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Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn Audiobook
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(3.03) - 354 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
When Cathy Davidson and Duke University gave free iPods to every member of the incoming freshman class in 2003, they didn’t expect the uproar that followed. Critics called it a waste: what educational value could a music player have for college kids? Yet by the end of the year, Duke students had found academic uses for the new devices in virtually every discipline. The iPod experiment proved to be a classic example of the power of disruption—a way of refocusing attention to illuminate unseen possibilities.
Using cutting-edge research on the brain, Davidson shows how the phenomenon of “attention blindness” shapes our lives, and how it has led to one of the greatest problems of our historical moment: although we blog, tweet, and text as if by instinct, far too many of us still toil in schools and workplaces designed for the last century, not the one we live in. To change this, we must ask ourselves critical questions: How can we redesign our schools to prepare our kids for the challenges they’ll face as adults? What will the workers and workplaces of the future look like? And how can we learn to adapt to life changes that seem almost too revolutionary to contemplate?
Davidson takes us on a tour of the future of work and education, introducing us to visionaries whose groundbreaking ideas will soon affect us all. Now You See It opens a window onto the possibilities of a world in which the rigid ideas of the twentieth century have been wiped away and replaced with the flowing, collaborative spirit built into the very design of the Internet.
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"Part of the appeal of Now You See It is that Davidson rightfully criticizes current compartmentalized, standardized systems of education and employment that don't accommodate differences in attention or thought processes. And many of her ideas are daring and pleasantly shocking--for instance, she describes a college course she taught, "Your Brain on the Internet," that didn't have a rigid set of outcomes, a class where students were given tools and opportunity to grow in any direction they wanted. But though parts of her book are fascinating and insightful (in the first few pages, she analyzes a Cymbalta ad to demonstrate how it directs viewers' attention away from dangerous side effects), other parts seem like castles built on air. She consistently shows the way the world could be while everything is working right, but she seems to have never experienced life in the trenches. For example, Davidson never considers how a course like "Your Brain on the Internet" would fly on a medium-sized or small campus populated with underachievers or, almost as bad, those who only care about what will get them a good job. Davidson also paints a happy picture of being able to work, to even attend business meetings, from home. Well, sure, cool, you could wear a bathrobe all day long, but any college instructor--especially any college instructor with a family--could tell you about the other edge to this sword. In short, her descriptions of some of the problems are spot-on: education and employment are unreasonably compartmentalized. I wish I could similarly agree with her solutions."
— Pamela (4 out of 5 stars)
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“The author takes us on a journey through contemporary classrooms and offices to describe how they are changing—or, according to her, should change…Now You See It is filled with instructive anecdotes and genuine insights.”
— Wall Street Journal -
“Now You See It celebrates the brain as a lean, mean, adaptive multitasking machine that—with proper care and feeding—can do much more than our hidebound institutions demand of it…Davidson is such a good storyteller, and her characters are well drawn.”
— New York Times
Now You See It Listener Reviews
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" This book made me think (in the most fun ways). It helped me to pay attention to some of the ways in which I and others around me really work and play and think. Her examples are fun ones for me to play with as I think about my life, home, work and community and ways to continue to learn in interaction with all these. The idea of inattentional blindness I find very helpful to describing the challenges of our current society and world. "
— Michael, 1/17/2014 -
" Very interesting. Makes us retnk how we pay attention and multitasking. "
— Deb, 1/6/2014 -
" At some points in the book it can get fairly boring, which makes you skim the next few pages, but overall its interesting and shows how technology can be used to make learning easier and better for people. "
— Miguel, 1/4/2014 -
" The concepts were fascinating, but the writing style felt dry. It definitely felt like a research paper. I really enjoyed reading about the concepts. "
— Tony, 11/17/2013 -
" This book was long, unfocused, not esp. interesting.. Meh. "
— Eva, 10/22/2013 -
" There was not much about brain theory, and the section about a school where the students build bridges out of toothpicks was very weak. However, points about crowd sourcing were good and the importance of difference when problem solving. More for the general public. "
— Nancy, 10/9/2013 -
" Interesting but no tangible modern solution to the problem written about. "
— Cheryl, 8/31/2013 -
" Great discussion of our existing system of education and how it is well suited to an Industrial Age which is long gone. "
— Maryanne, 8/8/2013 -
" At first I was in love with this book... but then the scope expanded to be so broad that it was hard to follow. Still, a lot of interesting case studies and points made. "
— Laura, 8/5/2013 -
" Cathy gives us lots to think about, but what I most appreciated was her optimism about the future and future generations. So glad to read a book about technology that is not forecasting the end of our world, but rather suggesting ways technology will change -- but not perfect -- our lives. "
— Sassy, 6/29/2013 -
" This was an amazing book! As a teacher, I took so much out of it. As a parent of a highly distractable young boy, I found it reassuring. "
— Kelly, 3/12/2013 -
" Spent most of the last part of the book wondering how any of it relates to "Attention Science," of which there is very very little. Davidson is interesting as an educator, but this is a mess of tangentially-related uncritically optimistic blind alleys. "
— Matt, 2/11/2013 -
" I finished this book two days ago and I don't remember what the main point of it was. Ha? Sort of a jumble of anecdotes and arm-waving about how Everything Is Different Now, *Internet*. "
— Kevin, 1/23/2013 -
" Fantastic ideas in this book. The writing could have been more engaging, but I was inspired reading this. "
— Rachel, 11/15/2012 -
" Engaging and provocative, this book shows that the extremes in the current discourse about the internet and the brain are indeed extremes. The reality is firmly in the middle. I will revisit this book again and again. "
— Cyrus, 10/14/2012 -
" Important read for people interested in knowing more about why and how learning is changing. "
— Larry, 6/19/2012 -
" Full of really interesting facts and ideas. The only reason I couldn't rate it higher is because the author Cathy Davidson seems to have started with an idea of how the world 'should be' and cherry picked examples to fit the view. "
— Charles, 5/2/2012 -
" At first I was in love with this book... but then the scope expanded to be so broad that it was hard to follow. Still, a lot of interesting case studies and points made. "
— Laura, 10/27/2011 -
" The book had a lot of interesting thoughts. I agree with the need to change the workplace, as well as our educational system to match the 21st century. One favorite thought from the book: Iphone =Brain. What we do with it shapes it. <br/> "
— MaryAnn, 10/6/2011 -
" Saw her speak at Chicago's Harold Washington library 10/4/11. "
— Julie, 10/5/2011 -
" Haven't finished reading it....really enjoying it. "
— Cindy, 8/27/2011
About Cathy N. Davidson
Cathy N. Davidson is distinguished professor and director of the Futures Initiative at the Graduate Center, the City University of New York. She writes for the Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, and Fast Company, among other publications. She has published over twenty books on technology, education, and the history of reading,writing, and printing.
About Laural Merlington
Laural Merlington is an audiobook narrator with over two hundred titles to her credit and a winner of multiple Earphones Awards. An Audie Award nominee, she has also directed over one hundred audiobooks. She has performed and directed for thirty years in theaters throughout the country. In addition to her extensive theater and voice-over work, she teaches college in her home state of Michigan.