The Attention Economy

The industrial economy. The information economy. And now, perhaps, the attention economy. That’s the theme for the Emerging Technologies conference I’ve been at the last day and a half.

“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention” stated Herbert Simon, a Nobel Laureate Economist. I, for one, feel like I’m drowning in information. My e-mail box overflows, I’m subscribed to many RSS news feeds from different web sites – and concerned there’s still others I should be reading, but don’t have time for. Add in multiple other information sources (conversations, cable news, radio, and such) my attention is at a premium.

Now, my attention is a commodity. Buy it. Sell it. Trade it. The good news is, I stay in control – to the extent that I choose what to give my attention to.