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Comment by thenerdhead | Hacker News Reader

Attention = Time + Consciousness

Way more valuable than time or money. This is why people(especially buddhists) say to "be present in the moment".

Attention management is crucial in being able to find meaning in today's society. Neil Postman did a good job regarding Huxley's warning to the world.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/74034.Amusing_Ourselves_...

There's even some unique ideas like Zombies in Western Culture which talk about our lack of meaning and insatiability of consuming others "brains":

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35523766-zombies-in-west...

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I want to respectfully disagree. Being present in the moment is not a result of valuing attention, but instead about letting the conversation about the past and the future go. About dropping the fears that were created in the past; the same fears that have us worry about the future. It's about letting go of fears and expectations. Letting go of the meaning we assign to the past and future. About really choosing the perspective that we wish to view the present through, rather than being at the effect of the stories we make up about the past and future.

I don't disagree with anything you said. I'd just summarize it as "mindfulness". Which is present-focused attention in my eyes.

You're describing the what, but if you ask a (meditating) buddhist how to this, they'll tell you to observe your breath (or some other concentration technique), which is an exercise to train your ability to manage your attention. Being (in the) present is a skill.

You are correct, but the parent is also correct. Meditation was a tool utilises by Buddhists (amongst others) to develop stable attention and focus (sans the spirituality of higher "levels" in meditation).

The book "The Mind Illuminated" goes into great detail about this

Being present and in the moment is meant to allow you to observe your feelings and thoughts. If you are present when feeling and thoughts arise you realise they were not there previously so logically they will pass. This allows you to stop clinging to them as if they are you and not some external phenomenon.

Neil Postman is the sort of public intellectual that no longer exists. Classically educated and proud of it, conservative in spirit, tolerant in disposition. The closest we have now is obnoxious dark web trolls whose attachment to liberality is mere affectation.

In the current political climate, Postman would have become an "obnoxious dark web troll" too.

Evidence of that is Rex Murphy, who shares many characteristics with Postman, including a similar reputation, who in these latter years, is in danger of being branded a "right wing troll", as a consequence of contemporary developments compelling him to write articles like this:

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-the-yaniv-outrag...

Thank you for sharing. I suppose you're right, maybe it's the nature of internet discourse that just pushes everybody, no matter how measured or nuanced, into a box.

I don't know of any modern equivalent. Do you have any suggestions or books to read?

The Shallows is a direct contemporary lead-on from Postman.

Yeah I read that one, Irresistible, and a couple others. There was a new one called "Stolen Focus" but it looked like a best seller than something insightful.

Also the classic "Flow" talks about this problem of how people are being robbed of insight by never being able to get into the flow state.

> “Control of consciousness determines the quality of life.”

Agreed, really compelling, great writer.

Ludwig Von Mises might want to introduce us to the idea that value is quite relative. As exemplified in the fact that many people definitely value money/things over attention even though it's one of the scarcest resource along with time. It's constantly devalued through our marketing even though everything rests upon it. The Achilles heel of marketing and public relations.

Attention is enabled by a complex process definitely not reduced to time and consciousness(diet, nutrients, randomness, conditions, psychology, etc)

This idea that there is a measuring ruler and if you are not measuring your life by it your are a zombie is propaganda from the so called Buddhists or the new age crowd who didn't know to leave the boat after they crossed the water.

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