I couldn't focus on a book called Focus - this is how I handled it
In which we probe the reasons for lack of focus with regards to reading a particular book and suggest that the reader might not be entirely at fault
For the past several years I’ve been feeling guilty about not being able to muster the attention (and will) to finish reading a book called Focus. Theoretically it should be the brain’s equivalent of eating fruits and vegetables as a part of a healthy diet: an obvious choice to strengthen my attention and my brain. I am normally compelled to improve myself, at least my brain and my thinking, and my failure to finish this book, despite several attempts, doesn’t sit well with me. So I decided to dig into this a little more and see if this is a sign that maybe I do need some help focusing.
The full title of Daniel Goleman’s book is Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence (2013), which immediately gives one the sense that this is a book worth reading. Daniel Goleman is an American psychologist who has written at least a dozen books. He is credited with developing and popularizing the concept of emotional intelligence, leading to the current wisdom that there are multiple types of intelligence, not just the knowledge and skills tested on standard IQ (Intelligence Quota) tests. Emotional intelligence has been described as:
the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage, and handle emotions
Therefore, the idea of focusing your attention should have some overlap with Goleman’s knowledge and experience. The main text of the book is 258 pages, which is quite reasonable.
I have not made it past page 38.
I tried several times but I just could not make it through. Mind you, I have been struggling to read books for more than 15 minutes at a time since March 2020, roughly when COVID-19 started occupying most of our attention. This book is a nut I haven’t been able to crack and I guess I can’t discount external factors.
Recently I decided to take a different approach towards this paper Moby Dick to see if I could finally capture this literary whale. I started looking for reviews or other writing about Focus just to see if I need to be tested for ADHD - can’t be too careful in this age of fractured and strained attention. I wanted to get a better handle on whether or not this book was actually worth reading. So, at the risk of feeding any latent confirmation bias, I went searching.
Book reviews, Amazon in particular, can be gamed, with people creating positive reviews to support the author’s book without critically reading the book. Likewise, negative reviews could be made to trash the author and their book. Same principles apply to book reviews published in magazines, blogs, etc.: you get bias, favoritism, vendettas and otherwise people wanting to trash the author. For all of these reasons, I think it’s best to get a wide variety of reviews and opinions.
Amazon.com’s average rating is 4.3 out of 5 for this book; Goodreads has a 3.55 of 5 rating. You can find a number of positive reviews in other sources. So far, good enough.
The more negative reviews are interesting and three in particular stood out:
Nicholas Carr writes:
Trained as a psychologist, Goleman knows his way around a brain. His earlier works on emotional intelligence popularized the notion that being smart involves more than acing the SAT. One reads “Focus” with the hope that it will perform a similar function for open awareness and other forms of attentiveness now under siege. But the book suffers from an attention disorder of its own. Its brief chapters jump from topic to topic, the links between them growing ever more tenuous. We get discursive lessons on ethics and empathy, systems theory and skill building, even climate change and business strategy. “Focus” lacks focus.
Fittingly enough, Carr is the author of The Shallows, a book whose key argument is that the Internet and the rise in screen time is damaging our collective ability to concentrate. Interesting.
“Focus” has real moments of insight, strong pages on interesting research and its potential applications. Unfortunately, in trying to be all things to all readers, Goleman’s book fails to consistently sustain and repay our attention.
Roth is the President of Wesleyan University and although he’s no stranger to controversy, I have to believe that a PhD has to have some ability to focus and knows a thing or two about it.
The most popular critical review on Amazon.com has this to say:
Three negative reviews are not solid proof that this book might be a turd and maybe these guys have personal beefs with the author, but nonetheless… maybe this book isn’t actually that great after all, if the book itself lacks… focus? And if I’m already struggling, do I want to devote 4+ hours of my life to an uphill slog?
Not really. And so I might have some misplaced anxiety.
Then I discovered something that might be just what I needed. Goleman published an article in the Harvard Business Review the same year that Focus came out. I printed it out, it’s 17 pages, and it’s essentially a summary of the information in Focus.
I can handle 17 pages. And if the reviews above are accurate, 17 pages might be more than enough and maybe I was trying to slog through something not worth my time. Sorted. And, really, I know how to focus when I need to, otherwise I couldn’t keep my job.
All of this makes me think about how we decide what to read. I bought this book on a whim. The title looked interesting and hey, most of us can stand to improve our ability to pay detailed attention to individual things, so I was OK with spending $21.00 CAD plus HST. Subconsciously I was expecting tips on how to focus better.
Instead, the book is intended for a C-suite individual who wants to be better at conquering their corner of the business world, putting “focus” in their toolbox, so you get a cursory look at how focus applies in multiple ways, how we all should be learning meditation and mindfulness, etc. This is not a how to book and I think that’s what I was really looking for.
Don’t get me wrong. Serendipity is a wonderful thing and over the years I’ve discovered a number of books by accident that I found wonderful.
(Sometime I’ll write about one of them, a book called Advantage Play. It was heavily discounted, though.)
But after this experience, I’m going to think twice about ever paying full price for a book that I know nothing about. And I’m not going to beat myself up if I can’t finish a book, particularly if it’s not worth the effort.