Attention is a zero-sum game

Last updated Aug 15, 2023

• Source: Lawrence Yeo; Sources/More to That - Blog
• Keywords: Cards/permanent notes
  • #attention #cognition #information
• Relevant Notes:
  • Cards/Everything has a cost
  • Cards/Publicity is costly
  • Cards/You have agency over your own attention

• Zero-sum game: situation where one’s gain is another’s loss
• So paying more attention to one thing will mean that we pay less attention to others
• Attention is a ==finite== resource; it needs to be spent wisely
• Information abundance simply means we have infinite opportunities to react to data.
  • The question is: which ones will we react to?

Whenever we point to “information abundance,” what we are really saying is that we have ==“endless opportunities to react to data.”==