Well written. The deepest point I noted is that attention is not merely a productivity tool as much as it is formative.
What we repeatedly attend to becomes the material from which we build a life. That is why distraction is more consequential than lost time. It fragments authorship. We begin reacting to whatever is loudest, newest, or most emotionally charged instead of deciding what deserves our finite awareness. Your framing of attention as something we “pay” gets at that cost especially well.
I also agree that depth is becoming a genuine competitive advantage. As the cost of producing content approaches zero, volume tells us less and less. The scarce resource becomes sustained human attention on both sides of the exchange: the attention required to think something through, and the attention required to receive it.
The one place I would push back slightly is on the idea that meaningful living requires cutting out anything that does not serve our goals. Some of the most important parts of life are inefficient by design: friendship, wandering, play, contemplation, even boredom. The better test may be whether something serves the person we are becoming, not merely the goals we are pursuing.
That makes “focus is the removal of options” a much larger claim than it first appears. Choosing what receives your attention is also choosing what kind of life gets the chance to emerge.
Idle attention doesn’t rest. It chews on unfinished loops and other people’s urgency. Depth only happens when you cut the cheap options and stay with one thing long enough to be changed by it.
The phone grayscale / fewer apps part is unglamorous and it works.
I hope the cohort is tangible to a retired master teacher. i would love to evaluate your skill from a teaching lens. you are very inspiring. I enjoy every word you utter 🙏 oss
You are a legend!! I’ve read a couple of your articles and I only find exactly what I need to hear, from a guy my age. Awesome 👏🏽. I’ll work on myself and hopefully in a couple of months or years I’ll look to have a chat with you about the great things we’ve discovered in these times.
I got up at least 3 times to place something in the right spot or move something to find where that was again, if it was in the last location which I left it...
This was interesting...
I am familiar with the idea of being bored and scheduling , but this was helpful in how eloquently it was worded ... I will revisit it again because you tend to absorb it or notice things you didn't on the first time... Like an ever growing stack of notes you won't ever revisit, I am going to read this again because I got distracted oh the irony... With a dwindling ability to focus from endless amount of information ... It really does pay to get your edge back by returning to pre-2000's mental plateau...
Nah it's good writing , I'm babbling random words , I encourage you to continue on your wordsmithing endeavours not that you needed my support to keep you going but you get my 🦭 seal of approval 👍
You are so close to the truth, my friend, yet so far! You correctly see that your mind is a trap of past and future, and you seek 'attention'. But you are using attention as a business tool, an investment to get higher ROI and sell courses. Don't turn the sacred power of presence into a productivity hack. Save your focus not to create a better product, but to dissolve your ego and simply celebrate being alive.
Now I will be resuming uni second year and I have to figure out something that will work for me and me alone.
I am on holiday now and will be resuming school by September.. what I am doing this holiday is trying to read up for my second year coarses especially the introduction.
Anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, embryology and so on.
I am studying to be a dentist in the future and it's looking likely I will be one.
I can't help but create so I fucking have to create a time for this aside school everyday .. even if it's 1hr for creation and 1hr for socials.
...she knew the present moment was the only thing that was certain.... GRATITUDE ❣️....she did have absolute control over what she attended to.... Which changed her entire perspective on experiencing what it meant to be alive and human.... GRATITUDE ❣️....
ATTENTION ~ Which means “to stretch toward.... GRATITUDE ❣️....
I love when I find a substack article that perfectly articulates my feelings (really desiring a nokia brick and never opening instagram again!)
🙌🔥
Resonated two things:
#1. Good ideas are always counter intuitive. So always do the opposite.
#2. Anything you create that requires another person’s attention, you are selling. Selling is hard, and so is earning and holding someone’s attention.
Practical advice from article:
1. Audit your life ( see all tasks you're currently doing daily / weekly )
2 Cut out everything that does not serve your goal
3. Leave only the high ROI tasks and focus on them mainly
4.Curate your attention ( phone on greyscale , turn off notifications , delete all socials )
5. Don't multitask ( one work block = one task = one outcome ) same for rest blocks.
I read your articles with full attention top to buttom. As always keep doing more ! You've got our support.
Well written. The deepest point I noted is that attention is not merely a productivity tool as much as it is formative.
What we repeatedly attend to becomes the material from which we build a life. That is why distraction is more consequential than lost time. It fragments authorship. We begin reacting to whatever is loudest, newest, or most emotionally charged instead of deciding what deserves our finite awareness. Your framing of attention as something we “pay” gets at that cost especially well.
I also agree that depth is becoming a genuine competitive advantage. As the cost of producing content approaches zero, volume tells us less and less. The scarce resource becomes sustained human attention on both sides of the exchange: the attention required to think something through, and the attention required to receive it.
The one place I would push back slightly is on the idea that meaningful living requires cutting out anything that does not serve our goals. Some of the most important parts of life are inefficient by design: friendship, wandering, play, contemplation, even boredom. The better test may be whether something serves the person we are becoming, not merely the goals we are pursuing.
That makes “focus is the removal of options” a much larger claim than it first appears. Choosing what receives your attention is also choosing what kind of life gets the chance to emerge.
Thank you so much, Craig.
This means a while lot to me.
“Stretch toward” is the right picture.
Idle attention doesn’t rest. It chews on unfinished loops and other people’s urgency. Depth only happens when you cut the cheap options and stay with one thing long enough to be changed by it.
The phone grayscale / fewer apps part is unglamorous and it works.
What did you cut that helped the most?
Wow, what I needed to read today. Timeless principles I will be coming back to. Thanks man
I hope the cohort is tangible to a retired master teacher. i would love to evaluate your skill from a teaching lens. you are very inspiring. I enjoy every word you utter 🙏 oss
You are a legend!! I’ve read a couple of your articles and I only find exactly what I need to hear, from a guy my age. Awesome 👏🏽. I’ll work on myself and hopefully in a couple of months or years I’ll look to have a chat with you about the great things we’ve discovered in these times.
I got up at least 3 times to place something in the right spot or move something to find where that was again, if it was in the last location which I left it...
This was interesting...
I am familiar with the idea of being bored and scheduling , but this was helpful in how eloquently it was worded ... I will revisit it again because you tend to absorb it or notice things you didn't on the first time... Like an ever growing stack of notes you won't ever revisit, I am going to read this again because I got distracted oh the irony... With a dwindling ability to focus from endless amount of information ... It really does pay to get your edge back by returning to pre-2000's mental plateau...
Nah it's good writing , I'm babbling random words , I encourage you to continue on your wordsmithing endeavours not that you needed my support to keep you going but you get my 🦭 seal of approval 👍
You are so close to the truth, my friend, yet so far! You correctly see that your mind is a trap of past and future, and you seek 'attention'. But you are using attention as a business tool, an investment to get higher ROI and sell courses. Don't turn the sacred power of presence into a productivity hack. Save your focus not to create a better product, but to dissolve your ego and simply celebrate being alive.
Man another good content by you.
This calendar you created works for you.
Now I will be resuming uni second year and I have to figure out something that will work for me and me alone.
I am on holiday now and will be resuming school by September.. what I am doing this holiday is trying to read up for my second year coarses especially the introduction.
Anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, embryology and so on.
I am studying to be a dentist in the future and it's looking likely I will be one.
I can't help but create so I fucking have to create a time for this aside school everyday .. even if it's 1hr for creation and 1hr for socials.
We need to talk craig.
...she knew the present moment was the only thing that was certain.... GRATITUDE ❣️....she did have absolute control over what she attended to.... Which changed her entire perspective on experiencing what it meant to be alive and human.... GRATITUDE ❣️....
ATTENTION ~ Which means “to stretch toward.... GRATITUDE ❣️....