The economics of attention

Economics is defined as the study of the allocation of scarce resources. Those resources could be oil, education, people, iPods, time, or about anything else. Economics does not care how those resources are allocated, whether by a price-coordinated market economy or a central decision-maker, only that the resources themselves are scarce, and that by using them for one purpose, they are not used for another.

Attention is one of the scarcest resources we have. We can pay attention to one, maybe two things at a time to the exclusion of all else. Therefore, every thing we pay attention to requires us to forgo paying attention to everything else in the world at that moment.

Most of that is easy. No offense intended, but I am fine with not paying attention to your cat for the rest of my life. That still leave a lot of stuff that I do care about, though. Will I watch a movie, write a post, talk with my wife, get some sleep, clean the kitchen, or read a book? All are things I want to do, but my attention is scarce, and I can only choose one right now.

Despite the costs, though, I still rarely attend to where my attention is. I am more likely to go with my gut (which tends toward selfishness, gluttony, and laziness) than with my mind and heart which desire greater things. I can only spend that attention in one place at a time, though, and I can never get it back.

Attention is scarce. Allocate wisely.