I seldom check my notifications first (or even second) thing in the morning.
The moment my mind registers new information is when it starts running laps through processing, connecting, worrying, or strategizing.
I think it's the same for the average modern person.
Not sure if we've collectively acknowledged this shared predicament or if we're all individually convinced we're uniquely scattered.
This is where systems thinking reveals its own trap. We can analyze feedback loops and emergent behaviors all day, but we miss the system we're actually embedded in: the attention economy.
Of course, if you need to stay informed on what's going on in this beautifully crazy world of ours, then kicking the proverbial can down the road becomes almost inevitable.
The world doesn't pause for your mental clarity.
Markets shift, crises unfold, opportunities emerge and vanish, all while you're trying to maintain some semblance of intentional thought.
This can aka our cognitive sovereignty (i.e, the ability to direct our own attention), gets kicked further down the road until we realize we've been operating on someone else's agenda for months.
Jump to the end and travel back into the beginning.
Imagine looking back so far on this year. How much of what felt urgent actually mattered?
Reverse engineering puts the spotlight on something uncomfortable about our information diet.
Most of what captures our attention won't register in our year-end reflection, even though it may have consumed our most precious resource in real-time.
The people who seem most "in the know" about everything are sometimes the least capable of sustained deep work.
Meanwhile, if you're creating things that matter, you may have learned something counterintuitive, i.e strategic ignorance is a competitive advantage.
A keen observation that I always find interesting is how the most productive people seem to know less about daily news cycles but more about what actually moves the needle in their field.
I think also this is where the dumb money analogy becomes useful.
Many of us are day-trading our attention without any strategy for long-term cognitive wealth building, so to speak.
Think of near endlessly scrolling through a social media feed, jumping from a friend's vacation photos to a breaking news headline, then to a political debate, and finally landing on an ad for something you mildly considered buying.
Smart money in the attention economy operates differently.
Patient, selective, and focused on fundamental value rather than momentary volatility.
The difference between dumb money and smart money in the realm of cognition is recognition.
If you're lucky enough to understand that attention is your most valuable asset, you're already ahead of most people who are still giving it away for free.
But understanding isn't really enough, especially when you factor in the sheer momentum of these systems designed to capture and monetize your attention.
For myself, the main challenge is sustained implementation.
Such as maintaining awareness of what's genuinely important without always drowning in what's merely urgent.
At a surface level, an answer could be digital minimalism. Maybe, complete disconnection if that's your preference and circumstances allow.
Both definitely have their merits and limitations, the former can feel restrictive and unsustainable.
And for the latter, it could leave you genuinely out of touch with important developments that may affect you directly or indirectly.
I personally have set my eyes on developing what you might call "cognitive arbitrage," which can be defined as the ability to spot the difference between sets of information, and to consistently choose the information that serves your highest ideals.
A fundamental shift from reactive to intentional engagement is required here, and it's something that I've not managed to nail yet.
Both the challenge and the solution aren't whether you can afford to be selective with your attention.
It is whether you can afford not to be, because in an economy built on your mental real estate, unchecked attention is usually a liability.
Thanks for reading!! Share your thoughts below on the comments.
