[Visual: A man walks onto a stage in front of an audience in an auditorium with bookshelves. The reMarkable logo is in the upper right corner. The audience applauds.] [Visual: A close-up shows the man smiling as he walks. He is wearing a black jacket over a black shirt.] [Visual: A slide is on screen with the reMarkable logo. The audience applauds.] [Visual: On-screen text identifies the speaker: Thomas Ramsøy, Neurons CEO, Neuropsychologist, Neuroscientist, Author.] Thomas Ramsøy: Thank you very much. I'm Thomas Ramsøy and today I'm going to talk about slow thinking for fast times. I'll start with a little teaser here. We actually live now in the Age of Speed. [Visual: A slide appears. On the left, an image of a person working on a laptop is overlaid with digital icons. On the right, the slide title and statistics are shown.] [Visual: On-screen text: We Live in the Age of Speed! The average knowledge worker switches tasks 1,200 times a day. Knowledge workers are interrupted by notifications every 6 minutes. 62% of knowledge workers feel digital devices make it harder to focus deeply on work. This is chaos, not productivity! Your brain wasn't built for this!] Thomas Ramsøy: And one of the things that we see is that, for example, the average knowledge worker is switching between tasks about, you know, 1,200 times per day, which is an insane amount of times. Imagine, this is on average that we do that. And we also know that people are distracted constantly. We know that the times that people spend on actually returning back to the knowledge work is even half an hour sometimes. So we live in this age of speed that we have taken for granted that we are just exposed to literature. We are using literature, and on the other side, we basically are, you know, we're not designed for this. So this is in a way, it's the time of chaos. It's information overload, it's distraction, disturbance, and information overload. And the thing is that our brain have not been able to catch up in the same time. So we are challenged with a question of how can we design technology that actually makes us better thinkers? --- [Visual: A new slide appears titled, "Here's the tech life we've come to live in." The background image is a shattered smartphone screen.] [Visual: On-screen text: Regular internet use reduces deep reading ability by 40%.] Thomas Ramsøy: So just kind of some sobering facts here. One of the things that we see when we look at the behaviors that people have is that on the one side, regular internet use reduces deep reading ability by 40%. This means that the way that technology disturbs us is reducing our capabilities as thinkers. [Visual: On-screen text: Information overload causes significant stress for 30% of knowledge workers.] Thomas Ramsøy: On the other side, information overload, so the amount of information we're processing is surpassing the capacity that we have available, are actually leading to stress in workers. [Visual: On-screen text: Those that multitask a lot are 37% worse on formal tests of multitasking.] Thomas Ramsøy: We see that also, for example, those that multitask a lot are actually 37% worse when we are testing them on multitasking. So you might think that you're multitasking a lot, but what we see again and again is that when we test people on multitasking, we're performing worse. [Visual: On-screen text: The mere presence of a smartphone reduces your cognitive capacity by up to 40%.] Thomas Ramsøy: We see that the mere presence of a smartphone, doesn't even need to be your own smartphone, it doesn't even need to be turned on, actually occupies quite a lot of your mental workspace to the extent that it steals attention, steals thinking from you. [Visual: On-screen text: Over 50% believe they're addicted to their phones.] Thomas Ramsøy: And again, more sobering fact is that even half of all of us believe that we're addicted to our phones. So we're living in a space that not only do we use technology, but technology is posing itself on us. We're hooked to the phone basically. [Visual: On-screen text: Excessive screen use reduces gray matter in brain areas for control and decision-making.] Thomas Ramsøy: The problem is that when we are starting thinking and measuring on the brain, we see that it actually has structural changes in the brain. So when we are using phones a lot, it actually changes the way that our brains are wired. So there's not just kind of a temporary thing and it's the thing that passes over time, but it has to change the ways that we are wired. [Visual: On-screen text: Close to 100 notifications/day disrupt knowledge workers => cognitive overload and stress.] Thomas Ramsøy: And also we know that on average people are exposed to 100 notifications per day. That I think that's a very conservative estimate to be honest, especially if you look at myself, so just if you do Slack, I mean, 100 would be in an hour, right? So I think that we're exposed to notifications all the time unless we turn them off. And you know today that phones, they're basically born with notifications. [Visual: On-screen text: Each digital interruption costs ~25 minutes to fully regain focus.] Thomas Ramsøy: We should do differently. They should be born without notifications so you have to opt into them. But we don't. And I think that's part of the problem. And that's why we see that we are constantly disturbed, we are constantly eradicating our ability to stay focused and stay thinking. [Visual: The slide now displays all the statistics together.] [Visual: On-screen text: Our devices are smarter. But our brains? Not faster—just more fried.] Thomas Ramsøy: So, in a way, you can say that our devices are smarter, but our brains, well, we're basically not faster, we're just more fried to be honest. And that's a problem. --- [Visual: A new slide appears with text over a background image of a brain.] [Visual: On-screen text: Knowledge workers now spend nearly 60% of their time on digital communication tools like email, chat, and video conferencing.] Thomas Ramsøy: kind of four more sobering facts and then we can look at some of the more uplifting areas maybe. Let's see. So for example, we know that knowledge workers like yourself, like people who are working in demanding jobs where the brain is actually the most valuable asset that they have, people now spend 60% of their time on digital communication, and we know already now that that is disturbing their ability to think and work clearly. [Visual: On-screen text: 30% of knowledge workers report significant stress due to information overload.] Thomas Ramsøy: 30% of knowledge workers report significant stress. So this means that they're constantly bombarded with information, it reduces their ability to focus. [Visual: On-screen text: Over the past couple of decades, people's attention spans have shrunk, affecting their ability to focus on tasks.] Thomas Ramsøy: And at the same time, we see that people's attention spans have shrunk. Usually, we would be able to remember five to seven to nine different things, hold them active in our minds at any one time. Now we see that that number is shrinking. We can't hold on to information for long enough. [Visual: On-screen text: Approximately 65% of students report being distracted by digital devices in class, correlating with lower academic performance.] Thomas Ramsøy: And approximately 65% of students, so this will be the next generation, we see this in kids as well, they are actually disturbed. They feel disturbed and they are objectively disturbed when they are working for example by digital devices in class, and that correlates with poor performance on tests. I think these are really sobering facts. And this is the world we are just growing up in these days. We take it for granted that we just use technology, we believe that it has a positive influence on our lives, but we see every single time that we measure that it's different. --- [Visual: A new slide appears titled "Your Brain is Expensive Real Estate."] Thomas Ramsøy: Now usually I would ask you how big do you think a brain is in kilograms? Any guesses? How big is a brain in kilograms? Yes? Audience Member: 10 kilos? Thomas Ramsøy: 10 kilos? That's a very big brain. You should be proud of yourself. 10 kilos, your head would be tilting I would say. Any other guesses? Not 10 kilos? Audience Member: Half a kilo? Thomas Ramsøy: Half a kilo, that's a very small brain. I hope you don't have a half a kilo. [Visual: The slide updates with two statistics.] [Visual: On-screen text: The brain takes up 2-3% of the body mass. It uses ~20% of the body's energy budget.] Thomas Ramsøy: It's one and a half-ish. So usually we say that it's about two to three percent of the body mass that is the size of the brain. Men tend to have slightly bigger brains than women. We have no idea why. That's the truth. The problem is that the energy consumption that the brain has is about roughly 20% of the body energy consumption. So this means that this tiny part of our body actually consumes a really big chunk of energy budget. So that also means that at the end of the day, if you have worked really hard, focusing on things or being disturbed and distracted, you feel physically exhausted at the end of the day, correct? [Visual: A new slide appears showing multiple MRI scans of a brain.] [Visual: On-screen text: Consciousness thought = up to 30% additional energy use.] Thomas Ramsøy: And what we see, this is my part of my own study. We did a study to understand what happens in the brain when we are conscious, when we are focused, when we really kind of think broadly and we're really focusing on things, we're experiencing things as opposed to just unconscious processing of information. And what we find is that every single time we embark on conscious processing, really focused attention and focused work, there's a global activation of the brain. The brain really fires up most if not all channels. So that means that for us to be conscious about something, the ability for us to focus and think clearly is related to extra hard activity in the brain. And nobody actually done that calculation, but a rough estimate is that it leads to about 30% increase in energy consumption. So this means that every single thing that the brain does that requires you to to have conscious processing requires extra energy consumption. And this is why it's so easy for the brain to try to habituate and do autopilot behaviors, for example, so you don't have to think about every single time you do a movement. So every time I take a step, that's auto behavior. I don't need to think about every step. When I learned it the first time, I have to consciously think about it. If I learn to juggle, I have to think consciously. My brain would look like this for a long time while I learn to juggle, but at the same time once I got into that habit of juggling, if I ever get to that point, then that activity would actually shrink down, right? Riding a bike is a good example. --- [Visual: A new slide appears. On the right is a photo of a person wearing an EEG headset while looking at a smartphone.] [Visual: On-screen text: What happens when we overload our brains? Waiting for your phone to load is as stressful as watching a horror movie...or driving in Jakarta traffic.] Thomas Ramsøy: What does that actually mean? Well, it means that when we are now measuring on the brain, we can actually detect when the brain is consuming a lot of energy. So for example, we did a study some years ago for Ericsson and Vodafone and Indosat, and we tested what actually happens when people are overloaded with information. What we did was to give people a task to go into a video or a website and just read the information or watch the video. But what we did was to trick them. We gave them some buffering, some delays on the phone. So you went to a website and it started buffering, and it played a little bit and it buffered. So usually we'd say, "Okay, at some point the brain would... you would give up," and say, "I forget about that. I'm not going to look at that video. It's just annoying." At that time, people would say, "Yeah, five seconds, I'll be out." Today, maybe we say two seconds, I don't know. Our tolerance to that delay is getting smaller and smaller. What we found was that the type of response that the brain had when people's brains started to freak out was actually comparing to watching a horror movie. We saw strong emotional response, mental overload. So it's comparable to watching a horror movie. Now I mentioned we also did the same study in Indonesia, where people are a little bit more tolerant towards mobile delays. They actually at that time had a tolerance towards 12 seconds. But the brain response was actually the same. And we wanted to have something else to compare with, and we found that it compared to driving in Jakarta traffic. So imagine driving in the most busy street you can, and that would be an example of your brain response. So what we see, and this is just kind of taken from other studies, but what we see is that it's actually the same type of brain response we see when people are overloaded with information. It is kind of drawing on extra amount of brain activity. --- [Visual: A new slide appears with text "We help people think better." The word "think" is highlighted.] Thomas Ramsøy: So information overload is a thing. And I think that when we think about the purpose of having better thinking devices, we should unpack what we mean by better thinking because as a psychologist, as a neuropsychologist, as a neuroscientist, thinking is a really kind of mongrel, vague concept, and we need to unpack that. [Visual: The slide updates to show a mind map of words connected to the word "think," including Creativity, Synthesis, Deep thinking, Analysis, Remember, Insight, Learn, Focus, Comprehension, and Combine ideas.] Thomas Ramsøy: So some examples would be better thinking actually means creativity, synthetic thinking, being able to analyze, insights, focus, concentration, learning, creativity, combining ideas in different ways. That's what better thinking is. Unfortunately, we also see that that is the most fragile part of our human brain. This is the first thing that goes away when we are distracted, disturbed, or confused and overloaded. [Visual: A new slide appears with the text "Most digital tools are designed to grab and hold your attention" and images of two book covers.] Thomas Ramsøy: And I think that's why technology is not something we should take for granted. So today most digital tools are actually designed to grab and hold your attention. We know that's the truth and we are they are built even with reward loops, they are built to distract you. And today there seems to be a reckoning. There seems to be a reckoning, there's a couple of books I highly recommend. They're both scary. The Careless People is a combination of Bridget Jones and Theranos to be honest. Highly recommended. It's probably going to be a Netflix movie sometime. And then Hubris Maximus, which sounds like an odious name, but hubris kind of tells you what is going on here. This is the way that technology has been built so far, and we've just have taken it for granted that these are the types of devices that we're using in every day. So we need to think differently. We need a different way to think. And I think that the way that I see an e-paper device like a reMarkable is that it's built on different values. We don't take those values for granted that people should just stay at the platform at any cost because it has inherent value for the company. No, it's built for helping the person using the device. And I think that's a nuance that has a dramatic effect on the way that we think about the way that you know, people are using devices. --- [Visual: A slide shows text on the left and a reMarkable paper tablet on the right.] [Visual: On-screen text: 30% lower cognitive demand.] Thomas Ramsøy: So we ran a study, as you probably know, tested how people work on the reMarkable device and using exactly the same tasks on a PC. Exactly the same. We know that when you log on to your computer and when you log on to your phone, we know that the brain is just setting aside extra bandwidth for being disturbed. It's just getting used to being disturbed, to have notifications. So the assumption is that this has a dramatic effect of the way that our brain is responding and how our minds are working. And we found that, we found that when you do exactly the same task on the reMarkable, cognitive load, so your ability to process information, is lower on the reMarkable compared to a PC. That might sound negative, but it's actually positive because it means that you have more mental bandwidth to process complex thinking, more mental bandwidth to tackle metaphors, combining ideas, thinking deeply, working deeply. [Visual: A slide shows text on the left and a reMarkable paper tablet on a desk on the right.] [Visual: On-screen text: 35% lower stress.] Thomas Ramsøy: We saw also a 35% drop in stress. We know that our brains and our bodies are stressed when we use digital devices that are distracting us and disturbing us, and we saw a 35% decrease in stress. [Visual: A slide shows text on the left and a person drawing on a reMarkable paper tablet on the right.] [Visual: On-screen text: 16% less fatigue.] Thomas Ramsøy: We also saw at the end of the test, we can measure brain fatigue through both brain scanning but actually also eye tracking. We see that people at the end of a long work day, they start blinking more. You can notice that at the end of the day, people blink more. And also we can measure certain types of brain responses. So we saw a dramatic drop in brain fatigue even after one hour of testing. So it means that people are less fatigued using an e-paper device even though we tested them. [Visual: A slide shows text on the left and a reMarkable paper tablet with a mind map on the right.] [Visual: On-screen text: 25% increase in creative thinking.] Thomas Ramsøy: That has huge ramifications for the things that we appreciate most in knowledge work. Creativity, the ability to combine ideas in novel and useful ways is increased by 25%, even in the single test and, you know, 30 minutes of testing. [Visual: A slide shows text on the left and a person reading from a reMarkable paper tablet on the right.] [Visual: On-screen text: 20% more brain focus.] Thomas Ramsøy: When we measured on the brain, it had 20% increase in focus. The brain is simply focusing more. It's better at focusing on the task at hand because it's not prepared to be disturbed. --- [Visual: The slide changes to show text over an image of people marching with a flag that has a brain symbol on it.] [Visual: On-screen text: In fast times, reflection isn't retreat—it's rebellion.] Thomas Ramsøy: We saw that activity that is related to deep thinking, we saw this kind of flurry of activation across the brain, was increased by 17%. And these are difficult tasks and they demand you to do this type of work. And I think that one of the things that we should think about is there's this saying in innovation in general, we see that people are claiming that US innovates, China copies, and Europe regulates. I simply don't subscribe to that view. I don't. I think it's all about values. I think that what are the values that we are building into our devices? And just by saying no, we shouldn't take that race for granted, there are other ways we should do things. And I think calm technology is a choice, something we design, and should not be an afterthought. Thank you. [Visual: The audience applauds. The speaker smiles and nods.] --- [Visual: An audience member holds a microphone.] Audience Member: In your work, did you did you look at any evidence or like looking into how people are kind of finding back when they are they're distracted and then they have to go back and pick up whatever they left? Did you did you do any research on that? Thomas Ramsøy: We didn't do that in this particular study, but we find that, um, I think the big analogy here would be if you think about people reading on a page for example, a boring report, for example, you get to the end of a page and it's like, I can't remember anything, you start from from scratch. And basically what we see happens in the brain is that the brain is basically either overloaded, so it kind of misses out. And what we typically see is that it overloads and it drops off, and it overloads and it drops off. So the brain constantly try to pick up where it lost the thread, and it's trying to... if you have to wind back five minutes, then that's the place you have to go. When people are distracted, sometimes we see that people need to roll back time even, you know, almost a half an hour sometimes before they actually get to the point that they left left off. [Visual: Another audience member holds a microphone.] Audience Member: So practically at work, I guess it's unrealistic to remove all distractions. Do you have any practical tips how can help our brain to toggle between multitasking and deep thinking and actually being able to get into the flow state? Thomas Ramsøy: I I live it and I breathe it. So I don't have notifications on my phone, for example, or my computer. That means none at all. Not even visual notifications. And that's that's by by choice. That means that it might seem like a small thing, but it actually has a huge effect on because what happens is that not only do you not get disturbed as often as you think you would, but also the brain starts to be prepared not to be disturbed. If you just leave it on and say, "Hey, I'm in control, I could check in whenever I want to," it's like, just turn it off. I still go on Slack, I still check my emails, people can reach me, but I am opting in to check my notifications when I want to. I don't need my devices to tell me that something's happening. I know things are happening. And it might be a subtle thing, but it has a huge effect on your brain. [Visual: The audience applauds. The speaker smiles and turns from the podium.]