flâneur

You're shaped by what you pay attention to - Sherry Ning

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We have whites in our eyes because we care about what other people are looking at. The most universal symbol is the arrow (→) because of how primitive it is: the spear precedes words, alphabets, and compasses. It’s a line with a tip at one end, and it’s enough to imply “LOOK”. Its shape embodies its function—to point, to pierce, to direct. Every road sign, every cursor on a screen, every gesture of a finger uses this prehistoric grammar of attention. To point at something is to make it matter. Attention is a vector: there is always a direction to its magnitude. To attend is to stretch toward (Latine, attendere), like a limb straining or bending to reach something. That’s why attention is measured in payments: it’s costly to pay attention because to reach toward one thing is to withdraw from others. We call it the attention economy because it, too, abides by the law of scarcity. Attention moves like a liquid, flowing from one thing to another like a pile of magnetic dust coagulating aro

We have whites in our eyes because we care about what other people are looking at. The most universal symbol is the arrow (→) because of how primitive it is: the spear precedes words, alphabets, and compasses. It’s a line with a tip at one end, and it’s enough to imply “LOOK”. Its shape embodies its function—to point, to pierce, to direct. Every road sign, every cursor on a screen, every gesture of a finger uses this prehistoric grammar of attention. To point at something is to make it matter. The Little Schoolmistress, Chardin, 1740 Attention is a vector: there is always a direction to…

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