Chris Lewis, founder of a London-based marketing consultancy, is not the first to say the digital revolution is bad for the brain. In 2011 psychologist Daniel Kahneman examined the issue in Thinking, Fast and Slow, and before that, the French Enlightenment thinker Voltaire observed, “Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast.” Matters have only worsened in the intervening years (or centuries).
Related: Think Slow and Other Tricks for Better Problem-Solving
Creativity is Lewis’s focus. Tapping research from University of the Arts London and interviews with businesspeople, academics, psychologists and artists, Lewis says creativity cannot flourish in a relentless torrent of social media, streaming video and email. The mind needs sustained periods of uninterrupted digital quiet for creative ideas to form and develop. He’s a bit unfair to the younger generation—he says millennials lack creativity—but otherwise this is a worthwhile book.
Too Fast to Think
By Chris Lewis
October; Kogan Page; $20
This article originally appeared in the November 2016 issue of SUCCESS magazine.
