Our attention is finite, yet we spend it everywhere but where it matters. This is not a moral failure. It is a structural one. Attention economics is the idea that in a world overflowing with information, human attention becomes the scarce resource. Whoever captures it, holds power. Over time, this has reshaped not just markets, but inner lives. What we notice. What we ignore. What we can tolerate. What we can no longer sit with. For a long time, people warned that television would rot our brains. In hindsight, television looks almost generous. A show required you to stay for forty minutes. A film asked for two hours. A detective story invited you to notice details, to remember names, to hold multiple threads in your mind at once. You watched. You followed. You waited. Listening to music meant staying long enough to learn lyrics. Reading meant sitting with confusion until meaning arrived. Writing a poem meant wrestling with language, not skimming it. Even boredom had a purpose—it ...
Everyone thinks they can run a better business than their boss—until they try. Before I ventured into business, I worked in the hospitality industry, and let me tell you, that experience was a wake-up call. If you're fresh out of school and dreaming of starting a business, do yourself a favor—get a job first. Not only will you gain industry insights, but you'll also realize that running a business is a whole different beast. Starting a business in Kenya fresh out of school is like jumping into a pool, only to realize there’s no water. Everyone tells you, “Just start something! Be your own boss!” What they don’t tell you is that being your own boss often means being your own accountant, marketer, delivery person, customer service rep, and unpaid intern—all while dealing with friends who think they’re doing you a favor by buying your products at a discount. If you’re dreaming of starting a business in Kenya straight out of school, fueled by optimism and motivational TikTok's,...