Our culture worships attention. We assume that, when we’re faced with a really hard problem, the best response is to stay focused, to lavish the dilemma with deliberate thought. And so we order a triple espresso, or chug some Red Bull, or snort some Ritalin. The point of these chemicals is to sharpen the spotlight, to keep us fixated on the task at hand.
But, Lehrer says, tests show that people who are most distractible are also the most creative. They pay attention to everything, not just one thing. So, what gives? Lehrer explains:
[I]t’s not enough to simply pay attention to everything – such a deluge of sensation can quickly get confusing. (Kierkegaard referred to this mental state as “drowning in possibility”. Some scientists believe that schizophrenia is characterized by extremely low latent inhibition coupled with severe working memory deficits, which leads to a mind constantly hijacked by minor distractions.) This is why, according to the Toronto researchers, low latent inhibition only leads to increased creativity when it’s paired with a willingness to analyze our excess of thoughts, to constantly search for the signal amid the noise.
Here's Lehrer's bottom line (remember this): "We need to let more information in, but we also need to be ruthless about throwing out the useless stuff."
Our goal shouldn’t be to ignore everything beyond earshot – that would inhibit our creativity, and keep us trapped in a very narrow world. Instead, we should keep on searching for those smart voices, so that we can remix the right data inside our head.