Notes Toward a Theory of Attention
Abstract
Attention is the one budget no productivity system can grow. This short book takes that seriously: it treats attention as a measurable, conserved quantity, sketches a minimal model of how it is allocated, and draws out a few consequences for design, reading, and the shape of a working day.
This is a small book with a single, stubborn idea: that attention is conserved. You cannot manufacture more of it, only spend what you have more or less wisely. Each chapter takes one face of that idea — the problem, a model, and what follows — and tries to say something exact rather than merely motivational.