Focus: The Vanishing Superpower

The most common trait shared by many of the most successful people in history is becoming increasingly rare in the next generation.

Herbert Simon, Nobel laureate and one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century, captured this idea in 1970:

“In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious. It consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

Simon’s insight is more relevant today than ever. More information does not make us wiser. It simply creates more demands on our attention.

The Cost of Constant Switching

Psychologist Gloria Mark has spent decades studying how people work.

In the early 2000s, the average office worker switched tasks every three minutes.

A decade later, it was every 90 seconds.

By 2022, the average had fallen to just 45 seconds.

True multitasking is a myth. Every time we switch tasks, a portion of our attention remains stuck on the previous activity. This “attention residue” reduces performance, increases stress, and leaves us mentally exhausted by the end of the day.

The more we switch, the less we accomplish.

Buffett and Munger: Masters of Focus

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger built extraordinary fortunes not by being busy, but by being focused.

Both were famous for keeping their calendars largely free.

What did they focus on?

Reading.

Buffett once said:

“I read and read and read. I probably read five to six hours a day.”

He consumed newspapers, annual reports, biographies, and company filings.

Charlie Munger echoed the same habit:

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all the time. None. Zero.”

Munger’s children joked that he was “a book with a couple of legs sticking out.”

Patience Multiplies the Value of Reading

Munger shared a remarkable story:

For 50 years, he read Barron’s every week.

In all that time, he found just one investment opportunity.

That single idea generated around $80 million, which later compounded into hundreds of millions more.

Fifty years of reading. One exceptional insight.

That is the power of focused attention combined with patience.

Reading Is Thinking

Reading is not just consuming information.

It is a conversation with some of the best minds that have ever lived.

When you read deeply, you sharpen your judgment, expand your mental models, and improve your ability to make decisions.

Focus enables reading.

Reading strengthens thinking.

Thinking improves life.

The Attention Crisis

Today, both focus and reading are declining across all age groups.

Phones compete for every spare second.

Algorithms are designed to capture and monetize attention.

The result is a generation surrounded by information but starved of concentration.

A Simple Reset

If you want to reclaim your focus:

• Keep your phone outside the bedroom.

• Schedule uninterrupted blocks of deep work.

• Read books instead of scrolling.

• Spend time in the real world.

• Protect your attention as if it were your most valuable asset.

Because it is.

Final Thought

Your life is the sum of what you pay attention to.

Those who can direct their attention deliberately will have an enormous advantage in a distracted world.

Focus is becoming rare. That makes it more valuable than ever.