Regen Library #4 - Taking Back Control in the Attention Economy - James Kiernan from Octant

Transcript

taking back control in the attention economy hello all JT here this is Edition number four of the regen library and our first installment written by James Kiernan this was written in July of 2023 James is a friend of mine whom I met at eath Denver and you can find him on Twitter at VP abundance he's been interviewed previously on the EV Mavericks Discord and as a friend of the eat Finance subreddit we met in Denver in February 2023 over a hot plate of KC barbecue that I prepared and we became Fast Friends currently he's the head of community for octant and the Golem Foundation previously he has lived in

Silicon Valley he's taught yoga meditation breath work and movement mechanics to a diverse group of people James has been in the ethereum ecosystem since 2015 and joined Golem in 2022 thanks for listening let's get started I recently watched Kevin owaki's talk at HCC on the attention economy it was really good in an argument that's been made before by Tristan Harris the basic idea is that major social media platforms fiercely compete for our attention using highly sophisticated AI algorithms to keep us engaged for as

long as possible thereby increasing their profitability they do this by tapping into our base emotions like fear and anger leading us towards more argumentative and divisive behaviors these behaviors in turn increase our engagement and time spent on these platforms resulting in Greater profits for them he asserts that this unhealthy obsession with capturing and monopolizing our attention results in a race to the bottom of the brain stem it leads to an unhealthy social media environment characterized by divisiveness hatred fear and outrage if we are on social media it's pretty easy to see that he and others who are

shining the light on this have very credible points but what can we do about it over the past 10 years I went down the Deep Rabbit Hole of attention and Consciousness learning through growth practices that have transformed my life fundamental to this transformation was my mind learning to understand what attention really is and who I am I know this sounds woo-woo but I promise you'll get something out of it if you keep going with me here there's this monologue you could call it a voice going on inside your head you can direct it to think about certain things and other times your thoughts wander around

randomly this inner voice has been with you your entire life so it can be very easy to make the assumption that this voice is you but in meditation they teach a concept of quote subject and object unquote what does that mean an easy metaphor would be to consider that a camera is unable to take a picture of itself try it with your phone right now a pen cannot write on itself a mirror is unable to reflect its own image unless you get two mirrors of course so the idea then is that because we can observe our thoughts we are not in fact them at our core level

they are simply a tool and experience just like our other senses I mentioned before about our wandering thoughts when we're not focusing on our attention directly where do those come from our subconscious mind developmental biologist Bruce Lipton suggests that the subconscious mind is a million times more powerful than the conscious mind in terms of processing capabilities whether that status completely accurate it's not extremely important but I pointed out because it highlights that the subconscious mind is very much a force in your experience and a very powerful

one your subconscious is a creature of habit especially from your experiences growing up most of us experienced some types of hardships growing up and it's those experiences that our subconscious mind tries to protect us from experiencing ever again now what do you think the attention economy is trying to do then there are numerous studies on humans negativity bias stating that quote bad is stronger than good unquote researchers suggested that negative experiences tend to elicit stronger and more pervasive responses than equally intense positive ones your subconscious

is trying to protect you survival of the fittest has been embedded within our Evolution for an extremely long period of time but you are the one ultimately in charge no matter what your subconscious might be suggesting in a response no matter how intense of a feeling you might be having you are the one that wields the control over your attention this is why meditation is such a powerful tool if you're like me and many others the monkey mind will always have excuses when you sit down to meditate on why you should get up and do something else this isn't working this is dumb I have more important things to do I could go

on and on but as you notice this resistance and just sit with it allowing it to be there but not allowing it to control your actions you begin to Take Back Control so if you wish to make changes in your life maybe changing how you spend your time or how you respond to hostile responses on social media then beginning a practice such as meditation yoga or breath work can be a really powerful tool for you there are countless books podcasts videos and subscription resources at your disposal I personally love the Wim Hof method and other forms of yoga and meditation but the reason

why there is such a variety is because we each respond well to different things at the end of the day all paths lead back to one source which is rediscovering your true self and your inherent happiness thank you James we appreciate your involvement with us at green pill helping to build the regen Library remember to follow James at VP abundance on Twitter consider sharing this and other content from greenpill to the region world we are building if you have content you feel would be a great contribution for the Region Library reach out to us on our site greenpill.network join our Discord or hit us up on Twitter at greenpillnet who

knows maybe you too will find a spot in our crypto card catalog even better start or join a chapter today will help with the rest on behalf of green pill my name is JT cheers and big hugs from Kansas City foreign [Music]