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by yen223 305 days ago
> In the 1970’s, Herbert Simon pointed out that when information becomes abundant, attention becomes the scarce resource.

Attention is scarce, but what makes it valuable?

4 comments

It’s literally what you experience in your life. I’d say I value my life a lot, in the end it’s all I actually own.

On the other hand, others value my attention because they can make fractions of a cent by making me look at stuff, because there’s a minimal chance they’ll convince me to spend money on stuff of probably little value.

Seems to me they don’t value my attention a lot, and I don’t get much of value out of it.

Its fuel for your life goals, lets you think about where, what and how you want to do things for yourself. As opposed to being led along by what other's tell you you want. I'm not a philosopher but this seems like a good reason for why its valuable.
> Attention is scarce, but what makes it valuable?

Attention's value lies in its scarcity and its ability to drive action, connection, and influence.

Every moment you spend focusing on something comes at the cost of not focusing on something else.

For a certain definition of information, its net volume and availability on the internet has been declining for quite a while. There is a growth of bytes with zero information content (ai slop, influencer video, ...), worse discovery tools (search is dead), and outright negative information (political disinformation, ads). Net value tends negative.

Attention is still being consumed.