Intention vs. Attention

This won’t be an old skater yelling at the clouds. Only using skateboarding as a historical marker in the ever-evolving attention economy.

In the days of VHS tapes and DVDs, to watch a skate video you had to physically go to the shop to watch it, or know a friend who had it, and if you were lucky, they’d dub it for you. 

To ingest the media, you had to intentionally seek it out. Physically move your body, interact with someone. 

Versus today, content shoved into our eyeballs at an alarming and addictive rate, most of which we did not choose. 

Enough with the skate nostalgia; stepping back into the pedestrian world, it’s the same or even worse. Want something, Amazon will have it at your doorstep tomorrow. Your furniture didn’t make the move; it’s okay. It was designed to be disposable. 

For the privileged, the barriers or tension for most things are non-existent. With no barriers, no tension, no time invested, there’s no attachment, no relationship.

It started with consumer goods. Now with AI: art, video, ego-grooming human-like interaction is one prompt away. 

We focus on view-count, shares, virality, the holy grail: attention. Max eyeball efficiency to be slightly less disposable but ultimately forgotten. 

What’s the last thing you happily stood in line for? Went out of your way to experience? 

What do you long for, seek out, struggle to get? Does it hold more value? 

Desire plus time creates intention. Intention forces action. Action creates value. In people, in product, in brand.