Rob Walker > Quotes

“Anybody interested in thinking creatively seeks (needs) to notice what has been overlooked or ignored by others, to get beyond distractions and attend to the world.”
― Rob Walker, The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday

“Polyconsciousness is what one researcher termed the resulting state of mind that divides attention between the physical world and the one our devices connect us to, undermining here-and-now interactions with actual people and things around us.”
― Rob Walker, The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday

“A significant moment deserves a considered prelude. Be ready.”
― Rob Walker, The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday

“Let’s stop trying to be so productive all the time and make an effort to be more curious. Do you want to look back on a life of items crossed off lists drawn up in response to the demands of others? Or do you want to hang on to, and repeat, and remember, the thrill of discovering things on your own? Todd B. Kashdan, a professor of psychology at George Mason University, refers to curiosity as “joyous exploration”—defined as “the recognition and desire to seek out new knowledge and information, and the subsequent joy of learning and growing.”
― Rob Walker, The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday

“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention,” economist Herb Simon warned in 1971.”
― Rob Walker, The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday

“What we do with our attention, in short, is at the heart of what makes us human.”
― Rob Walker, The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday

“first-class noticer”—cultivating the ability to attend to what others overlook, experiencing “enchanting reality” as a new and fortuitous gift—is crucial to any creative process.”
― Rob Walker, The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday

“The one thing more than anything else, is learning to pay attention. —ROBERT IRWIN”
― Rob Walker, The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday

“A hypereffective schedule designed to maximize productivity is, in fact, more likely to distract you from what’s important than help you discover it.”
― Rob Walker, The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday

“Every day is filled with opportunities to be amazed, surprised, enthralled—to experience the enchanting everyday. To stay eager. To be, in a word, alive.”
― Rob Walker, The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday

“The daily papers talk of everything except the daily,” he complained. “What’s really going on, what we’re experiencing, the rest, all the rest, where is it?” That’s his deeper question: What about everything else?”
― Rob Walker, The Art of Noticing for Writers: From The Art of Noticing