ROI Of Thought — A New Paradigm For What Matters

By Dr. Brian Russell

When we choose to invest our cash or time in education, labor, recreation, etc., we typically expect a return. But when we invest a particular type of time — thought time — we often neither expect nor get an ROI. Why?

You’ve probably heard that we use just a fraction of our brain capacity. Though brain capacity may be theoretically limitless, practically, the number of thought topics that can occupy our working memory simultaneously is finite. Try playing audio from two news sources simultaneously (e.g., one television and one radio newscast) reporting on different stories. To the best of your ability, try attending to the facts reported by each for 30 seconds. Pretty challenging, right?