Attention is a luxury good
76 comments
·October 18, 2025andy99
BuyMyBitcoins
I can’t watch YouTube without an adblocker. On a surface level, I hate the ads. But, the main reason is the fact that I can’t stand how YouTube is fixated on trying to make you watch something else at all times. I need something to hide all the little cards and interstitials that pop up when pausing the video, the badges, all the obnoxious thumbnails, etc..
I also hide all of the videos on the sidebar except for the one that would be recommended next, just so I can know what might play if I leave autoplay on.
It is insane to me that the product got to this place. I get Google is all about advertising, but my goodness, YouTube is just designed to make you not pay attention for more than a few seconds.
noir_lord
Ublock Origin and Unhook[1]
Lets you remove as much or as little of the "UI/UX" as you want - don't want to see shorts, recommended vids, end cards etc - live comments (who even asked for that) you don't have to.
It collapses YT back to been an intentional thing - I'm looking for a video to watch, I watch it, it suggests nothing and I go on with my day instead of getting distracted by the skinner box.
[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/youtube-recom...
ryandrake
At this point this functionality should just be built into browsers. It's 2025. We shouldn't still need extensions to provide table stakes functionality like content blocking.
BolexNOLA
This is also why I love Freetube. No nonsense, just what I want in front of me the rare instances I’m on YT these days. Only annoying thing is having to update it every few weeks
fainpul
As somebody already mentioned, uBlock Origin helps.
I have these in my filters to make YouTube bearable:
www.youtube.com###comments
www.youtube.com###related
www.youtube.com###sponsor-button
www.youtube.com###donation-shelf
www.youtube.com##.ytp-endscreen-content
www.youtube.com###chat:remove()
www.youtube.com##ytd-reel-shelf-renderer.ytd-item-section-renderer.style-scope
www.youtube.com###chat-container
echelon
I hate ads and use adblock on websites too, but I also wonder how this stuff gets paid for. We're counting on "normies" footing the bill for our technical sophistication.
I don't care about blogspam, but a lot of YouTube content clearly costs money to make.
qntmfred
Ad-free YouTube Premium is a Luxury Good
nemomarx
Even with premium you still can't hide suggested videos, shorts, the front page is still messy...
bigyabai
Which is why I pray everyday at the shrine of my 10tb 5200rpm spinning rust and yt-dlp client.
carlosjobim
Aren't luxuries supposed to be expensive?
nxor
For meaningful focus our brains need uninterrupted periods.
I use Brave, though I know its reputation could be better.
BoredPositron
The only way to get a sane YouTube experience is to deactivate the history and only use the subscription page but that has other downsides.
surcap526
[dead]
UncleOxidant
My wife got a new android phone recently and she was showing me that her picture gallery now has ads. My Android phone from 5 years ago lets you look at the pictures in the camera app, but hers does not and makes you see ads to look at the pictures you've taken. This is evil.
Awesomedonut
Ads on the picture gallery is insane. How is this even allowed?
ryandrake
Anything is allowed if customers allow it and keep buying the products.
LaFolle
I think that is where the power of current AI chat interfaces like chatgpt beats other digital interfaces. You ask a question. Get just an answer back in more or less same format or grammer. And no ads. No distractions. Clean.
Though it is tough for ai chat providers to keep it that way for long if revenue from subscriptions / apis does not offset the exorbitant compute costs.
seba_dos1
Having used GNU/Linux on all my PCs and smartphones for nearly two decades now, I feel the joy of missing out on this. It's bad enough on the Web already, I can't imagine my own devices adding their own layers on top.
Seattle3503
What set-up do you have on your phone?
rubyfan
I bought a new treadmill with a 24” screen on it. The screen should have been the red flag I guess. They want $40 a month to use the screen if I want to watch Netflix while I run, or sync my running data to Apple Health. There is no way to change this as far as I can tell and if they went out of business I’m sure my equipment would become a brick.
ileonichwiesz
I guess it’s time to pop it open and do one of those classic “how I rewired this thing to work how I want” HN posts.
nxor
Completely agree, and it's sad that people put their machines over relationships with other people / coworkers / focusing on those relationships.
MichaelZuo
It’s always been like that, misanthropes, psychos, regular scoundrels, etc. have always existed.
Of course in the past there were less opportunities to hide or excuse that kind of behavior.
fn-mote
> misanthropes
You're underestimating the impact, in my opinion.
Almost EVERYONE puts their devices over relationships.
Not as bad, but even when the relationship gets priority, it can be mediated by the device. E.g., texting close family members. It's another chance to be a victim of attention-stealing because you start the device session for a good reason.
BolexNOLA
It’s all a battle for your second screen
pwdisswordfishs
> A Birkin bag is a luxury good, and so is reading an entire non-fiction book, listening to a public radio broadcast
The latter two items statement make this more of a self-report* than anything else. I have never read more more books nor listened to more podcasts than the year when I was homeless.
* the author doesn't actually enjoy those two things and considers their value to lie in signaling ("sending a message")
shermantanktop
The payoff is the last line: “ If you’ve signed up to offer an attention-luxury good, you undermine it when you also try to make it quick and convenient.”
Culture is also a luxury good, by this definition. If you read the Wikipedia summary of a Shakespeare play, you can fake a basic understanding of the plot. But you’ve gotten the social proof (e.g. dinner-party survival) without the deeper appreciation of the characters and their motivations.
As far as that goes, empathy seems to be a borderline luxury good at this point.
UncleOxidant
> As far as that goes, empathy seems to be a borderline luxury good at this point.
Empathy isn't optional. It's necessary for a functioning society. The fact that some people are starting to view empathy with suspicion is an indicator of the decline of this one.
CGMthrowaway
Society is a luxury good (?)
CGMthrowaway
> Culture is also a luxury good, by this definition.
Has always been. One of the key ways the upper class defines themselves is by their sensitivity for good taste AKA sensibility[1] (as in "Sense and Sensibility"). Haute couture, fine arts, etc. "Good" taste is of course dynamic, but that's beside the point.
[1]An understanding of or ability to decide about what is good or valuable, especially in connection with artistic or social activities. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/sensi...
FloorEgg
It seems that way (re empathy as a luxury) but I don't think it's true.
Empathy builds cooperation and biases towards game theory optimal, which increases chances of survival and furniture thriving.
It doesn't seem like this right now, because all our luxuries are built on momentum enabled by past empathy.
In fact it's the lack of empathy (and curiosity) for others that is causing more suffering and an increasing trend towards lose-lose dynamics, it's just hard to see because the scale across people, time and space is so vast.
Like everything else (reality as vibrations), it seems that global empathy oscillates up and down across generations, with a long-term trend upwards.
So I don't think empathy is a luxury, empathy enables luxury. It's just hard to see past the silver spoon narcissists and collective victim mentality in the current context. I'm optimistic more empathy is in our future, even if not short or medium term.
UncleOxidant
Well said. There's an odd suspicion of empathy at this point (even some right-wing Christians calling empathy evil which is really odd considering what the founder of their religion taught). There's so much grievance on all sides that's being fueled by various media outlets and algorithms. Grievance says "I've been uniquely wronged". And it leads to giving up on empathy so as to get even.
CGMthrowaway
I suspect your comment references Allie Stuckey, who wrote a book "Toxic Empathy" and was viral in a video with this idea recently.[1] To the unfamiliar reader, her concept of "toxic empathy" can be boiled down thus-
-Empathy becomes "toxic" when it encourages a person to affirm sin, validate lies or support destructive policies
-Truth over feelings. Biblical love does not blindly affirm an individual's feelings or choices if those choices violate moral truth
For a tangible example of these ideas and their connect to the Gospel (what "the founder" taught), watch the video.
blfr
I know that words are largely arbitrary and arguing terms isn't very valuable but these phenomenons already have fairly commonly used names.
OP writes about conspicuous consumption/leisure, not really luxury. Similarly, while a Birkin bag could be considered a luxury good, its defining feature is being something more, the artificial scarcity and increased demand with price amke it a Veblen good.
Also, things you can buy with attention aren't really expensive, they're just constantly priced. That is you have 10-14 hours of attention a day, and you use it or lose it, every minute of attention is largely the same, with a little ADHD you can switch quickly. Listening to a concert online and going to the philharmonics costs about the same in attention.
lazyfanatic42
I had to re-read the brief article 3 times to understand it, I find the wording particularly difficult to parse for some reason. I admit, I am not the brightest, but there is something very off with how it is put together to me.
CGMthrowaway
In that regard, he is practicing what he is preaching :) If his intention is to offer a blog post that is a "luxury" to read, that is, conspicuous consumption, he's doing himself a disservice if he makes it too easy to understand. I don't necessarily agree, but in the words of Jeff Goldblum, well, there it is.
null
amelius
Attention is worth money. It is about time society acknowledges this obvious fact. If you want my attention you must follow a protocol, like with regular payments where you don't put your hand in my pocket.
bobek
Adam Grant had recently Daniel Immerwahr on attention span and how it really has not shortened despite popular beliefs.
In the age of social media and short-form content, many people insist that our attention spans are getting shorter. But historian Daniel Immerwahr reminds us that people have cried wolf for centuries about technology hijacking our attention. In this episode, Adam and Daniel dive into evidence that what’s changing is not our attention spans, but the objects of our focus. They also discuss moral panics of the past, compare the cognitive benefits of video games and the opera, and debate whether or not Marvel movies are a waste of time.
https://podcastaddict.com/worklife-with-adam-grant/episode/2...
FuckButtons
Im not sending the rest of the world signals to because of how I choose to spend my time. Nor is the alternative optimized adaptive survival. I can’t figure out if I’m the one with the alien mind or he is. I go to music events because the experience is qualitatively different than listening to music at home, when I choose to do things, it’s because I want to, not because I have any interest in what other people think of me for engaging in those activities.
asim
Can't tell if it should be upvoted or not because attention is devoted to many addictive behaviours which I'd argue are not a luxury but the desperation of people who have been exploited or attempting to escape.
You don't become addicted because of luxury. Attention is not a luxury. It's our time. It's our most precious resource and when it's "wasted" it's often because something is going terribly wrong.
ileonichwiesz
> You don't become addicted because of luxury.
The definition of a luxury is “Something that is not essential but provides pleasure and comfort.”
I’d actually argue that you can only get addicted to luxuries. You wouldn’t say you’re addicted to food, water, or shelter because you need to have them every day.
brailsafe
> You don't become addicted because of luxury. Attention is not a luxury.
Hmm, I think there's more nuance here, how about cars? Many people let themselves be much more dependent on them than they need to be, and in many cases adjusting their life around the car or the assumption that you'll always have this behemoth thing with an engine parked outside at all times sucking money out of your bank account, making your muscles and maybe social skills atrophy, exposing you to the risk of death all the time. You get comfortable with the experience of not having to do anything more than press a button, much like content addiction and smartphones, vaping, etc..
Removing the car creates a sense of pain, you have to move your body, possibly interact
turzmo
I dunno, it sounds like novels and operas and whatnot are the luxury goods paid for with attention. In this case attention (or time, more simply) is the thing that is spent, taking the place of money.
stared
It fits the "attention is a precious resource" metaphor (in the sense of Johnson and Lakoff metaphors.
Alike overfishing, alike taking most of land from nature to cities, mining and agriculture, we can look at attention as a resource than once was ubiquotious, now is scarce... and luxury.
Havoc
I like the parallels to time more - everyone has a finite amount & spend it wisely. Handbag..idk the metaphor doesn't really work for me
The article probably could just have been that statement, but I agree.
Every experience now just seems like people (companies) fighting over who can most obnoxiously distract you.
I bought a new phone recently for the first time in 8 years, and (a) had to set everything up all at once (ad blocking, no notifications, etc) which left me briefly exposed to how bad things are but (b) had to experience all the annoyingness of a modern phone trying to suggest things and sync things and bother me with stuff I don’t want.
No product is even remotely for the consumer anymore, they’re all just minimal pretenses to try and advertise you and extract more of your attention and money.
So yeah, outside some sheltered life of luxury, it’s a constant fight to preserve focus against people wanting to steal it.