The Fight for the World's Most Precious Currency
How Distraction is Stealing Your Creativity
Since my last essay, this community has somehow doubled in size. What’s going on here?! Welcome aboard this delightful chaos, and thank you for signing up! And for the veterans who’ve stuck around. Wow. You must really like my ramblings. I see you. Grateful for everyone of you.
So, now that the formalities are out the way, let’s get to it. Here is this week’s post.
Your attention has always been valuable. But who are you spending it on?
No matter where you are in this beautiful world, this will always hold true: Without people, you can’t survive. We are co-dependent beings. It’s swirled in our DNA and you can’t change it, baby.
Even Thoreau came back to civilisation. Robinson Crusoe yearned for connection. Isolate someone for too long and see it turn to a wild beast.
And I am sucker for silence, really. Sometimes all I want to do is be, with me, alone.
But experiences are amplified when shared.
The thrill of sharing a sunset. The rays evenly laying on everyone’s skin, toes dipped in the sand, hearing the beers clap while the waves ruminate back. These moments, the small gestures are the ones that make us move, the spark of our inner fire.
The energy must come from somewhere, no?
Without these experiences, we dry up. Running on fumes, they say.
Or sounding like a trucker at midnight gulping his 6th cup of coffee while puffing his last cigarette from his 24th pack. You don’t want to hear that voice raw. Trust me.
We need connection, we need to be embraced by the ocean or by the gentle arms of someone you love. To dance without a care in the world. To lock eyes with someone and lose track of where we are. To share a meal so warm it paints memories that linger for years.
But most importantly we need to want it, to be open to feeling it. We’ve all met a good hugger. The kind of person who never let’s you go, no matter what, they will be anchored there until the last sunlight fades away. Because beyond the awkwardness lies comfort. Beyond reacting lies raw, unfiltered feeling. In those moments the tick of the clock becomes irrelevant.
And here is where it all gets a bit messy, folks. Love, ecstasy, every hug, every tear — all of it sits on top the most powerful currency this universe has ever touched: Our Attention.
What would you spend it on if you had total control?
History has been shaped by attention grabbing stories, as Yuval Noah Harari has likely said a few hundred times now. Attention is a form of power, however can harness it, owns the world. From ancient camp fire tales to Roman Story tellers and now, social media. Attention has always been the agent of change. And we’re in the midst of a shift, one that’s rotting human connection. Algorithm-driven consumption is eroding the essence of our shared experience.
And here’s the terrifying question: Will the next Da Vinci even be born? And if they are, will we notice? Will their art, their brilliance, pierce through the noise of viral distractions? Or will it fade into oblivion, drowned out by endless scrolls and flashing notifications?
We are creating a numbed society, blocking people’s creative personalities, who have been made to feel guilty about their own strengths and gifts as they swim in a sea of perfection through the digital realm. This is why I feel the need to write and share all of this, imagine if all these people who feel blocked, numbed and useless started creating art, think all the people that could be moved, all the change that could be made, all the inspiration it could create.
The act of making art exposes a society to itself. Art brings things to light. It illuminates us. It sheds on our lingering darkness, It casts a beam into the hear of our own darkness and says “See?” — The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.
Our attention is finite, precious, and under siege. Choose wisely who and what you spend it on. It’s the foundation of all connection, creation, and meaning.
Don’t let it slip unnoticed.
Get out there. And Create.
Please take some time to share your love,
Alejandro x
Thank you Taylor. You know it's a good book when you can't stop highlighting everything! Enjoy the Way :) I loved it.
This is so true. Everyone at their core wants attention. We can't have community without it. It's a good idea for all of us to assess what and who we're giving our attention to and why. From there, we can be more intentional in our expression in our creative pursuits and relationships!