Attention, More Valuable Than Knowledge

For most of history, knowledge has been scarce. People were workers and didn’t have a lot of spare time to get “educated”. To gain knowledge about things you had to read books. For many, even getting books was a problem. Just a generation ago there were quite a few books available but you still had to drive to the library.

Do you have the attention span to finish this article?

With the Internet today, there is no longer a shortage of information. There is more information on your phone than you could possibly know what to do with.

If you need to know how many miles it is between New York and Atlanta, you can find it in 5 seconds. If you want to know all the movies Tom Hanks has been in, it’s mere seconds away.

There’s so much knowledge at our fingertips that the world no longer has a shortage of knowledge.

With more information out there than you could ever process, even with a quadrillion spaces available in your brain, the new shortage in 2016 is attention—not knowledge.

Advertising now is less about information and more about getting someone’s attention. We have an 8-second attention span. [study] (Goldfish have a 9-second attention span.) If you can’t get someone’s attention fast, you will lose it. There’s too much to do and see. If you are boring, my phone is at my fingertips to take me elsewhere.

You need to treat attention as an asset.

Money and power follow attention. Whoever can get the most attention is the person who will get the most results. Never underestimate how much activity it takes to be noticed and to maintain attention in your space. You have to get through the noise to get noticed.

We live in a time in history when there’s never been more noise distracting people. You need to be obsessed with getting attention. Don’t fly under the radar. There is a shortage of people’s attention, and whatever is scarce is valuable.

In today’s world you need innovative ideas, strategies, and practices that you can start using immediately to get attention. What is the cost of you, your brand, and your company remaining in obscurity? You are competing against the entire planet for attention.

Spend a thousand to make a million. Pay the price now so you can pay the price later.

GC