Medieval monks also had focus issues

Medieval monks also needed help with focus and attention. Joel J Miller discusses this in What Monks Know About Focus, the latest issue of Miller’s Book Review, which I recently discovered and shows great promise.

While technology has evolved in the last fifteen hundred years, the human brain has not. And few people in the ancient world cared as much about the challenges of attention and distraction as monks. Our reasons might differ today, but we have much to learn nonetheless.

The focus problem predates the advent of the modern age with all its continuous, unstoppable, but always alluring background noise. I wonder if ADHD was also a thing back then and how many were possibly affected. We will never know.