10 theses on attention

Ashley Zhang

Mar 14
56
2
12

Reflections from Art of Being Human #2 with philosopher Adam Robbert
Read →

Shalaka | The Quiet Brain Club
Mar 15
Liked by Kanjun Qiu, Ashley Zhang

Absolutely love your writing. Point 7 gives me hope and reassurance in building the Quiet Brain Club.

Stephen Hanmer D'Elía,JD,LCSW
Mar 19
Liked by Ashley Zhang

Great reflections Ashley. I'd push back on thesis #2.

Distraction may be perennial, but the current attention economy works through a qualitatively different mechanism. Variable reinforcement, infinite scroll, and algorithmic feeds do not just compete for conscious focus. They train the nervous system into the same defensive narrowing trauma produces: constriction, shortened time horizons, and collapse of presence.

The monks' complaint about illuminated manuscripts was about beauty pulling the eye. What we face now is engineered dysregulation at population scale.

That distinction changes where the intervention lives. If distraction is perennial, the answer is better discipline or better institutions. If the attention economy is a mass dysregulation system, neither willpower nor legislation reaches the actual site of damage. You can't legislate your way to resonance. You can't detox your way to depth.

I explore this further in The Attention Wound: What the Attention Economy Extracts and What the Body Cannot Surrender