24.400 able to even have a fucking day off. 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:30.359 Yeah, it is an addiction, and it's a very real one. 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:32.920 And he reacted exactly the same way that an addict 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:36.879 would react who was an addict to anything else. So 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:40.800 you go up to a fourteen year old gamer and say, yeah, 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:43.080 look you're gaming eight hours a day. I want you 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:46.159 to cut back to four. You get a similar reaction. Yes, 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:52.440 and yeah. The real question is is the addiction doing harm? 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:55.440 Is it impairing him in the rest of his life, 0:22:57.520 --> 0:23:00.480 you know? Or is it something that he can control 0:23:00.520 --> 0:23:01.600 and healthy manage? 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:02.280 You know? 0:23:02.560 --> 0:23:05.439 Those are the they're the questions you've got to ask. 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:09.200 I mean, because it just because it's an otherwise considered 0:23:09.280 --> 0:23:12.320 healthy thing to do to generate dopamine, like going to 0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:16.040 the gym, doesn't mean that if you take it to 0:23:16.080 --> 0:23:19.239 the extreme, it's any less potentially harmful for you than 0:23:19.240 --> 0:23:20.040 any other addiction. 0:23:20.720 --> 0:23:23.679