Matthew Crawford is a philosopher and mechanic. He has a PhD in political philosophy from the University of Chicago and served as a postdoctoral fellow on its Committee on Social Thought. Currently a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, he also runs Shockoe Moto, a motorcycle repair shop.
Absolutely superb: elegant, surprising, hard-hitting and very important -- Guy Claxton, author of 'Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind' Both impassioned and profound * Washington Post * Very entertaining . . . [with] many interesting insights * The Times * Crawford makes the crucial point that this is a political problem. The creators of smartphones, social networks designed to hook us, the firms buying ads on escalator handrails and media organizations desperate for your clicks and shares are all helping themselves to something that's ours - the limited resource of our attention - to try to turn a profit -- Oliver Burkeman * Guardian * There are now many books reminding us to pay attention but Crawford also reminds us of how we lost attention in the first place - and putting the problem in its historical context makes the case more compelling -- Michael Foley, author of 'The Age of Absurdity'