Extracting attention

Chronic fatigue is something that persistently persists. And in a world of “connection,” the inbound doesn’t slow down. Because what capitalism does is extract. Extracting raw material, then money, then time, and now attention. However, the demand to scale attention hits the limits when all that is coming in is just noise. (Hang on, I just had another email come in.) It becomes easy to say to your team to put your head down and do the work. But when there aren’t enough hours in a day or showing no progress after putting in the time, we can all begin to understand why Newman from Seinfeld was always so cranky.

“Because the mail never stops Jerry.” — Newman

The more you get out, the more it just keeps coming in. We can point to the constant noise and interruptions coming in and say, “Do better.” But when will someone stop and say, “Turn the music down! I’m trying to get real work done around here.”