Our attention (the simple act of looking at something) has become our most traded commodity in the world. Companies do not sell products anymore as their primary business. They sell our eyeballs to the advertisers. The more time we look, the more money changes hands. We are not the customer. We are the product being sold. How do you put a price on your time when someone else is making money from it without paying you? When you scroll for an hour, that hour brought in profit for a platform, for advertisers, for content creators, for data brokers. Everyone got paid except one person that spent the time. What makes this more difficult is that the content that is meant to capture attention is often negative. Outrage makes people watch longer than happiness does. Scandal spreads quicker than good news. So the whole system is geared to show us things that make us mad, afraid, or curious about other people's problems. We end up spending our mental energy on things that do not improve our lives and someone else gets richer from that transaction. And how do we guard our attention like guarding our money? Most people manage their spending carefully but have no idea how many hours per week they give away for free to platforms. There is no bank statement for attention. We just spend it until it runs out, and then we wonder why we feel exhausted without getting anything accomplished of any kind. Some people here are talking about being financially independent and accumulating wealth outside of traditional systems. But maybe attention independence is as important as well. Learning to treasure your mental energy - just like you treasure your money. Choosing what is and is not worth your attention Treating your time as finite and not renewable cause it is. The value in your attention has been figured out by the economy. Can you figure out how to keep some of it for yourself? A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat, 1886
Our attention (the simple act of looking at something) has become our most traded commodity in the world. Companies do not sell products anymore as their primary business. They sell our eyeballs to the advertisers. The more time we look, the more money changes hands. We are not the customer. We are the product being sold. How do you put a price on your time when someone else is making money from it without paying you? When you scroll for an hour, that hour brought in profit for a platform, for advertisers, for content creators, for data brokers. Everyone got paid except one person that spent the time. What makes this more difficult is that the content that is meant to capture attention is often negative. Outrage makes people watch longer than happiness does. Scandal spreads quicker than good news. So the whole system is geared to show us things that make us mad, afraid, or curious about other people's problems. We end up spending our mental energy on things that do not improve our lives and someone else gets richer from that transaction. And how do we guard our attention like guarding our money? Most people manage their spending carefully but have no idea how many hours per week they give away for free to platforms. There is no bank statement for attention. We just spend it until it runs out, and then we wonder why we feel exhausted without getting anything accomplished of any kind. Some people here are talking about being financially independent and accumulating wealth outside of traditional systems. But maybe attention independence is as important as well. Learning to treasure your mental energy - just like you treasure your money. Choosing what is and is not worth your attention Treating your time as finite and not renewable cause it is. The value in your attention has been figured out by the economy. Can you figure out how to keep some of it for yourself? A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat, 1886

Our attention (the simple act of looking at something) has become our most traded commodity in the world. Companies do not sell products anymore as their primary business. They sell our eyeballs to the advertisers. The more time we look, the more money changes hands. We are not the customer. We are the product being sold. How do you put a price on your time when someone else is making money from it without paying you? When you scroll for an hour, that hour brought in profit for a platform, for advertisers, for content creators, for data brokers. Everyone got paid except one person that spent the time. What makes this more difficult is that the content that is meant to capture attention is often negative. Outrage makes people watch longer than happiness does. Scandal spreads quicker than good news. So the whole system is geared to show us things that make us mad, afraid, or curious about other people's problems. We end up spending our mental energy on things that do not improve our lives and someone else gets richer from that transaction. And how do we guard our attention like guarding our money? Most people manage their spending carefully but have no idea how many hours per week they give away for free to platforms. There is no bank statement for attention. We just spend it until it runs out, and then we wonder why we feel exhausted without getting anything accomplished of any kind. Some people here are talking about being financially independent and accumulating wealth outside of traditional systems. But maybe attention independence is as important as well. Learning to treasure your mental energy - just like you treasure your money. Choosing what is and is not worth your attention Treating your time as finite and not renewable cause it is. The value in your attention has been figured out by the economy. Can you figure out how to keep some of it for yourself? A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat, 1886

Our attention (the simple act of looking at something) has become our most traded commodity in the world. Companies do not sell products anymore as their primary business. They sell our eyeballs to the advertisers. The more time we look, the more money changes hands. We are not the customer. We are the product being sold. How do you put a price on your time when someone else is making money from it without paying you? When you scroll for an hour, that hour brought in profit for a platform, for advertisers, for content creators, for data brokers. Everyone got paid except one person that spent the time. What makes this more difficult is that the content that is meant to capture attention is often negative. Outrage makes people watch longer than happiness does. Scandal spreads quicker than good news. So the whole system is geared to show us things that make us mad, afraid, or curious about other people's problems. We end up spending our mental energy on things that do not improve our lives and someone else gets richer from that transaction. And how do we guard our attention like guarding our money? Most people manage their spending carefully but have no idea how many hours per week they give away for free to platforms. There is no bank statement for attention. We just spend it until it runs out, and then we wonder why we feel exhausted without getting anything accomplished of any kind. Some people here are talking about being financially independent and accumulating wealth outside of traditional systems. But maybe attention independence is as important as well. Learning to treasure your mental energy - just like you treasure your money. Choosing what is and is not worth your attention Treating your time as finite and not renewable cause it is. The value in your attention has been figured out by the economy. Can you figure out how to keep some of it for yourself? A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat, 1886