On the Economics of Attention

Have you ever realize how some people (and not only girls!) get shocked when you refuse to pay attention to them?? as if they were thinking that just because they have something to say or show, the rest of the world is obliged to check them out.

Well, Herb Simon once said that the fundamental scarcity in the modern world was scarcity of attention. Why might this be true? applying some Ec101 thinking: if there are demands for everybody’s attention, there is certainly not as much supply. So here is a rule of thumb by Hal Varian to keep in mind:

"if you want someone to pay attention to you, you have to give them a reason to do so"

Let it be for conferences, thesis seminars, friends, and even flirting: it applies in the same way. Finally, here's another interesting quote by Simon that explains why:

What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its
recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a
need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of
information sources that might consume it

I found it astonishing true