May I have your attention please!

We are entering a fascinating new era where people are finally paying attention to attention.

If you google “attention economy” you literally get over 100 million hits. One of them sums it up quite well. “Attention is a new level in the massively multiplayer game known as Western culture.”
Michael Goldhaber

There is a lot of talk about what it is, where it is going and when it started. Some say it is starting now and some say it started in the 1980s. That is where I beg to differ. While it is true that the attention economy is a new level in our cultural game, it is also the most basic level in the game of life. It is so basic that every baby knows how to use it; and every pet dog.
(I even have some hints that attention is the basis of time, space and physics. But that is for a different blog.)

In this basic economy, you and I are given roughly the same amount of capital to invest, or waste. Like our muscles, our attention can be exercised and made strong, but within limits. This means that our attention is a critically limited resource, and it happens to be the most important one we have. We literally become what we attend to.

We need other people’s attention. So, just like corporations spend money trying to get more money, much of our attention is spent trying to get other people’s attention. That is investment. A balanced portfolio would include investing in ourselves so that our attention is interesting to others.


True wealth is having enough to be comfortable, but not be owned by it.
This is true with attention or dollars.