Kevin Kelly Quotes

It comes down to a question of attention: it's difficult to use the Net distractedly, unlike the television or the radio.

[…] a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.

With all the abundance we have of computers and computing, what is scarce is human attention and time.

Multitasking divides your attention and leads to confusion and weakened focus.

What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.

What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients.

I feel like my competition is everything else that's competing for people's attention, not just other print magazines, newspapers and cable. It's your kid's report card and the games you want to play, all the things that compete for people's time.

While you're writing, you can't concentrate nearly as well on what the speaker is saying.

It's hard to watch something go on and be talking at the same time.

There's no such thing as multitasking.

I am aware, as everybody has to be, that there's more competition for one's attention nowadays.

We used to think that you could pay attention to five to nine things at a time. We now know that's not true. That's a crazy overestimate. The conscious mind can attend to about three things at once. Trying to juggle any more than that, and you're going to lose some brainpower.

You wouldn't read 'Anna Karenina' and try to work on the computer at the same time, would you?

The average human attention span was 12 seconds in 2000 and 8 seconds in 2013. A drop of 33%. The scary part is that the attention span of a goldfish was 9 seconds, almost 13% more than us humans. That's why it's getting tougher by the day to get people to turn the page. Maybe we writers ought to try writing for goldfish!

I'll read anything. In fact, I'll read while I'm doing other things, which is not a good idea.

I find that I can't work and listen to radio - either I find I don't like it and it distracts me, or I do like it and I want to listen to it.

Still, I tune out the visual input when it is too distracting, mainly in conversations.

My concentration span is truly that of a gnat. Some people have this ladder, and that's all there is - the ladder. I have the ladder, too, but there's a building around it with scaffolding, and lots of windows for me to peek into. Then suddenly I'll remember, 'Oh, there's the ladder. I should be concentrating on that.'

Task switching is hard because we do not control what is on our mind. Despite our efforts, the original task continues to occupy our mental bandwidth. Although we can control where our time goes, we cannot fully control how our bandwidth is allocated.

These days you're not just competing with the tedium, you're competing with the cellphone.

I think we have the attention span of a gnat. You know, with cell phones and Twitter.

Experts say you can't concentrate on more than one task at a time.

No more than a surgeon can operate while tweeting can you reach your potential with one ear in, one ear out. You actually have to reacquaint yourself with concentration. We all do.

You can't be aware of everything. You'd fall down the stairs if you were aware of every intricate thing involved in going down stairs.

Multi-tasking arises out of distraction itself.