Time Well Spent: A New Org of Tech Insiders is Here to Help us Take Control of Our Phones--And Our Minds

Former student of the benign-sounding Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab and ex Google product manager Tristan Harris says persuasive technology is anything but benign.

In the attention economy, "our minds are being hijacked by technology."

We need to shift the focus of software design from feeding our "lizard brain" to freeing our thinking brain.

Companies will not do this on their own, as they need clicks to make money.

So Harris formed an organization with like-minded tech insiders to tackle the problem of brain hacking. The aim: to design software that will help us to spend our time well.

The organization has a nice name: Time Well Spent. The website is well-written and informative, including a guide to "Take control of your phone."

Check out Tristan Harris's Ted talk here:

And an an eye-opening video featuring BJ Fogg, director of research and design at Stanford University's Persuasive Technology Lab can be found here on the lab's website:

http://captology.stanford.edu/