Back in 2008, when I was still early in my writing career, I published an essay on my blog that posed a provocative question: Would Lincoln Have Been President if He Had Email? This was one of my early attempts to grapple with problems like digital distraction and focus that would eventually evolve into my books Deep Work and A World Without Email. And at its core was a troubling notion that occurred to me in response to watching a documentary about our sixteenth president:
If the Internet is robbing us of our ability to sit and concentrate, without distraction, in a Lincoln log cabin style of intense focus, we must ask the obvious question: Are we doomed to be a generation bereft of big ideas?
If Lincoln had access to the internet, in other words, would he have been too distracted to become the self-made man who ended up transforming our fledgling Republic?
In this early essay, I leaned toward the answer of “yes.” But in the years since, I’ve become a bit of a Lincoln obsessive, having read more than half a dozen biographies. This has led me to believe that my original instincts were flawed.
Lincoln, of course, didn’t have to contend with digital devices. Still, the rough frontier towns in Indiana and Illinois, where he spent much of his formative years, offered their own analog version of the same general things we fear about the modern internet.
They featured a relentless push toward numbing distraction, most notably in the form of alcohol. “Incredible quantities of whiskey were consumed,” wrote William Lee Miller in Lincoln’s Virtues, “the custom was for every man to drink it, on all occasions that offered.”
There was also the threat of “cancellation” embodied in actual violent mobs, and no shortage of efforts to radicalize or spread hate, such as the antipathy toward Native Americans, which Miller described as a “ubiquitous western presence” at the time.
And yet, Lincoln somehow avoided these traps and rose well above his initial station. There are many factors at play in this narrative, but one, in particular, is hard to ignore: he sharpened his mind with books.
Here are various quotes about young Lincoln, offered by his stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln, who encouraged this interest:
- “Abe read all the books he could lay his hands on.”
- “I induced my husband to permit Abe to read and study at home, as well as at school…we took particular care when he was reading not to disturb him–we would let him read on till he quit of his own accord.”
- “While other boys were out hooking watermelons and trifling away their time, he was studying his books–thinking and reflecting.”
Lincoln used books to develop his brain in ways that opened his world, and enabled him to see new opportunities and imagine more meaningful futures–providing a compelling alternative to the forces conspiring to keep him down
Lurking in here is advice for our current moment. To move beyond the distracted darkness of the online world, we might, in a literal sense, take a page from Lincoln and work toward growing our minds instead of pacifying them.
Are the implications now that we should:
1) Encourage the development of young minds,
2) Seek out the people who are already doing this (the Luddite Clubs, for example) and encourage them, as well as foster places where people can grow their minds in an undistracted way, and
3) Identify those who seek shallowness and quietly remove them from positions of great responsibility?
Cal, I don’t believe your instincts were flawed at all. I believe young Abe (and by extention, all of us) was lucky to have such a steadfast will and laser focus to allow him to concentrate on his studies and beloved books. Sure, there were distractions (alcohol, etc.), just as all young people encounter.
But today’s distractions are different. Modern distractions are weaponized by hordes of engineers, guided by behavioral experts and addiction specialists, all in the name of mind control, share price, and stakeholder value. I don’t believe Ma & Pa Lincoln’s drunk neighbors and Abe’s experimenting schoolmates, while dangerous in their own right, were systematically carrying out a designed plan to capture his attention in the name of profits and market caps, and there were no algorithms being deployed. I believe you’re comparing apples and oranges.
Despite my statements, I still think we (society) have the capacity for great ideas. But I also think those blockbuster thoughts will mostly come from employees inside giant corporations who need that next big idea to fuel the next growth cycle. Big ideas coming from the rank and file will still happen, albiet less frequently. Because let’s face it – the ‘everyman’ is under a spell from the witches and warlords whose technology suppresses that very initiative.
I see hordes of data and prognostication about mobile tech and it’s affect on young Millennials and younger. But I don’t see much research on it’s affect on older Millennials, GenX, and Boomers. My octogenarian parents may be past their intellectual prime, so my mom’s addiction to her smartphone might not be a great place to deploy research dollars. However, some great ideas with substantial human impact have come from people past the age of 40. These generations are not a lost cause.
I’m grateful Abraham Lincoln never had a smartphone.
I agree whole-heartedly with your summary and sentiment. Since becoming a father 8 years ago, I have consistently reflected on my experiences growing up and comparing them to my daughter’s. I, being born in the late-80’s, feel lucky that my childhood and adolescent years spanned both the pre-modern technology boom and the precdeding “simpler” times. This perspective means I appreciate written word in book form but also am very technology savvy (data engineer by trade).
That said, I too struggle with smart-phone addiction. I have become increasingly aware of the pitfulls of perpetual digital distraction just a click away, and how it plays it’s part in my life. I have made a series of conscious choices to limit screen time, employing many techniques in Cal’s books and essays. I do sincerley think for my generation of parent, our biggest challenge will be managing the smart-phone and technology landscape with our children – keeping them safe, informed and facilitating a healthy relationship with digital media.
Since managing my own habits of procrastination, I have seen enjoyable progress both at home and at work. It’s not a coincidence. My focus has been diverted to more meaningful and higher value pursuits, and it’s paying off. Long may it continue.
This is a well-written reply. I wholly agree with you, Brad, about the apples and oranges comparison. Today’s distractions are different, which those of us who remember the pre-iPhone days both intuitively feel and can observe simply by watching a crosswalk for 10 minutes (at least 50% of the pedestrians will not look up from their phones). We’re so “in the water,” to paraphrase David Foster Wallace, that data that show how addicted we are are probably meaningless, outside of the effects on mental health
I also agree that there is a capacity for new ideas. For as much as we lose by numbing our brains, we gain at least a fraction of that back thanks to our unprecedented access to the entire corpus of human knowledge. For the the insatiably curious obsessives, there has never been a better time to be alive
That (i.e. those obsessives) is where I disagree with your take that “blockbuster thoughts will mostly come from employees inside giant corporations who need that next big idea to fuel the next growth cycle.”
I think that’s a convenient narrative, but my observation (having worked for both big tech and, currently, an AI coding startup valued at $10B) is that novel ideas come from outside of the giant corporations. By the time the general public is aware of them, the startups are gobbled up by big tech. So the critique should be over-consolidation more than “the demand for growth leads to innovation”–most employees at the big corporations are on Instagram all day, even the SWEs making $700k
My belief is that the overwhelming source of blockbuster ideas come from the people best equipped to hyper-focus and tune out distraction–i.e., people on the autism spectrum. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you seen such strong representation of this archetype amongst the new tech oligarchs (Zuck, Elon, Altman), because it takes a level of neurodivergence to overcome this level of distraction
To be clear, I was a late addition to said startup (via an acquisition) and have minimal skin in the game, so that was meant as an observation of startups, not a brag 🙂
Libraries and bookshops should be everyone’s favorite places today. We should never lose contact with physical books.
Unfortunately, the discipline and pleasure of reading books are much more difficult to maintain today than at Lincoln’s time.
Some schools require a daily reading time of 15 min. They should aim for an hour on a daily basis.
I love reading physical books, but also do regularly listen to audiobooks too. What I find interesting, from a personal perspective at least, is that I tend to choose to read a physical version of a book when I think the content is really important for me to digest. I see this from looking at the books on my bookshelf next to me compared to the titles on my Audible subscription. That is, perhaps I subconsciously favour physical books for topics I want to learn and remember more readily. Is this the equivialent of turning the radio down in the car when trying to perform a tricky manouveur!?
I’ve also found that just by looking at physical books on the shelf, I am reminded of the content and it serves almost as a revision prompt – forcing me to remember the content and digest it once again from memory, perhaps reinforcing the detail. I certainly do not get that from digital titles. There’s research to suggest reading comprehension from paper books compared to handheld devices is 6-8 times better (Altamura, L., Vargas, C., & Salmerón, L., 2023).
I’m UK based, and the school system here at Primary (Elementary) level does still encourage daily reading in the classroom and at home. Friends and family who have older children tell me that’s not so much the case in Secondary (High School) education unfortunately. But I agree with you, it’s a skill and habit we must endure even in the digital age.
A fascinating question. I’ve been an intense student of Lincoln for over six decades, including undergraduate and graduate courses with a Lincoln scholar. For a fascinating take on Lincoln’s communication skills, Tom Wheeler’s “Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails” is a must read! While the focus is on Lincoln’s use of the relatively new phenomenon of the telegraph, the book also does an excellent job of illustrating how Lincoln succeeded by using multiple modes of communication!
I’m so happy that the internet and social media didn’t exist when I was a teen.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I’ve been online every day for 30 years and …. I kinda hate it now! I wrote an essay about it and what I’m doing going forward:
https://sassone.wordpress.com/2025/10/21/url-vs-irl/
Cal, sorry, I have a tradition or reputation of being off-track.
I have just watched Roger Federer’s speech at Dartmouth last year. You probably did it already. Still I want to send it to you, not just because it was at Dartmouth, not just because it’s pleasant to listen to an honest and down-to-earth voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqWUuYTcG-o&list=LL&index=3&t=483s
I have always liked Federer. I like it when he talked about effortless.
I have come to believe that there are people of this “category” in every corner of the world no matter if they are famous or not.
I agree with you!
Interestingly, statistics show that young people are drinking less than previous generations. I believe that the drinking has been replaced with digital stimulation from phones/computers. We have the same problems as before with different causes.
Maybe he was neurodivergent