The Hidden Cost of Modern Life Why You Aren’t Actually Busy, But Your Brain Is Starving for Silence Press enter or click to view image in full size The real crisis isn’t that we’re too busy — it’s that our attention has been shattered into fragments too small to matter. / Author created image using AI I caught my reflection in a hotel elevator a few months ago and barely recognized myself. Not because I looked older, though I did. Because I looked vacant . Like someone had been operating my body for several months and had forgotten to leave me a forwarding address. I had just come from a conference where I’d given a talk about focus. Focus. I had spoken, with what I now realize was tragicomic confidence, about the importance of presence. Then I’d spent the entire Q&A glancing at my phone under the podium. That elevator ride is when I started telling myself the truth.…