A person’s life experience equals what they have paid attention to

Evidence

For how we spend the brutally limited resource of our attention will determine those lives to a degree most of us may prefer not to think about. As William James observed, we must reflect that, when we reach the end of our days, our life experience will equal what we have paid attention to, whether by choice or default. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 22

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the moral seriousness of attention as the currency of a life, not just an economic resource.
• APHORISMS: James’s line is near-timeless life advice: what you attend to is what your life becomes.
• XREF: connects to: An attentional experience can reveal whole swaths of familiar environment previously unheard — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 369; Attention enables individuals to become themselves, not merely survive — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 486; Every particular psychic content is exceeded by lived experience itself — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 829 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• An attentional experience can reveal whole swaths of familiar environment previously unheard #expands (0.85) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 369
• Attention enables individuals to become themselves, not merely survive #expands (0.82) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 486
• Everyday moments of attention can be framed and shared as art experiences #exemplifies (0.82) — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 372
• Every particular psychic content is exceeded by lived experience itself #expands (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 829