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 ...
Before you ask for a raise, ask yourself: has the role already hit the roof? "You can be the best driver in Nairobi, but unless you're delivering hearts for transplant, your salary has a ceiling." — A Kenyan HR consultant, off the record The Myth of Infinite Growth We are told, especially in motivational settings, that hard work and loyalty will take you far. But how far is “far” when the role itself has no ladder? In Kenya, it’s common to confuse working in a growing company with having a growing income . They are not the same thing. A company can expand from KES 10 million to KES 1 billion in revenue — and still pay its office administrator the same KES 50K it did five years ago. Why? Because some roles are structurally capped . You don’t hear this in job interviews or town halls. But it’s the silent truth behind many stagnant careers. Private Sector: The Shiny Trap In Nairobi’s private sector, salary ceilings often hide behind big brand names. Working for ...