All You Need Is Attention

"Attention Is All You Need " is an influential research paper published by Google researchers in 2017. This paper marks a significant advancement in artificial intelligence, particularly in language processing. It introduced the so called “Transformer” model and it’s also one of the seminal works that led to Bert and ChatGPT.

But, as you should have deducted from the tagline of this post, I will not talk about AI, neither of AI models or ChatGPT. However, my next words share something with both of the topics mentioned: it’s attention!

At the time of writing, this newsletter has less than 100 subscribers. I have been successful in getting people to subscribe to my newsletter mainly because they know me personally. There are two ways people might have learned about my project - either through direct conversations or by coming across my posts on LinkedIn. Seeing my posts, they thought the newsletter could be interesting, visited my homepage, and subscribed. They trusted me because of our personal connection, but so far, only a few people I don’t know have subscribed.

If you have friends or colleagues who might like this newsletter, please invite them to subscribe. You can share it by clicking the button below:

Just like artificial intelligence puts attention in data to analyze, I need attention for my project. I can say that “All I need is attention”.

We all need attention. It’s in our human nature.This necessity extends beyond our personal lives and into the professional realm, and it’s not just about seeking personal attention. It’s about the attention we give to our work and activities.

I have a great example to help you get this concept. Let’s consider the perspective of Netflix’s founder, Reed Hastings, who once stated that Netflix’s major competitor was sleep. The concept stems from the idea that people decompress from work by watching TV shows or movies on Netflix. In the late hours, they face a decision: surrender to sleep or continue indulging in the captivating content on their screens. There is a battle for attention.

From FastCompany:

Netflix’s need for constant user engagement is a prime example of this struggle. The company must ensure that its content is engaging enough to tempt viewers away from their essential rest.

From this article (the interview was conducted in 2017), the streaming market has changed, and Netflix has also changed (with Reed Hastings no longer serving as Netflix CEO). However, one thing hasn’t transformed: our days still comprise only 24 hours.

We have a limited amount of time to accomplish our daily tasks, and this time becomes even shorter when we consider the hours needed for sleep, meals, and spending time with our loved ones, fulfilling our basic needs. As a result, we have fewer hours to devote to our activities and an increasing amount of attention to allocate. In the end, what truly matters to those who interact with us is our attention.

In a world where attention is rare, both individuals and businesses constantly compete for attention. The allocation of our focus and attention is essential, both in our professional tasks and personal interests. It not only defines our choices and experiences, but also shapes the success and relevance of services and products like Netflix or a newsletter.

If you work in a big company or a multinational corporation, you will receive an overwhelming volume of digital communications. Daily, around a minimum of 50 emails, along with a significant inflow of messages via platforms such as Microsoft Teams or other corporate messaging software like Slack. If you work for a small company or you are a freelancer, it's likely that you will experience the same fate.

Guess what? Everyone wants your attention!

Here, we are not talking about the efficiency or effectiveness of the worker or the work itself, but about the dynamics of digital communication. Evaluating work efficiency is beyond my purview, as there are plenty of specialists who can provide more satisfactory responses in that domain. However, there is a crucial aspect that we often overlook when we say that we receive too many emails or notifications. The individuals sending these emails or notifications are not primarily worried about whether we have enough time to read them.

In a way, it’s like a competition: we are individuals with a limited amount of attention to give, and we receive thousands of notifications every day. The sender of an email, a message, or a call wants their communication to stand out among the rest, hoping that we will find it interesting, important, or potentially beneficial for improving our lives or work. We face the challenge of choosing whom to prioritize our attention to and which communications to disregard.

For example, at Microsoft, I manage an internal newsletter that covers topics in Data Security, the field I currently work in, and where I have many conversations with my customers. It’s a biweekly newsletter (so not published very often) but when I send it out, my primary goal is to capture the readers’ attention.

I don’t care what the recipients are doing, what they are thinking, whether they are on vacation or if it’s the toughest work week of their life. What matters to me is their attention. Whatever they are doing, they must find it interesting enough to open and read it soon (or sooner)!

That's why I ensure the newsletter contains a wealth of captivating content, such as community discussions, reader contributions, and valuable information about Microsoft's Data Security solutions. My readers could actively use this content to engage and start discussions with their own customers. It’s something they can use from the moment they receive it. Effort 0.

It’s likely that when you are reading these lines, disregarding other ones. I know that the reverse can also happen; It’s some win and some lose, but what really matters in the end is capturing attention.

If your success depends on people using your product or service, or if you aspire to advance in your career, it is crucial to receive attention because you want your efforts to be recognized.

For instance, let's consider a scenario where an individual desires to publish a newsletter and use Substack. Lately, Substack has been the topic of much discussion. I’ve written an in-depth piece on the subject, one that I suggest reading if you have a keen interest in the realm of diversity and inclusion (D&I) within the technology industry. It sheds light on the pivotal role played by tech companies and movements, offering an interesting read.

Substack is interesting because its success relies directly on the success of its users who use the platform to publish their newsletters/contents. Substack makes money by deducting a percentage from the payments received for paid newsletters. Therefore, to be profitable, Substack must ensure its users are successful.

However, Substack can’t directly control success, just like none of us can. Thus, Substack's role is to offer an ultra-efficient newsletter publishing service that eliminates registration and fruition barriers for users interested in the content and guarantees effective delivery of the newsletters. These might seem like simple things, but if you don’t want to take on a second job as a web developer, these are important considerations, besides having a significant financial impact on your monthly finances.

Reducing friction in the sign-up and usage process of a newsletter publishing service is especially important for smaller projects. Well-established publications with a recognized brand and established content may not feel as immediate a pressure to minimize these obstacles. This is because many people subscribe to their content knowing it is valuable, based on recommendations from colleagues and friends who follow those publications and find them trustworthy. Smaller and lesser-known publications must prioritize attracting new subscribers since they do not have the advantage of a well-established reputation or word-of-mouth.

Ultimately, it’s always a matter of reputation. In the world of work too, if you already have a reputation, it will be easier to break the ice with you because someone might have talked about you to your boss or your boss’s boss; you have a good reputation. You’ve attracted attention because, as we’ve always said, it’s always a matter of attention. Having an excellent reputation can help ease professional interactions and draw attention. This brings us back to the fundamental concept that whether in the vibrant world of media or the bustling environment of the workplace, the ability to captivate attention is the crucial element for achieving what you need.

Is this attention-gaining-process something negative? Is it wrong or unethical to divert someone’s attention from another content to yours?

Absolutely not; it would be silly to say that.

No matter how hard you try, you can ask for attention all you want, but demanding that it be given to you is something you simply cannot do. Ultimately, the person who must give their attention holds the final say in determining where it should be directed. It is up to him/her to determine what deserves their attention and what doesn't. There's no doubt that in order to attract attention, you need to do something deserving of it.