attention is sacred

If all else fails, consider your own mortality. How many people on their deathbeds do you think are going to say, “I wish I’d spent more time on Facebook”? Keep asking yourself the same question, again and again and again: This is your life. How much of it do you want to spend on your phone?

Being with somebody for an hour is much easier than paying attention to somebody for an hour. The former requires only physical (or virtual) proximity, and we do it every day. The latter happens only rarely. It requires us to donate all our emotional, spiritual, and intellectual energy to being with another person. I can recall only a few occasions... See more

“What I need, what I am trying to build, is — I coin this phrase by analogy to a memory palace — an attention cottage . ... When I sit down in a chair with a book in my lap, a notebook at my side, and no screens within reach or sight, I am dwelling in my attention cottage.

The great artists and thinkers cultivate a systolic/diastolic rhythm, tension

... See more

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”

― Simone Weil

15/ That whole experience taught me something unforgettable - attention is an ACTION. It changes things. When you give attentive curiosity to the world, people notice Sometimes they respond to the implied invitation. Are there risks? Sure. I nearly got mugged in Cape Town