Roots of the Attention Crisis in Early Modern Era

A historian of science from All Souls College at Oxford recently reached out to me. He shared an essay he authored about Nicolaus Steno, a prominent seventeenth-century anatomist and geologist who eventually became a Catholic Bishop. Steno's scholarly education took place during an era grappling wi

A historian of science from All Souls College at Oxford recently reached out to me. He shared an essay he authored about Nicolaus Steno, a prominent seventeenth-century anatomist and geologist who eventually became a Catholic Bishop.

Steno's scholarly education took place during an era grappling with a fresh challenge: an overwhelming abundance of information. The essay captures this dynamic in vivid terms:

Books emerged as a primary source of distraction during the early modern period—a time we might now view with a touch of envy. Starting from the 1500s, the invention of the printing press combined with the humanist resurgence of classical philosophies led to an unprecedented surge in accessible knowledge.

This influx posed critical dilemmas for emerging intellectuals, such as: How can we select the most worthwhile readings? For how long should we engage with each one? Is it necessary to extract notes from every chapter?

One key response involved the creation of innovative note-taking methods, like transcribing key passages into a central repository known as a commonplace book. This technique, while fascinating, represented just one piece of the puzzle.

Yet, as the essay on Steno points out, enhanced note-taking alone could not overcome the sheer volume of high-quality books flooding the market. To tackle this, Steno devised more sophisticated approaches to managing his attention while studying at university in the 1650s:

He trained himself to concentrate on particular subjects instead of flitting rapidly between various materials. As he noted, one should steer clear of 'harmful hastening.' His approach was straightforward: 'stick to one topic.'

Practically speaking, this involved reserving dedicated time slots for the most challenging work. In his personal journal, he declared, 'before noon nothing must be done except medical things.' He confided to a friend that he dedicated 'almost all the morning hours' to studying the writings of the Church Fathers and ancient biblical texts housed in the Medici library.

Essentially, Steno pioneered a system that integrated principles we recognize today as slow productivity, deep work, and time blocking—strategies for achieving high-quality output without succumbing to distraction or burnout.

AI Reality Check

About two weeks back, Citrini Research, a boutique financial services company, released an essay outlining a dire prediction: AI agents would soon obliterate the white-collar job sector. This provocative piece spread rapidly online and even contributed to a slight dip in the S&P 500 the following day.

The Citrini publication was far from the first to advance such a narrative. Over the past few weeks, several mainstream outlets have run articles and opinion pieces echoing these fears, amplifying concerns about an imminent economic upheaval driven by artificial intelligence.

However, the essay's influence on stock prices appears to have prompted a strong rebuttal from established economists, who last week began debunking these speculative tales. One standout response came from a Deutsche Bank analyst, who cleverly described the Citrini article's 'vibes-to-substance ratio' as excessively high—a phrase that resonated widely.

For those seeking to calm worries about AI triggering widespread economic disruption, I recommend a thorough counter-analysis from an expert in the Global Macro Strategies group at Citadel. It opens with a sharp, finance-savvy jab:

While the macroeconomic field often falters in predicting even short-term payroll figures with confidence, it seems the trajectory of job losses can be confidently deduced from a speculative Substack post...

From there, the piece methodically dismantles the economic oversimplifications in these alarmist writings, exposing their lack of rigor regarding how AI might actually reshape labor markets. Reading it provided a significant sense of relief and perspective.

The core insights from Steno's story extend far beyond his time. Deep, focused cognition on substantial concepts has long been fundamental to intellectual progress, dating back to the early modern era when printed information first proliferated widely. The strategies forged then—curtailing overload, single-tasking rigorously, and allocating uninterrupted blocks for demanding mental labor—endure as the gold standard for productivity amid distraction. In our current digital age, these timeless methods offer a blueprint for reclaiming attention and fostering genuine accomplishment.