How to Flourish in an Age of Distraction - RSA

How to Flourish in an Age of Distraction

Public talks

 - 

Great Room Auditorium, RSA House

With ever-increasing demands on our attention, how do we focus on what's really important in our lives?

Matthew Crawford, acclaimed author of The Case for Working with Your Hands, argues that our current crisis of attention, dissatisfaction with ourselves and alienation from other people, is the result of long-held assumptions in Western culture that are profoundly at odds with human nature. 

In order to flourish, we need to establish meaningful connections with the world, the people around us and the historical moment we live in.  

What is needed is an ‘ethics of attention for our time’, grounded in a realistic account of the mind and a critical gaze at modern culture.

 

 

Related events

  • Counting the cost of bowling alone

    RSA House and YouTube

    In his annual RSA Chief Executive's Lecture, Andy Haldane examines the profound socio-economic consequences of eroding social capital, a theme famously explored by Harvard political scientist Bob Putnam in Bowling Alone.

  • How optimists change the world

    RSA House and YouTube

    Sumit Paul-Choudhury, former editor-in-chief of New Scientist, visits the RSA to make a vital and transformative new argument: that optimism is not only the natural state of humanity, but an essential one.

  • The cost of workplace ageism

    RSA House and online

    How can tackling workplace ageism boost our economy? Our expert panel will explore how addressing ageism in the workplace could boost the UK’s economy by £9 billion annually - an essential move for the country's future prosperity.