The rise of the "dumb attention" economy
Now if you know anything about markets/investing- you are familiar with the term "dumb money"- If we've participated in a market we were all probably "dumb money" at first unless we were taught the basics beforehand-
Dumb money throws itself into scams, pyramid/ponzi schemes believing them to be good investments- the dumb money believes that they will get something in return for what they have put in- in this case its money-
But what ends up happening is that their investment sinks to zero- they lose what they put in and are left with nothing but a bad taste in their mouth and a valuable learning experience-
Lets now think about "attention"- we only have so much attention to pay to something each day- attention is in limited supply and I'm going to take the stance that attention is one of the MOST VALUABLE commodities that we have as human beings-
Let's think about that phrase "PAY ATTENTION"- this phrase itself refers to attention as a currency with the word PAY
So let's assume that by paying attention to something we are investing in it since we are paying with our attention-
Let's also assume that since we only have so much attention to pay with each day we can run out of it- we can become attention poor- familiar with any of the symptoms of being attention poor? Inability to focus? Inability to concentrate? Decreased memory? Feelings of being lost and confused?
Now lets think about the internet advertising economy, clickbait and the rise of the Youtube commentator on everything yet expert on nothing- they take your attention money- they implore you to "follow, like and subscribe" and what is YOUR RETURN ON INVESTMENT?
The early dumb attention money sponge was the television- and it still is- but you couldn't carry it in your pocket- now the attention money suckers are portable and everywhere at all times-
There's millions of pages/things to view on FaceBerg, Instagoon, Twatter, WhatsAss just waiting to take all your attention money-
There's millions of "time waster" apps and games just waiting to get you addicted and suck down all your attention for the day-
There's millions of Youtube videos to watch created by people/groups people that haven't accomplished anything in life except figuring out how to get people to pay attention to them-
All of these things are taking your ATTENTION MONEY and converting it into REAL MONEY for themselves-
You can probably see where I'm going with this-
I searched around a bit and couldn't find anything relating "dumb money" to "dumb attention" so that's why I'm writing this-
Who or what are you throwing your attention money into every day? Are you acting like "dumb attention" and indiscriminately throwing your attention investment money into a hole hoping to get something VALUABLE in return?
When I first starting investing real money into things I was dumb money- I'd throw money into any person/group that promised the world and used buzzwords I was familiar with-
After seeing the signs enough times and losing enough money I became pretty good at avoiding the scams that prey on "dumb money" Now I consider myself "sort of smart money" ^_^
How do you spot "dumb attention" scams/scammers?
"Time wasters"- that LITERALLY is a category of apps/games! What they should be really called is "ATTENTION WASTERS" now think of "paying attention" and you are wasting your attention money on these things that offer NO RETURN ON INVESTMENT- do they give you skills/knowledge/abilities that you can use to improve your life/and or make real money?
Faceberg/Instagoon/Twatter/etc - I know what people say- "I use these for business, to market myself etc" BULLSHIT, maybe a small minority of users do BUT as an outsider to these kind of horrible attention traps all I hear people taking about in regard to these is USELESS INTERNET DRAMA- Person A posted this and this happened then this person said this and blah blah FUCKING BLAH!
Youtube experts of nothing - "Like and fave guys"- If you are watching these people who pontificate and ponder any subject people will pay attention to without having any special knowledge/skills/qualifications/achievements you are "dumb attention" and you are wasting your time-
Ask yourself this- what GREAT thing has X person done besides figuring out how to be popular on the internet? Yeah, yeah I know they all have a toy line, clothing line, podcasts about internet/pop culture drama, books about being internet famous etc but really- what makes them irreplaceable besides being currently popular?
No one is talking about the "dumb attention" economy especially here in Silicon Valley where I am- Why? Because they are raking in billions of dollars through it!
REMEMBER people in the financial sectors LOVE DUMB MONEY as its what is lining their pockets! The rich don't want the poor to be educated in those matters as they would have to actually work hard for their riches- instead they launch their scams and the dumb money pours in.
Its the same way with "dumb attention"- the people profiting from your attention want to keep you dumb as they are getting rich from it!
Start thinking about your attention as a CURRENCY- as MONEY because thats what we are being used for! And it has a LIMITED SUPPLY- it is very VALUABLE so don't throw it into stupid investments unless you want to be "attention poor" and suffer all the side effects of being so-
It's your life and your attention- please start treating it like the valuable resource it is because you've already made a lot of people rich through giving it to them.
Brought to you by professional weirdo M dot Strange.