thank you all for being here today I
want to take you back with me to a foggy
morning on highway 1 in California a few
years ago a windy dangerous road that
morning I almost died and almost killed
four innocent people
I was texting while driving so this was
an important conversation a deal
announcement I was an important vice
president an executive at a tech company
I knew what I was doing was wrong and
stupid
I actually remember thinking this isn’t
too smart but I couldn’t stop I was
texting back and forth with colleagues
really only doing this on the
straightaways and looking up on the
curves crazy stupid dangerous right
before I was about to hit Send a primal
alarm bell went off in my brain I looked
up and saw four cyclists three men and a
woman the road was high above the
Pacific Ocean rocky cliffs far below I
was about paint them I slammed on the
brakes and screeched to a halt just in
time if I had hit them they would have
died and my life would have been forever
pulled off to the side of the road
I thought about my family and my
children and then I thought how
unbelievably selfish what if those
cyclists had family and children and
friends and what was so important about
my conversation that it was worth
killing someone over why was I an
otherwise highly functioning capable
person unable to stop doing something so
obviously stupid and dangerous so the
truth is I’m not alone roughly 80% of
all drivers pick up and touch their
smartphones according to one of the most
comprehensive studies to date and by
some estimates one-third of all drivers
text or send messages while driving this
is really the tip of the iceberg so
today’s talk is about what I call
distracted living and how to fix it and
how that morning on highway 1 led me to
a deep self-evaluation of how technology
was hacking away at our happiness from
texting while driving to Facebook
YouTube Instagram tinder and fortnight
how many of you have children who play
fortnight or kids so you probably know
what I’m talking about technology is
eroding our control and our happiness so
how many of you have also had a
wonderful face to face conversation
interrupted by a text or a call or
someone just looking down at their phone
and then you knew that that person was
no longer there with you how many of you
have planned to go to the gym or go for
a hike and you look down and realize oh
I don’t have any more time I can’t go
because you spent the last 30 minutes
mindlessly scrolling Facebook or
Instagram
or responding to random slacks or emails
from work how did this make you feel or
found yourself awake at 3:00 in the
morning reading news articles maybe
about politics that you won’t even
remember the next day how did this make
you feel
did you ask yourself that question or
have you been on a playground and seen a
child screaming mommy daddy look at my
tricks and the parents are buried in
their screens how did this make you feel
I’ve seen this and it made me feel very
sad at work at play at home with our
families and with our friends how does
technology make us feel I believe we can
strike a healthier happier balance a
life where we use technology on our own
terms
where technology makes us happier not
sadder and more distracted so how we’ll
use technology not only impacts the way
we feel but it also directly impacts our
minds in our bodies and ways we may not
even understand or think about so I
don’t know about all of you but I used
to be able to read books and type right
for 3-4 hours at a stretch I can’t
anymore why because my brain has
actually changed my focus muscles have
atrophied and with that atrophy I have
lost one of the most important
capabilities that humans have the
capacity for deep focused thought which
by the way is absolutely critical for
creative fulfilling work how many of you
who’ve spent an entire day flipping from
one task to the next back and forth and
found at the end of the day you felt
how did you feel annoyed probably and of
course you did because humans are
designed to feel happier when we
complete things not when we flip back
and forth like checking things off on a
list yet modern technology is making it
harder and harder and harder for us to
focus on the one task technology not
only impacts the way our minds work but
it’s directly impacting our bodies in
ways we may not think about so how many
of you here have kids or are kids
so plenty of you I’m sure how many of
you struggle with them spending too much
time playing video games using their
evidence is becoming clearer and clearer
that today’s children are moving less
and less and this is increasing with
each subsequent generation today’s kids
are less likely to go to a playground to
ride a bike or to run and it shows one
large research study found that 30 year
old it’s one large research study found
that 10 year olds today take 90 seconds
longer to run a mile than two
ten-year-olds 30 years ago ponder that
for a second these are children there’s
no reason that this should be happening
and this is bad because to move is to be
human it makes us happy not surprisingly
as well obesity is becoming one of the
most critical health issues for children
and then their sleep or lack of it sleep
is directly lack of sleep is directly
connected to depression and suicide and
doctors are starting to think that lack
of sleep may be related to the rapid
rise and metabolic disorders like
diabetes you could not create a better
device to destroy our sleep than the
smartphone it emits an intense light
that tells our brains time to wake up we
carry it with us everywhere we go we
sleep with it it’s the primary mechanism
now we use to consume video the internet
emails play games and increasingly it
looks like it is impacting our sleep in
one major study American adults roughly
30 percent of American adults get six
hours of sleep or less which is not a
lot of sleep so how can we gain better
control of this how can we start to hack
back our happiness I believe we can
strike a better balance regain control
and hack back our happiness and it
starts with getting back in touch with
our feelings sounds kind of corny and
woowoo
I know but asking a simple question how
do I feel is a great interrupter of bad
tech behavior you see too often our
subconscious minds actually dictate our
actions this is particularly true when
we were in the grips of Technology
barrage by beats by beeps chimes and
alerts and really this is by design
those products were built to grab and
hold as much of our attention as
possible the smartest product designers
in Silicon Valley have long used
sophisticated technological tricks and
neurological tricks
to push our buttons so really this is
all about control who controls our minds
the technology and the companies that
make it or us I believe we can win this
battle by asking that simple question
how does it make us feel
and raising the subconscious to the
conscious here’s a simple exercise you
all can do to help illuminate how much
you’re using technology and what you’re
doing I did it take a notebook in a pen
and for our whole day or maybe a half
day write down everything you do with
technology on your smartphone or your
laptop
it sounds exhausting but also all
sobering and eye-opening most likely you
will discover you’re spending
significantly more time with your
technology and you’re flipping back and
forth far more than you realized now
with this information you can start to
design a better life
you can decide I want to curtail this I
want to eliminate that this makes me
happy and with clear information from
actual observations you can design a
better life with technology now this is
not arbitrary okay some people for
example love Facebook they and it’s good
for them it makes them happy that’s okay
I have a very good friend who uses
Facebook as a support group for gluten
free diets she talks to her friends they
swap recipes this is great but for most
people
excessive consumption of social media or
any technology is bad and this is
particularly true for Facebook and
Instagram because it drives comparisons
comparisons of looks vacations families
comparisons don’t make us happy
and this is why passive consumption of
social media is consistently tied to
diminishment of happiness so how do we
reduce our use of these types of
technologies how do we reduce our use of
Facebook for exam
it’s actually not that hard get facebook
out of your face take it off your phone
shut off the notifications uninstall
messenger inject friction raise the
decision from the subconscious to the
conscious and with this kind of mindset
you can inject or create lots of design
rules for your life that are simple and
easy to follow here are some of mine
no smartphone in the bedroom at night
no smartphone on the dinner table or at
a restaurant no Twitter sessions longer
than 5 minutes no laptops in meetings
and less I’m thinking notes and
definitely definitely no email or social
media first thing in the morning
keep that precious time for your most
important thoughts now we can’t totally
switch off that will be ridiculous try
telling your boss or your family or your
friends
I don’t do email anymore I’m sorry how
many of you want to go back to walking
into a travel agency or a bank to
conduct the transaction I don’t okay but
we can take better control of the
technology we have in front of us
structure a life where we are using it
on the terms that we dictate rather than
the terms that the companies are telling
us and all the alerts and the beeps and
technology is evolving faster and faster
okay and this will continue three years
ago how many of you knew what Alexa was
now we can’t stop talking about her
literally virtual virtual reality is on
the horizon it’s coming very quickly and
that’s total tech immersion but one
we have to continue renegotiating our
relationship with technology but we can
continue to construct the life with
technology that’s productive and happy
and the best way to do that is to keep
asking ourselves the simple question how
do I feel how do I feel
thank you very much [Applause]
want to take you back with me to a foggy
morning on highway 1 in California a few
years ago a windy dangerous road that
morning I almost died and almost killed
four innocent people
I was texting while driving so this was
an important conversation a deal
announcement I was an important vice
president an executive at a tech company
I knew what I was doing was wrong and
stupid
I actually remember thinking this isn’t
too smart but I couldn’t stop I was
texting back and forth with colleagues
really only doing this on the
straightaways and looking up on the
curves crazy stupid dangerous right
before I was about to hit Send a primal
alarm bell went off in my brain I looked
up and saw four cyclists three men and a
woman the road was high above the
Pacific Ocean rocky cliffs far below I
was about paint them I slammed on the
brakes and screeched to a halt just in
time if I had hit them they would have
died and my life would have been forever
pulled off to the side of the road
I thought about my family and my
children and then I thought how
unbelievably selfish what if those
cyclists had family and children and
friends and what was so important about
my conversation that it was worth
killing someone over why was I an
otherwise highly functioning capable
person unable to stop doing something so
obviously stupid and dangerous so the
truth is I’m not alone roughly 80% of
all drivers pick up and touch their
smartphones according to one of the most
comprehensive studies to date and by
some estimates one-third of all drivers
text or send messages while driving this
is really the tip of the iceberg so
today’s talk is about what I call
distracted living and how to fix it and
how that morning on highway 1 led me to
a deep self-evaluation of how technology
was hacking away at our happiness from
texting while driving to Facebook
YouTube Instagram tinder and fortnight
how many of you have children who play
fortnight or kids so you probably know
what I’m talking about technology is
eroding our control and our happiness so
how many of you have also had a
wonderful face to face conversation
interrupted by a text or a call or
someone just looking down at their phone
and then you knew that that person was
no longer there with you how many of you
have planned to go to the gym or go for
a hike and you look down and realize oh
I don’t have any more time I can’t go
because you spent the last 30 minutes
mindlessly scrolling Facebook or
or responding to random slacks or emails
from work how did this make you feel or
found yourself awake at 3:00 in the
morning reading news articles maybe
about politics that you won’t even
remember the next day how did this make
you feel
did you ask yourself that question or
have you been on a playground and seen a
child screaming mommy daddy look at my
tricks and the parents are buried in
their screens how did this make you feel
I’ve seen this and it made me feel very
sad at work at play at home with our
families and with our friends how does
technology make us feel I believe we can
strike a healthier happier balance a
life where we use technology on our own
terms
where technology makes us happier not
sadder and more distracted so how we’ll
use technology not only impacts the way
we feel but it also directly impacts our
minds in our bodies and ways we may not
even understand or think about so I
don’t know about all of you but I used
to be able to read books and type right
for 3-4 hours at a stretch I can’t
anymore why because my brain has
actually changed my focus muscles have
atrophied and with that atrophy I have
lost one of the most important
capabilities that humans have the
capacity for deep focused thought which
by the way is absolutely critical for
creative fulfilling work how many of you
who’ve spent an entire day flipping from
one task to the next back and forth and
found at the end of the day you felt
how did you feel annoyed probably and of
course you did because humans are
designed to feel happier when we
complete things not when we flip back
and forth like checking things off on a
list yet modern technology is making it
harder and harder and harder for us to
focus on the one task technology not
only impacts the way our minds work but
it’s directly impacting our bodies in
ways we may not think about so how many
of you here have kids or are kids
so plenty of you I’m sure how many of
you struggle with them spending too much
time playing video games using their
evidence is becoming clearer and clearer
that today’s children are moving less
and less and this is increasing with
each subsequent generation today’s kids
are less likely to go to a playground to
ride a bike or to run and it shows one
large research study found that 30 year
old it’s one large research study found
that 10 year olds today take 90 seconds
longer to run a mile than two
ten-year-olds 30 years ago ponder that
for a second these are children there’s
no reason that this should be happening
and this is bad because to move is to be
human it makes us happy not surprisingly
as well obesity is becoming one of the
most critical health issues for children
and then their sleep or lack of it sleep
is directly lack of sleep is directly
connected to depression and suicide and
doctors are starting to think that lack
of sleep may be related to the rapid
rise and metabolic disorders like
diabetes you could not create a better
device to destroy our sleep than the
smartphone it emits an intense light
that tells our brains time to wake up we
carry it with us everywhere we go we
sleep with it it’s the primary mechanism
now we use to consume video the internet
emails play games and increasingly it
looks like it is impacting our sleep in
one major study American adults roughly
30 percent of American adults get six
hours of sleep or less which is not a
lot of sleep so how can we gain better
control of this how can we start to hack
back our happiness I believe we can
strike a better balance regain control
and hack back our happiness and it
starts with getting back in touch with
our feelings sounds kind of corny and
woowoo
I know but asking a simple question how
do I feel is a great interrupter of bad
tech behavior you see too often our
subconscious minds actually dictate our
actions this is particularly true when
we were in the grips of Technology
barrage by beats by beeps chimes and
alerts and really this is by design
those products were built to grab and
hold as much of our attention as
possible the smartest product designers
in Silicon Valley have long used
sophisticated technological tricks and
neurological tricks
to push our buttons so really this is
all about control who controls our minds
the technology and the companies that
make it or us I believe we can win this
battle by asking that simple question
how does it make us feel
and raising the subconscious to the
conscious here’s a simple exercise you
all can do to help illuminate how much
you’re using technology and what you’re
doing I did it take a notebook in a pen
and for our whole day or maybe a half
day write down everything you do with
technology on your smartphone or your
laptop
it sounds exhausting but also all
sobering and eye-opening most likely you
will discover you’re spending
significantly more time with your
technology and you’re flipping back and
forth far more than you realized now
with this information you can start to
design a better life
you can decide I want to curtail this I
want to eliminate that this makes me
happy and with clear information from
actual observations you can design a
better life with technology now this is
not arbitrary okay some people for
example love Facebook they and it’s good
for them it makes them happy that’s okay
I have a very good friend who uses
Facebook as a support group for gluten
free diets she talks to her friends they
swap recipes this is great but for most
people
excessive consumption of social media or
any technology is bad and this is
particularly true for Facebook and
Instagram because it drives comparisons
comparisons of looks vacations families
comparisons don’t make us happy
and this is why passive consumption of
social media is consistently tied to
diminishment of happiness so how do we
reduce our use of these types of
technologies how do we reduce our use of
Facebook for exam
it’s actually not that hard get facebook
out of your face take it off your phone
shut off the notifications uninstall
messenger inject friction raise the
decision from the subconscious to the
conscious and with this kind of mindset
you can inject or create lots of design
rules for your life that are simple and
easy to follow here are some of mine
no smartphone in the bedroom at night
no smartphone on the dinner table or at
a restaurant no Twitter sessions longer
than 5 minutes no laptops in meetings
and less I’m thinking notes and
definitely definitely no email or social
media first thing in the morning
keep that precious time for your most
important thoughts now we can’t totally
switch off that will be ridiculous try
telling your boss or your family or your
friends
I don’t do email anymore I’m sorry how
many of you want to go back to walking
into a travel agency or a bank to
conduct the transaction I don’t okay but
we can take better control of the
technology we have in front of us
structure a life where we are using it
on the terms that we dictate rather than
the terms that the companies are telling
us and all the alerts and the beeps and
technology is evolving faster and faster
okay and this will continue three years
ago how many of you knew what Alexa was
now we can’t stop talking about her
literally virtual virtual reality is on
the horizon it’s coming very quickly and
that’s total tech immersion but one
we have to continue renegotiating our
relationship with technology but we can
continue to construct the life with
technology that’s productive and happy
and the best way to do that is to keep
asking ourselves the simple question how
do I feel how do I feel
thank you very much [Applause]
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