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I was expecting Stolen Focus to predominantly focus on digital focus, and the negative impacts big tech companies have on our attention. That’s definitely a good portion of this book, which was incredibly insightful, but there are many more concepts tied to focus I had never considered which were equally amazing to learn about.

Diet, environment, social factors, economy, politics, and more. Stolen Focus ties relations between the focus crisis to the climate crisis, the obesity crisis, the mental health crisis, and much more. These are all interlinked problems which feed on each other in disastrous ways.

This book is not a “how to reclaim your focus” guide, it’s rather a thorough investigation into how and why focus is so important, and what has happened to it. It gives you the context and understanding required to not just fight back personally, but socially.

Writing-wise, I was thoroughly impressed with the structure of the book. I was consistently captured by the book (ironically) as the author had a great balance of personal anecdotes, storytelling, interviews with dozens of experts, scientific research, and more. I felt the balance of facts, evidence, and story were perfect.

Great read, a must read if we are to reclaim some sanity in this insane world.

I went in with high expectations for this book. Running has been a massive part of my life since I was 8 years old, and getting to hear new perspectives on running was all I was expecting from this book.

Unfortunately, this book reads like a mid-level runner giving us a stream of consciousness about running; some of what’s shared being accurate, and some not. He shares many theories as to why and how certain things work - mainly based on hunches. Some hunches are correct, and some not.

I’m going to choose to ignore the frustrating number of hunches the author utilizes in place of science, and instead focus on the philosophy and emotional aspects of this book. (Which are the only somewhat redeeming parts of it)

Even in this realm, I really struggled to connect with the author with the exception of a few pages. A huge part of his passion for running seems to stem from pushing his body to extreme (arguably unhealthy) limits. This is not at all how I see running. I see running as a beautiful art form, one that can be relaxed. Simple. Effortless. Smooth. And healthy.

When I run, it’s about tranquility, connecting with myself, and connecting with my environment. The author ties running to the concept of a “void” almost as if he sees it as an avoidance coping mechanism. Perhaps I read too deeply between the lines, but I just didn’t find the author’s relationship with running to be one that I share. I’m happy he loves running and it provides him this value, but it’s just not something I can relate to.

The author also seems incredibly judgemental, particularly when it comes to the “fast girls” he sees near the college campus, college athletes who are running faster than him. He has the nerve to imply they are inexperienced long distance athletes, and they probably are unable of slowing down and running as far as he can.

What?

How does he know that? And why does it matter? It’s just such a weird thing to include in this book. Not only is he comparing himself to a different sex, but his assumptions regarding their physical fitness and training are likely strongly incorrect.

I have a few more minor complaints with this book, but to summarize my issues so I can move on with my life: - I didn’t connect with the author - I felt the author was spreading a lot of misinformation regarding technical details of training - I wasn’t a huge fan of the author’s outlook on running - I wasn’t a huge fan of the author’s outlook on the world - I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style - I felt the book provided almost no value to myself. It’s a memoir, and a memoir about someone I’m just not really that interested in - neither their personality nor their running 🤷

I’m sure some people out there would love this book, but I’m sorry - it was a painful one for me.

I don’t know where to start this review, though a bit of context is necessary:

I’ve never been a spiritual person, so I was expecting this book to challenge my perception of things. I also wasn’t planning on finding much value from it, my exceptions were fairly low. Well that was all wrong.

While some parts of this book are still difficult for me to wrap my head around, I can officially say this book is formally my first real experience with exploring my spiritual side.

I’ve always been a “recognize the issue” then “fix the issue” kind of person. Extremely logical, accepting all my life experiences as the reality. If these life experiences deviated from my internal concept of reality, then I need to go through some emotional stress to re-integrate what I learned from the event into my new reality.

It’s not a terrible strategy, and it’s been fairly successful for me. However, this book has introduced entirely new concepts that flip all of my strategies on their head. Rather than engaging with these stressors in the first place, why not just welcome them in? Why not just step back and watch them unfold without allowing them to impact my happiness and reflect who I am? Why not treat events as just events and not as anything more than that? Why would I tie my happiness and well-being to things outside of my control? Why would I pretend like I have any sense of control over the world?

These are all questions this book forced me to ask, and countless more. Some other incredibly important topics this book covers are: - consciousness, and how to recognize it inside you - who “you” are - how to deal with our inner voices - different ways of thinking about death - a whole new way of looking at the world, where you accept all outcomes

I really can’t condense everything this book has taught into a single review. All I can speak to is I feel this has triggered an entirely new journey for my life, where I’m going to learn a lot more about not just myself and who I am, but gain deep understanding about the world.

Context: I'm big into exercise, an almost daily runner getting in 50-60 miles a week during the season. With that said, I had a hunch my lifestyle when I finished my runs wasn’t fantastic. So I picked up this book and I’m very glad I did!

Starting with the positives:

1) This book changed my relationship with movement. A bike ride can be exercise or movement. Exercise is forcing yourself on a 30 minute ride to move. Movement is riding your bike to the grocery store. Movement is a byproduct of your lifestyle. Exercise is a byproduct of lack of movement.

This mental shift exposes the toxic modern-day relationship we have with movement. Since we live such sedentary lives, we've invented this concept of 'exercise' to prescribe ourselves 20-60 minute intervals where we try to fit in all the movement we need into a single session. It's the closest thing to a 'movement pill' our hyper-capitalist society can currently formulate.

2) This book changed my relationship with the term: sedentary. We associate sedentary as needing to be sitting or lying down. This is far from the case. The real issue with sedentary lifestyles is the lack of variety in movement. So for people who think a standing desk is fixing their problems, it will still suffer similar issues of lacking movement. We should be in constant motion throughout the day, and any stationary position, sitting or standing, is not healthy for us for long periods of time.

3) This book changed my relationship with comfort. Beds make us comfortable. Pillows. Couches. But this comfort generally comes at the cost of weakening our bodies. They create a vicious negative feedback loop that is found in other areas like orthotics (which likewise, prevent the body from building its own strength to break free from the orthotic that enables the weakness)

4) This book has changed my relationship with exercise. I still love exercise. I will still run. I will still go to the gym. I will still compete. But I will be aware that the rigorous repetition and single dimension of running will not provide me the complete health I desire. While running will give me incredible cardiovascular health and numerous other benefits, it's ultimately still a repetitive motion and needs to be incorporated with proper movement throughout the day.

This book has inspired me to find more ways to move throughout the day that aren’t just running. I'm now working from the ground more, which naturally encourages a lot more movement. I'm walking places, biking to local shops, avoiding the elevator, sitting on the ground, and I'm slowly phasing out a lot of my furniture so I can have a healthier environment at home. This book has triggered a fantastic journey that I'm excited to go on!

The only downside, and why I'm giving this book 4 stars: The 'exercises' felt silly. The entire concept of the book is to avoid prescribed exercise, so the author goes ahead and prescribes 'natural' exercises - whatever that means. The author admits they aren't a fan of this either, and mainly did it to cave to public demand. But when the public demands a toxic relationship with movement, why would you supply it to them, when your book is supposed to break free from that model? A bolder statement would've been to avoid all exercise prescriptions. However, even if someone finds value in exercise prescriptions, I found the descriptions to be useless for around half of them and I couldn't even figure out how to do them. So this was a big fail on all accounts IMO.

Overall: 4 stars. Really changed the game for me, but could've done without the exercises.

Context on why I was sent this epub from my friend in the first place:

I was perplexed over people’s obsession with the most bizarre nonsense. Astrology, crystal healing, modern witchcraft, and many more things I see all too often. My friend suggested this book and sent me over an epub as they felt it’d give nice context around the phenomenon.

Well, I have a much deeper understanding of the issue after reading this book. Sagan deeply loves science and has made me view science in a completely new light, it’s truly inspirational. I’m doing so, he covers pseudoscience and the many wonders of why we believe in things we believe in. Little did I know my questions of why people believe crystals cure cancer has a lot to do with our belief in witches (leading to thousands of burned women at the stake just a few centuries ago) and even things like modern aliens abductions (which have almost no strong evidence to back them up)

Sagan deep-dives into science, morality, how to develop a BS detector, how to think critically, the state of the world and where it may lead, and much more.

As someone who loves science and applies many of its philosophies across my life, it was a wonderful read that opened my eyes to the devolution of our ability to appreciate the beauty of science and critical thinking - instead favoring our crystals and astrology symbols.

Amazing book, that has made me all the more critical of where the world is headed.

Let me start with the good.

I found this book to offer fresh insight on what it means to run, as well as actionable tips to shift the mental and spiritual state of most people’s running to a more favorable one. Especially in westernized running, people run for results and outcomes - but that’s not really what running is about. You can chase results and outcomes from any activity or sport; what separates running is the act itself, the magical feeling of gliding through the air and immersing yourself into a mystical world untraveled by most.

I actually read this book in high school, and while it did help me understand the importance of visualization, I feel the core message of this book was lost on me - being a less experienced runner. Reading this years later, I now understand what this book is trying to convey and teach.

So the bad? I feel this book doesn’t do a great job of truly selling itself to the less experienced runner. If someone just started running in a couch to 5k program, I have a hard time believing they’ll get much enjoyment out of this book. No mater how hard they visualize and tell themselves the importance of relaxation - they are probably struggling to just run a mile. I feel this book is targeted towards more advanced runners who already have an established relationship with the sport.

My other complaint is I feel much of the visualization/affirmation protocols can feel a bit loosey-goosey. In one section, I am told to visualize feeling smooth and gliding through the race to cross the finish line effortlessly. In another, I am told to picture myself fatigued but still being able to stay relaxed and work through the discomfort when finishing my race. The book clearly explains the benefit to each of these exercises, but how would each of these exercises fit into a broader approach? Are these done on different days? Am I supposed to do each of them in the same session? Do I only do the fatigued exercise when I feel I need to “improve” how I handle fatigue?

I feel that this book offers many different tools, but not much actionable structure around them, leaving it up to the runner to experiment and find what works for them. This isn’t inherently a bad thing, though I know many people would prefer a more structured approach towards all of this.

In summary, it’s not perfect - but for the moderate to advanced runners who want fresh perspectives on what it means to run and how to better their relationship with the mental and spiritual sides of running…it’s a good (and short) read.

It was a nice refresher read, with occasional bits of wisdom that were useful. With that said, not much in this book was very new information to me, as my own training seems to closely align with much of the book already.

Additionally, some recommendations aren’t really grounded in real science - like him recommending to land on your heels, especially on downhills? (What?!) And most importantly the 180spm figure which is a bizarre recommendation, given it’s based on the step count of elites mid-race. Why does the step count of elites mid-race being an average of 180spm mean anything to a novice runner on an easy day?

First, it’s an average. So there is natural variance amongst athletes. Second, we know SPM increases as pace increases - so a race environment isn’t representative of any running pace aside from the pace of the athletes running in that specific race.

These assumptions are made in a few other spots in the book.

With this all said, the lens I’m reading this book from is from an advanced athlete’s POV, if I was new to running this would probably be a much more useful read.

The emotions while I read this book were bouncing around the room.

One chapter has me yelling in agreement with Thoreau on his pro-animal stances toward hunting and dieting. The next on minimalism - inspiring me to gather more things I no longer need to donate. The next makes me put the book down to be high on nature. The next makes me rethink civil obedience and give up all I’m doing to commit to being my truest self with no external influences.

No review I am able to give can properly outline how impactful this book has been on the way I see the world. The philosophies are still ever true today, and Thoreau’s definition of “dull man” still appears to be the overwhelming majority of society today - all busy slaving away for the objects and powers that only serve to trap and control them.

Excellent read, all should read.

Warning: Definitely on the more difficult side. Though not unattainable.