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 ...
Poverty isn’t always loud. It doesn’t always look like hunger or sleeping on the streets. In Kenya, poverty often hides behind clean shirts, job titles, rent paid just in time, and Facebook posts that say "Grateful." For many, managing poverty is a full-time emotional and logistical job. It means constantly weighing which bill can wait. It means borrowing with shame, spending with guilt, and surviving on ingenuity. This article explores how poverty management looks in Kenya today—from the city to the village—and why recognizing it matters. What Is Poverty Management? Poverty management is not poverty eradication. It’s the survival blueprint people create when income is not enough to meet even basic needs. It means stretching a salary, balancing multiple debts, dodging financial obligations, making do without, and constantly being in negotiation with life: "Can I afford to get sick? Can I delay rent? Will this 100 bob get me through the day?" It’s skill. It’s stress....