Brian Johnson summarizes Jonathan Haidt's work on how smartphones parasitically displace sleep, focused attention, and quality social interactions, using the cuckoo bird as a metaphor. The episode asks you to notice what your phone is pushing out of your life and to protect what you want to flourish.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic one. In our last one, I interrupted my AM meditation so we could all talk about the smoke in the room. I shared a research study Jonathan Haidt shares in his great and sobering book, the Anxious Generation. I didn't mention the fact that I read three of Jonathan's books in a single week. I started with the Coddling of the American Mind, all about how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure. Then I read the Righteous Mind, all about why good people are divided by politics and religion. Then I wrapped up my tour through the last decade of his writing with the Anxious Mind, which is all about how the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. It was a nearly 1000 pages of perspective building wisdom filled week now. I already respected John Jonathan after reading his first book called the Happiness Hypothesis and seeing him in the Social Dilemma. And after spending the week with him, he is now one of my absolute favorite thinkers. I deeply admire just how hard he has worked over the last three decades to become one of the world's leading scholars of moral psychology and political psychology. He inspires me to give back in equal measure. And today I want to chat about another idea from the Anxious Mind. It's about cuckoo birds. Let's get to work Now. Did you know that cuckoo birds are parasitic nesters? I didn't either. If you didn't, here's the short story on what cuckoo birds do. A female cuckoo bird will lay its egg in another bird's nest. Then it will often kick an egg that was already in there out so the other mom doesn't notice. The cuckoo bird tends to hatch faster than the other birds in the nest, and it will kick some other eggs out and eat all the food the new mom brings. Jonathan uses that cuckoo bird's cuckoo behavior to describe how smartphones are pushing out a ton of things from our lives. We'll talk more about those things in the next +1. For now, the next time you pick up your smartphone today, imagine a cuckoo bird just landed in your hand. What is it trying to push out? Is it reducing the quality of your social interactions, whether that's with your kids or your spouse or your colleagues? Is it pushing out the sleep you need to feel super energized? Is it fragmenting your attention so you can't focus on anything with sustained concentration the way you want? Pay attention. Remember the cuckoo bird and make sure you're feeding the parts of your life you want to see flourish.
Today, what's up. This is Michael, President and Head Coach at Heroic. One quick note before we go. I just think it's so amazing that Brian keeps reading all these books and distilling them into more wisdom and less time. By the way, thank you Brian for continuing to read the books distill them for us. I love not having to read the book, just getting them more wisdom and less time to the plus ones of Philosopher's Notes. And if you're into this kind of thing, expressing the best version of yourself and using your greatest gifts make a positive impact on the world. Make sure you head to Heroic Us to check out all the other resources that we have available to you. You can download a bunch of free goodies including Philosopher's Notes masterclasses in our scientifically proven Heroic app. You can also explore advanced resources to help you go next level, including live and virtual workshops, working one on one with a Heroic Performance coach, or even becoming a certified coach yourself as you master Heroic performance, the fundamentals of Coaching Excellence and Heroic Coaching prosperity. Again, head to Heroic Us to get the ancient wisdom, modern science and practical tools you need to activate your potential and change the world together. And please do hit subscribe, Appreciate you, have a fantastic day and see you again soon.
