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The Attention Bottleneck

Despite living in an information-rich world, our attention operates at just 10 bits per second—a staggering limitation revealed by Cal Tech researchers. While our peripheral nervous system captures vast sensory data, like standing at Hoover Dam with a straw, only a tiny fraction reaches conscious awareness. This explains why our attention shifts from driving conversations to sudden road hazards, or why we involuntarily tune into English conversations in noisy cafés. Though technology floods us with endless information streams, our attention processing remains locked at this prehistoric pace. Rather than fighting this attention bottleneck, we should design our digital tools and environments around what human minds can actually handle.


 
 
 

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