“I've been talking about income inequality in America for twenty years, and when I was president, people didn't pay much attention to it, probably because wages were going up. But I don't think I've given a single solitary speech since I left office that I hadn't talked about it. It's a problem around the world and within the United States. So these people have put that on the agenda.” PeopleThinkingWorldYearsStatesProblemAmericaLeftGivenPresidentUnitedPayAttentionTalkingUnited StatesSpeechOfficeTwentiesIncomeInequalityAround The WorldAgendasSolitaryWagesIncome Inequality Author:William J. Clinton
“Patronizing the Arts is a brilliantly nuanced assessment of why universities must become art patrons. Learning from the twentieth-century university's embrace of Big Science, Garber argues that twenty-first-century universities must rigorously devote their attention to Big Art. Provocative, witty, and layered, Patronizing the Arts cogently demonstrates the advantages for both art and the university in this new and radical alliance.” FirstsArtBigsAttentionCenturyArt IsAdvantageTwentiesEmbraceUniversityWittyArguingRadicalTwentieth CenturyAlliancesAssessmentProvocativePatronPatronizing Author:Peggy Phelan
“We live in a world that is so quick to lose people's attention, and to move on to the next thing. We live in a YouTube world, so it's hard to build something slow like you did fifteen or twenty years ago. You have to have the kind of show that keeps people interested.” PeopleWorldYearsKindHardShowsMovingNextLosesAttentionLike YouYears AgoTwentiesFifteenYoutube Author:Gary LeVox
“This story is the ultimate example of American’s biggest political problem. We no longer have the attention span to deal with any twenty-first century crisis. We live in an economy that is immensely complex and we are completely at the mercy of the small group of people who understand it – who incidentally often happen to be the same people who built these wildly complex economic systems. We have to trust these people to do the right thing, but we can’t, because, well, they’re scum. Which is kind of a big problem, when you think about it.” PeopleThinkingFirstsWellsKindStoriesProblemBigsHappensPoliticalDealsAttentionEconomyGroupsEconomicCenturyExampleBuiltMercyUltimateTwentiesCrisisComplexesRight ThingBig ProblemsEconomic SystemsSmall GroupsAttention SpanScum Author:Matt Taibbi
“Cooking is not about convenience and it's not about shortcuts. Our hunger for the twenty-minute gourmet meal, for one-pot ease and prewashed, precut ingredients has severed our lifeline to the satisfactions of cooking. Take your time. Take a long time. Move slowly and deliberately and with great attention.” LongMovingAttentionMinutesLong TimeTwentiesCookingHungerSatisfactionEaseMealsIngredientsPotConvenienceShortcutsGourmetTake Your TimeLifelines Book:The French Laundry Cookbook Source: The French Laundry Cookbook
“If the regular length of a shot is increased, one becomes bored, but if you keep on making it longer, a new quality emerges, a special intensity of attention.' At first there can be a friction between our expectations of time and Tarkovsky-time and this friction is increasing in the twenty-first century as we move further and further away from Tarkovsky-time towards moron-time in which nothing can last—and no one can concentrate on anything—for longer than about two seconds.” IfsFirstsTwoLastsMovingAttentionQualitySpecialCenturyExpectationsShotsTwentiesBoredLengthSecondsIntensityMoronFriction Author:Geoff Dyer
“Holly walked rapidly into the cockpit, strapping herself into the pilot's chair. "Seven and a half hours to save the world. Isn’t there some law that says we get at least twenty-four?" Artemis strapped himself into the co-pilot's chair. "I don't think Opal bothers with laws.” ThinkingWorldLawHoursPayAttentionHalfFourTwentiesSevenSave The WorldHalf HoursArtemisHolliesOpal Author:Eoin Colfer
“[There] are cases where there is no dishonesty involved but where people are tricked into false results by a lack of understanding about what human beings can do to themselves in the way of being led astray by subjective effects, wishful thinking or threshold interactions. These are examples of pathological science. These are things that attracted a great deal of attention. Usually hundreds of papers have been published upon them. Sometimes they have lasted for fifteen or twenty years and then they gradually die away.” PeopleThinkingWayYearsHumansHas BeensSometimesDiesUnderstandingCan DoHuman BeingsResultsDealsAttentionCasesEffectsExampleInvolvedPaperResearchTwentiesInteractionFifteenPapersSubjectiveDishonestyThresholdWishful ThinkingLack Of Understanding Author:Irving Langmuir