Chris Hayes

The TV can't travel with you. Magazines can, but eventually you read everything in the New Yorker and that's it. The birth of the smartphone produces a ubiquity of attention to be captured and sold that just represents a kind of break.

The TV can't travel with you. Magazines can, but eventually you read everything in the New Yorker and that's it. The birth of the smartphone produces a ubiquity of attention to be captured and sold that just represents a kind of break.

I agree. And I think, you know, when you had Graham Burnett on the show, who's great on this and attention researcher, you know, he talks about fracking, right? And the point of the metaphor fracking, right, is that you need more supply. So, you know, there used to be a certain category of oil you could get, and then market demand said you had to go get more of it, and they figured out a way.

I agree. And I think, you know, when you had Graham Burnett on the show, who's great on this and attention researcher, you know, he talks about fracking, right? And the point of the metaphor fracking, right, is that you need more supply. So, you know, there used to be a certain category of oil you could get, and then market demand said you had to go get more of it, and they figured out a way.

And there is something very similar happening, obviously, here, right? The expanded supply. So, like, eating into your sleep hours, that's more supply. Getting children, that's more supply. Looking at two or three things at once, which would have seemed totally, like, antisocial and borderline deranged. Two or three years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago.

And there is something very similar happening, obviously, here, right? The expanded supply. So, like, eating into your sleep hours, that's more supply. Getting children, that's more supply. Looking at two or three things at once, which would have seemed totally, like, antisocial and borderline deranged. Two or three years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago.

Like if someone did that 10 years ago, you would have been like, what are you? It would be so weird. The qualitative or subjective experience of what attention is, is shifting.

Like if someone did that 10 years ago, you would have been like, what are you? It would be so weird. The qualitative or subjective experience of what attention is, is shifting.

Yes, the book was written before I think he kind of got a second chapter.

Yes, the book was written before I think he kind of got a second chapter.

That's a great point. Yes, I think he backed into the purchase of Twitter based on a kind of howling personal void. But in the same way that Donald Trump backed into the same insight born of his personality and his – upbringing in New York tabloid world, he figured something out that has been obviously tremendously valuable in dollar terms.

That's a great point. Yes, I think he backed into the purchase of Twitter based on a kind of howling personal void. But in the same way that Donald Trump backed into the same insight born of his personality and his – upbringing in New York tabloid world, he figured something out that has been obviously tremendously valuable in dollar terms.

One of the really important ironies here, which I think does map onto labor, is that the aggregate of attention, like lots of attention or the collective public attention is wildly valuable. Right. Volodymyr Zelensky is a great example of this. Right.

One of the really important ironies here, which I think does map onto labor, is that the aggregate of attention, like lots of attention or the collective public attention is wildly valuable. Right. Volodymyr Zelensky is a great example of this. Right.

The president Ukraine, like he understands that attention on Ukraine's plight is essentially the engine for securing the weaponry and resources his country needs to defend itself.

The president Ukraine, like he understands that attention on Ukraine's plight is essentially the engine for securing the weaponry and resources his country needs to defend itself.

And yet, even though the aggregate of attention is very valuable in market terms, each one of our individual attention, the second a second is like pennies, fractions, not even pennies, not even pennies, fractions of pennies. And that was exactly what it was like with labor.

And yet, even though the aggregate of attention is very valuable in market terms, each one of our individual attention, the second a second is like pennies, fractions, not even pennies, not even pennies, fractions of pennies. And that was exactly what it was like with labor.

when Marxists would say labor is a source of all value, they were right in the aggregate, take away all the workers and the industrial revolution doesn't happen. But to the individual worker in the sweatshop, the little slice of labor that you're producing is both everything you have as a person and worth nothing in the market, almost nothing.

when Marxists would say labor is a source of all value, they were right in the aggregate, take away all the workers and the industrial revolution doesn't happen. But to the individual worker in the sweatshop, the little slice of labor that you're producing is both everything you have as a person and worth nothing in the market, almost nothing.