“A stirring battle cry on behalf of our shared humanity against the forces that seek to diminish and degrade it. Downright invigorating. Just what the moment calls for.”—Chris Hayes, author of The Sirens’ Call
“At a time when most reports are of the world getting worse, here’s a zinging, erudite book that arrives with the happy news that one thing can get better if we put our minds to it. Attensity! is about how to reclaim one of our most powerful and valuable qualities—our attention—through a path back to the human things that matter: community, care, imagination, and art.”—Nathan Heller, staff writer, The New Yorker
“Attensity! reminds us that how we attend to the world shapes what the world can be for us, and for one another. With a lively, even joyful blend of philosophical seriousness and practical imagination, it invites us to see attention not as a private asset to be hoarded but as a shared capacity to be cultivated and protected.”—Kwame Anthony Appiah, author of Cosmopolitanism
“Attensity! is a thrilling declaration of independence from tech’s tyranny over our human spirits. We feel the human and humane surge to renewed life through its call to each of us to reclaim ownership of our own attention.”—Danielle Allen, author of Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality
“It is not always that you come across a book that changes how you see the world. Attensity! is an extraordinary book—every chapter has revelations that will make you stop and reconsider how you are living your life and reclaim the life that we have been given.”—Tim Wu, author of The Age of Extraction and The Attention Merchants
“Attensity! is an unprecedented, impassioned intervention in one of the urgent crises of the twenty-first century.”—Jonathan Crary, author of Scorched Earth
“This timely call to action shines a light on the technological and corporate forces that have captured and monetized our attention. Drawing on fields as diverse as neuroscience and philosophy, Attensity! offers a brilliant analysis of the fallout of attention capture for selfhood, community, and the environment. An illuminating and liberating read.”—Rob Nixon, author of Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor
“This is an ambitious text that will demand much of all of us readers beyond the page. It is asking vital questions about the potential of rewiring our lives in a time of growing crisis, where avalanches of information and access threaten the present and future of care, of close attention. Very thankful to have spent time with this.”—Hanif Abdurraqib, author of There’s Always This Year
“Pay attention: If you are human, you must read this book. Also, please note that the term ‘attention’ has been colonized and made to mean the opposite of what it used to. According to AI people, it now means clearing out context to make less work for pattern-finding algorithms. Don’t let algorithms clear YOU out.”—Jaron Lanier, author of You Are Not a Gadget
