Intention with Attention
“An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life:
“A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.
“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil–he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”
He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you–and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.””
Friends!
I have written many times about one of my core beliefs: we are what we eat eats. Meaning, the food we put into our bodies and what that food has been fed (its diet, its fertilizer, its pesticides, its care in general, etc) determines a large part of our own health. My daughter, Rosanna, was the inspiration behind adding the second "eats," since it is not only WHAT you eat, but also what went INTO what you ate. If you eat a large fish, you basically eat many little fishes (and, unfortunately, a ton of plastics these days!)
However, this outlook extends to more than just food, but also the ideas and media we consume. We are all drinking from fire hoses every day. You have to try very hard to be selective in what flashes across your screen. Which brings me to another super important topic: ATTENTION.
I think it is fair to say that we all suffer from some type of attention addiction. In the history of humanity, we have never been surrounded by so much distraction. We are drowning in information but searching for knowledge. It has had a ripple effect in our emotional state and social lives. It has certainly contributed to our political instability and to a worrying uptick of depression, anxiety, and loneliness. Loneliness, in particular, might sound paradoxical given the plethora of options we now have, but perhaps it is because of all the choices that we feel overwhelmed. I wrote about the Paradox of Choice in this blog previously.
I will, on purpose, try to keep it very short today. I want to avoid contributing to your distractions and the loss of your own intentions on a wonderful Sunday morning. It all comes back to INTENTION, not ATTENTION. We need to be more mindful about what we are watching, who we are listening to, and who we are spending time with. All of the noise is stealing from us our most precious resource, TIME, and influences what we think and, therefore, what we do and, ultimately, who we are.
So, here is the problem in a nutshell:
We live in an economy that very much profits from your attention. It’s become its own currency: likes, clicks, views, shares, reposts. It's even called the ATTENTION ECONOMY. And the real problem is that we have created business models that profit and thrive from grabbing your attention continuously. Most of the internet economy makes money from collecting data about your behaviors and preferences, such that they can sell advertising with higher accuracy in their targeting and, therefore, charge more for it. In the early days, this wasn't so much of a problem. It seemed rather innocuous. But with machine learning and AI, the massive scale of data collected, and the concentration of technology in the hands of few, the problems have become quite conspicuous and dangerous for humanity at large. The cracks are showing; there’s no hiding it. It is, in a way, a vicious loop. Many shareholders make a lot of money on behaviors that make us all less happy. It's almost like we can't afford to stop distracting ourselves! We simply have to break that loop and find a new path. A good place for us to start is with intentionality with our screen time and the things we consume.
Below, I list great articles, talks, and films to watch if you are interested in this attention problem. It's not lost on me that I am offering you distractions to learn about distractions. Oh, well. Nobody is perfect! Seriously, though, I believe this deserves both our attention and our intention. As I wrote last week, the Internet is another perfect example of something that is generally GOOD and that we want to protect, but aspects of it (the underlying business models) are bad. Therefore, out of love, we must correct our course and protect what is good and limit what is bad.
Loved this NYT article about Michael Goldhaber, who has been on the topic of the Attention Economy for decades.
The Social Dilemma on Netflix. It's a must-see. It explains the problem with our business model of the Internet perfectly.
Seth Godin's recent blog on algorithms and how they "take or give" is good. We have the power to make algorithms work for good rather than evil!
Roger McNamee (early Facebook investor) talks with Chris Anderson of TED about the issues with the big tech platforms.
Tristan Harris' TED talk from 2017. He was a design ethicist at Google. He also was part of producing The Social Dilemma and has created a not-for-profit around these important issues: The Center for Humane Technology.
Jaron Lanier's powerful TED talk from a few years ago around HOW WE NEED TO REMAKE THE INTERNET.
That was rather short, wasn't it? I will now give back some time for you to take a few deep breaths, tell a few people that you love them, and recommit to your intentions for how to have a most beautiful day.
Intentionally yours,
