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The Economics of Attention
Unit 3: The Attention Tax
What stands out
Your strongest insight is buried on page 4 — that your own notification settings are a form of self-imposed attention tax. That's a genuinely original connection between Simon's scarcity framework and your personal data. It should be your thesis, not your afterthought.
What the course remembers
In Unit 1, you argued that attention is a resource people willingly trade. Your own data contradicts that — 73% of your attention shifts were triggered by notifications you didn't consciously choose to receive. You haven't reckoned with what that means for your earlier argument.
A question for your revision
If most of your attention shifts are involuntary, is "paying" attention even the right metaphor? Or is something being taken from you?
What makes this different
01
You pick the topic. The course is assembled from real scholarly sources — books, papers, documentaries — structured into a sequence that builds genuine understanding. No pre-made content. No one-size-fits-all syllabus.
02
Every assignment gets substantive, specific feedback. Not a grade. Not a rubric. A response that engages with your actual arguments, names what you're doing well, and pushes your thinking into harder territory. It remembers your earlier work.
03
Each unit builds on the last. Readings get more challenging. Assignments demand more sophistication. The feedback evolves as you do. By the final unit, you're doing work you couldn't have done at the start — and the course knows it.
The full experience
Someone typed the economics of attention.
Here’s what they got.
Built around your topic, with readings sourced from open-access databases.
A 4-unit transdisciplinary course at the intersection of technology, neuroscience, and the economics of your mind.
Each reading comes with a guide telling you what to watch for.
Unit 1 · The attention marketplace
— Herbert Simon
Simon wrote this in 1971. Notice how precisely he predicted the problem.
— Tim Wu
Watch how he traces the business model, not the technology.
— Federal Trade Commission
Government primary source. Read for the regulatory framing, not just the facts.
Assignments match the discipline. This one asks you to analyze your own data.
Track your own attention for 48 hours using a detailed log: every time you pick up your phone, open a new tab, or switch tasks, note the time, the trigger, and what you were doing before.
Then analyze your data. What patterns emerge? How much of your attention shifting was self-initiated versus prompted by a notification, algorithm, or design choice?
Write a 5-page analysis connecting your personal data to at least two of the theoretical frameworks from this unit’s readings.
Not a grade. Specific observations about your thinking, with questions that push you further.
attention_log_analysis.pdf
5 pages · submitted Oct 14
Overview
Your attention log is remarkably honest — most students clean theirs up. The raw data tells a story your analysis hasn’t fully reckoned with: you spent more focused time on your phone than on any single reading this unit. That’s not a failing. It’s the most interesting data point in your entire submission.
You reference Tim Wu’s framework extensively but treat Herbert Simon’s attention scarcity model as an aside. Simon is actually making the more radical claim.
What happens to your argument if attention isn’t just scarce but actively diminishing?
Your next move
Your strongest insight is buried on page 4 — that your own notification settings are a form of self-imposed attention tax. Start your revision there. Make that the argument, not the afterthought.
Restructure your argument and resubmit. The second round of feedback responds to what you changed — and what you didn’t.
What shifted in your thinking? What questions are you carrying forward? The course reads these. They shape what comes next.
Arriving at Unit 2
Your attention log told a story your analysis didn’t fully reckon with — you spent more focused time on your phone than on any reading. This unit’s neuroscience material explains why.
Carry this forward
Bring your finding about notification-triggered attention shifts into this unit’s readings. See if the neuroscience explains the pattern you found.
This is one unit. The readings get harder. The feedback gets sharper. And the course remembers everything you wrote.
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