attention economics.
The Crocodile in My Feed
A hungover hour of crocodile videos turned a feed into a swamp. Recommendation loops treat a pause as permanent demand, and what we see over and over starts to feel like real-world risk. The fix is to break the loop and step back into the real world.
Read the full thing →The Danger of the “Just a Joke” Cultural Shield
A clipped SNL monologue calling women in gym wear whores drew a wave of pushback, landing in the same news cycle as the Cornell 7 lawsuit. Degrading humour does not exist in isolation: it normalises victim-blaming and feeds a split feed where outrage is rewarded. NBC’s bet is that the traffic is worth more than respect for its audience.
attention economicsThe Death of the Three-Act Brand Narrative
The three-act brand story assumes you control the stage, but the feed drops your brand between unrelated content and gives it a second to land. The brand-as-mosaic approach makes every post, reply and package detail work on its own, so the full picture builds up over time. Rhode and Slack show how it works.
attention economicsThe Perspective Shift for a Saturated Brain
Doom-scrolling every crisis at once leaves nothing left for action. The shift is radical focus: pick one cause, one community, one lane, and use your voice there.
most read in this topic.
The Crocodile in My Feed
A hungover hour of crocodile videos turned a feed into a swamp. Recommendation loops treat a pause as permanent demand, and what we see over and over starts to feel like real-world risk. The fix is to break the loop and step back into the real world.
The Danger of the “Just a Joke” Cultural Shield
A clipped SNL monologue calling women in gym wear whores drew a wave of pushback, landing in the same news cycle as the Cornell 7 lawsuit. Degrading humour does not exist in isolation: it normalises victim-blaming and feeds a split feed where outrage is rewarded. NBC’s bet is that the traffic is worth more than respect for its audience.
The Death of the Three-Act Brand Narrative
The three-act brand story assumes you control the stage, but the feed drops your brand between unrelated content and gives it a second to land. The brand-as-mosaic approach makes every post, reply and package detail work on its own, so the full picture builds up over time. Rhode and Slack show how it works.
The Perspective Shift for a Saturated Brain
Doom-scrolling every crisis at once leaves nothing left for action. The shift is radical focus: pick one cause, one community, one lane, and use your voice there.
From Surveillance Anxiety to the Content Omnipresence
Found footage horror ran on the fear of being watched. That fear is obsolete. The new dread is that you cannot exist without becoming the camera, and the horror genre has already moved on to say so.
The "Burnerverse" and the Monetisation of Misogyny
A WIRED investigation exposed a network of anonymous college sports accounts trading in doxxing and non-consensual images, amplified by mainstream sports media. It is the clearest case yet of the attention economy paying for harm.
How to Exit the Cultural Casino
Every screen in modern life is now built like a casino floor: no clocks, no windows, endless variable rewards. Here's what marketers get wrong about gamifying everything.
Welcome to the Maxed-Out Brain Economy
Consumers are burnt out on complexity, and the booming “Stupid Game Economy” proves it — sometimes the best thing a brand can offer a maxed-out brain is a beautiful cognitive offload.
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