Quotes About Attention

Kahneman says that we are quick to jump to conclusions because we give too much weight to the information that's right in front of us, while failing to consider the information that's just offstage. He called this tendency "what you see is all there is.

Unexpected ideas are more likely to stick because surprise makes us pay attention and think.

Surprise jolts us to attention. Surprise is triggered when our schemas fail, and it prepares us to understand why the failure occurred.

Focusing is great for analyzing alternatives but terrible for spotting them. Think about the visual analogy—when we focus we sacrifice peripheral vision.

The point we're emphasizing here is that certain circumstances demand attention

It will come as no surprise that one reliable way of making people care is by invoking self-interest.

Stay alert to the promise that moments hold. These moments do not need to be "produced.

Kahneman says that we are quick to jump to conclusions because we give too much weight to the information that's right in front of us, while failing to consider the information that's just offstage.

tangibility, rather than the magnitude, of the benefits that makes people care.

It's clear that we imitate the behaviors of others, whether consciously or not. We are especially keen to see what they're doing when the situation is unfamiliar or ambiguous. And change situations are, by definition, unfamiliar! So if you want to change things, you have to pay close attention to social signals, because they can either guarantee a change effort or doom it.

The lack of attention paid to an employee's first day is mind-boggling. What a wasted opportunity to make a new team member feel included and appreciated. Imagine if you treated a first date like a new employee: "I've got some meetings stacked up right now, so why don't you get settled in the passenger seat of the car and I'll swing back in a few hours?

There's no such thing as a passive audience.

Common sense is the enemy of sticky messages, if I already "get" what you're trying to tell me, why should I be obsessed about remembering it.

Chip Heath and Dan Heath

The most basic way to get someone's attention is this: Break a pattern.

The first problem of communication is getting people's attention.

To get someone's attention break a pattern of thinking.

I found the only time I had to shut down—to become mindful of nothing more than the present moment—was whenever I was peeing.

fashion wasn't as important to me as to Urmila. There would be time enough to wear my mother's saris. And in any case Ram's eyes were on me all the time, too.

diligent focus on the task at hand.

Haven't you seen how many of them come to the palace each week, just to see us wave to them from the public balcony?

When you relate to thoughts obsessively, you are actually feeding them because thoughts need your attention to survive. Once you begin to pay attention to them and categorize them, then they become very powerful. You are feeding them energy because you are not seeing them as simple phenomena. If one tries to quiet them down, that is another way of feeding them.

My good sir, is she your daughter then?' 'Yes, but don't pay any attention to what she says,' said the lord. 'She's a child - a silly, foolish thing.' 'Indeed,' said my lord Gawain, 'then I'd be very ill-mannered not to do what she wants.

I think a book that is over 400 pages should be split in two. I don't know that there's anything that interesting that can go on for 700 pages. I think that is a little bit indulgent.