Context emerges only through sustained, humble, open attention over time.

Evidence

So far, I’ve argued that practices of close attention can help us see into nuanced ecologies of being and identity. This kind of understanding has a few important requirements. First, it asks us to loosen our grip on the idea of discrete entities, simple origin stories, and neat A-to-B causalities. It also requires humility and openness, because to seek context is already to acknowledge that you don’t have the whole story. And perhaps most important, an ecological understanding takes time. Context is what appears when you hold your attention open for long enough; the longer you hold it, the more context appears. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 520

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• DEFINE: Defines ecological understanding via its three requirements, culminating in the claim that context is a function of held attention.

Related

• Ecological understanding requires time and holding attention open (similarity 0.94)
• Sustained attention inevitably yields awareness of complicity and responsibility (similarity 0.79)
• Exposition must signal its own complicity through tempo and tentativeness. (similarity 0.79)
• Understanding context is a collective survival skill. (similarity 0.79)