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Attention Economy

Today I learned that the Treasury Yield is back up to 4.684%. Meanwhile the market exuberance got a little slap because the quantum computing folks say maybe twenty years away from some practical application.

This got me to thinking about attention alongside a decent conversation with the better half this morning about it. I'm a bit like my dog and when the ball is bouncing out in front of me, I chase. And I also think the majority of folks share this lovely trait. As I've been learning more about economics and markets, I've taken noticed the almost immediate effects of information and attention.

The term attention economy was coined in the late 1960s characterizing the problem of information overload as an economic one1. Only a very small fraction ( < .5% ) of the generated data is analyzed at all2 and thus the rise of big data AI to help digest it all. The strategic capture and analysis of private attention is a profitable business model and attention is the new currency.

I like to look at other peoples phones and computers not because I'm nosy, but because I honestly like to investigate how they use those tools. I had a chance over the holiday to look at about six or seven other phones of friends and relatives. The interesting part to me is how everyone uses the tools so differently prioritizing this or that for their screen time. My main takeaway from my nosy phone habit is that most folks are all over the place.

I think it's really hard for folks to maintain focus on long term goals. It seems that most people spend the majority of time trying to manage their attention day to day and meet very short term goals. Did I respond to that voicemail or email, did I pack my kids bag, or I need to pick up milk from the grocery? Add in a litany of various other attention grabbers and it becomes a juggling act to pull it all off leaving very little time to focus on anything outside of our immediate attention.

Since I'm very protective of my attention, I try my best not to allow any unwanted distractions and I do so while juggling an assortment of group communications3. I think this is primarily to balance out my wandering mind. As is usually the case this time of year, I start by setting some long term goals and I suppose that's the real reason I started writing this post. So let's get on with it and write em down for posterity.

My 2025 Goals​

  • hit my ideal weight of 173 which is 18lbs down from where I was this morning.
    • 1lb a week for five months.
    • more holistic low impact exercise routine
      • less tennis and more hiking, biking, walking, & swimming
      • walk the golf course
    • track my food intake and activity
      • cronometer and Apple health/watch
  • make up my financial goals this year
    • need an additional $500,000 for retirement
      • stashing 50k per year for 10yrs
    • work smarter, not harder
      • better contract negotiations and time management
    • actively learn and monitor investment accounts
    • go lean on expenses - cook, recycle clothes, less trips
  • work toward being the Renaissance man I like to imagine myself in retirement
    • start practicing painting/drawing again
      • set up permanent studio space
      • digital drawing during downtime.
    • start practicing piano
      • figure out a good learning method
    • start re-learning woodworking
      • acquire tools and execute projects
    • learn to write screenplays & attempt to write humor

I'm pretty determined ( check back with me in a couple months ) that I'm not going to let sloppy attention get in the way. And I should note that I spent an unsuccessful twenty minutes this morning looking for the pencil I misplaced because I don't like to travel with it attached to the iPad. I just recently wrote that during the last year I switched from self-deprecation to self-determination4 so I'm just gonna try and live up to it.



Footnotes​

  1. Attention Economy - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_economy ↩

  2. New Economics for Sustainable Development - United Nations - https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/attention_economy_feb.pdf ↩

  3. Slow Thinking - https://davidawindham.com/slow-thinking/ ↩

  4. Twenty Twenty-Four - https://davidawindham.com/twenty-twenty-four/ ↩