attention is sacred
exploring the sacred nature of "attention"
sari and
attention is sacred
“DOING SOMETHING It is so much easier to not do something than to do something. Even the smallest task, like filling out a Scholastic Books order form or putting away the butter, requires time, focus, and follow-through. It’s astounding, actually, that anything gets done at all, by anyone. But then, let’s say you finally are prepared and determined
... See moreThe hardest thing is making anyone care.
In the Renaissance, a Florentine merchant could sponsor an artwork that would matter for centuries. In the early days of the American republic, a pamphlet could catalyze revolution. Today, even the most earnest Substack post risks being skimmed between an AI-generated video essay and a TikTok about luxury... See more
In the Renaissance, a Florentine merchant could sponsor an artwork that would matter for centuries. In the early days of the American republic, a pamphlet could catalyze revolution. Today, even the most earnest Substack post risks being skimmed between an AI-generated video essay and a TikTok about luxury... See more
Joan Westenberg
You’re doomscrolling because you’re looking for something to transform you but you can’t stay with one thing for long enough to be transformed by it. You have short attention span on an existential scale. You’re gliding past thousands of small worlds in minutes, laughing at one post, feeling dread at the next, tempted to buy something right after.... See more
Sherry Ning • You’re bored because you don’t love anything
close attention inevitably facilitates transformation. Tsing calls this “the arts of noticing”, tactics for thinking without either the abstraction produced by quantification or deeply held assumptions of progress. If we are “agnostic about where we are going, we might look for what has been ignored”
aron • File
It’s almost like boredom doesn’t exist, like difficulty doesn’t exist, scarcity doesn’t exist. And a feeling I’ve been having a lot lately is that scarcity is often what creates meaning. When you’re surrounded by infinite possibilities, when you know around the next corner is another video that might be funnier, you’re never going to sit with the
... 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
There was joy in concentration, and the world afforded an inexhaustible wealth of projects to concentrate on. There was joy in effort, and the world resisted effort to just the right degree, and yielded to it at last. People cut Mount Rushmore into faces; they chipped here and there for years. People slowed the spread of yellow fever; they sprayed... See more
