attention is sacred
exploring the sacred nature of "attention"
sari and
attention is sacred
Rather than the contracting of our muscles, attention involves the canceling of our desires; by turning toward another, we turn away from our blinding and bulimic self. The suspension of our thought, Weil declares, leaves us “detached, empty, and ready to be penetrated by the object.”
Robert Zaretsky • Simone Weil’s Radical Conception of Attention
Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself and bloom
Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself and bloom
The fastest growing sector of the culture economy is distraction . Or call it scrolling or swiping or wasting time or whatever you want. But it’s not art or entertainment, just ceaseless activity.
The key is that each stimulus only lasts a few seconds, and must be repeated.
The key is that each stimulus only lasts a few seconds, and must be repeated.
Ted Gioia • The State of the Culture, 2024
Instead of movies, users get served up an endless sequence of 15-second videos. Instead of symphonies, listeners hear bite-sized melodies, usually accompanied by one of these tiny videos—just enough for a dopamine hit, and no more.
This is the new culture. And its most striking feature is the absence of Culture (with a capital C) or even mindless entertainment—both get replaced by compulsive activity.
Narrating and listening foster each other. The narrative community is a community of careful listeners. A particular kind of attention is inherent to careful listening. People who listen carefully are oblivious to themselves; they immerse themselves in what they hear: "The more self-forgetful the listener is, the more deeply what he listens to is
... See moreThe real question is, where does scarcity still exist? It exists where it has always existed—in the distribution layer, with the limits on human attention. Artificial intelligence can generate abundance in creation, it can even create new currencies, but it cannot convert attention into currency. Only human beings can do that.
I’ll go even further... See more
I’ll go even further... See more
via Daisy Alioto
Jeff Bezos on retraining our attention spans
Many things in modernity are brain dead, but I can’t think of anything worse than the short form dystopias of TikTok and Instagram. They’re materially making people dumber, breeding addict behavior (particularly in the young) and ultimately ruining the lives of normies. It’s depressing to think about the countless kids who might have started garage... See more
Adam Singer • TikTok and Instagram are intellectual poison
Our attention is sacred. It’s an act of worship in itself. An act of spiritual, mental, and emotional formation. When you give something your attention – a movie, a conversation, a project at work – you’re declaring it the most important thing in your life. It may sound dramatic, but at its core, it’s true. When you pay attention to something,... See more