Attention is judged by its blooms, not its duration

Evidence

Some plants bud quickly. Some take years. But the flowers are the flowers. This is worth keeping in mind, since one should judge attention not by duration alone, but by the colorful gardens it brings into the mind—and into the world. — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 385

Categorization

• CANDY: A compact, quotable formulation of the chapter’s whole argument.
• XREF: Contrasts with the frackers’ extractive, metric-driven view of attention as measurable yield. — connects to: Rich aesthetic attention requires tolerating delayed understanding — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 433; Attention also varies in quality and mode, not just quantity — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 123; Sale of attention depends on transitory attention while well-being needs sustained attention. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 439