The Art of (Attention) War
In every myth, the lesson is the same: The path to the infinite is the path to madness.
And yet, we still gouge out our eyes. We plug our untrained minds into the infinite machines – our smartphones, our social media, our Oura rings, our prediction markets, and our AIs. And as a result, we are going mad.
And yet, we still gouge out our eyes. We plug our untrained minds into the infinite machines – our smartphones, our social media, our Oura rings, our prediction markets, and our AIs. And as a result, we are going mad.
Matt Klein • The Art of (Attention) War
Francis Bacon warned that when we have no clear “prenotion or perception of what we are seeking, we seek and toil and wander aimlessly, as if in infinite space. Whereas, if we have a particular prenotion, infinity is at once interrupted.” When our attention narrows, we can move forward with purpose.
Matt Klein • The Art of (Attention) War
Our online environments only appear infinite. The deepest, most nuanced knowledge still lives beyond any device. Everything we see through search, social media, or AI is limited to what has already been indexed, posted or trained. For example, Google may index hundreds of billions of web pages, yet that still accounts for <5% of the internet.... See more
Matt Klein • The Art of (Attention) War
the spoken word, community circles become rich wells of knowledge
This is permission to find comfort in knowing that we cannot, and will not, know or change everything .
Matt Klein • The Art of (Attention) War
very much ‘meditation for mortals’ - accept the finitude and play in the ruins
Much of today’s commentary now looks less like real cultural analysis and more like white collar fan fiction and conspiracy theories about what’s happening “backstage.”
Matt Klein • The Art of (Attention) War
social today
Understanding reality isn’t about infinitely chasing truth with our finite attention. It’s about understanding which worlds are becoming more or less consequential .
Matt Klein • The Art of (Attention) War
We must strategically protect and take aim with our attention, not just because it’s the lens through which we see, but because it’s the architecture of our reality.
Matt Klein • The Art of (Attention) War
Information expands to fill the space available, and in our 24/7 culture and modern media environment, the space available is infinite. This means there are now more news stories than there is actual news. W. David Marx calls this the Parkinson’s Law of Media.
Matt Klein • The Art of (Attention) War
think mothership telegram channel
Nelson Cowan, a leading researcher on working memory, tells us the Magic Number is 4±1. Meaning, we can only focus our attention on three to five meaningful chunks of information before our cognitive capacity overflows.