If we consider what the work of attention is like, how continuously it goes on, and how imperceptibly it builds up structures of value round about us, we shall not be surprised that at crucial moments of choice most of the business of choosing is already past.

From the author’s point of view, the threat really isn’t piracy; it’s obscurity.

Today the average college student or corporate worker considers themselves a “multitasker”. ...They end up with a huge list of things that fracture their attention. This isn’t wrong in any way–for the most part it’s admirable–but there is an old saying: to a hammer, everything looks like a nail. To a chronic multitasker, everything is a task. Soon, the things in life that are really important to them are in the same list as everything else, and the only tasks that get done are the ones that have become urgent, but often aren’t very important.

Because of this they are driven by an addiction to the urgent and continually respond to the the four P’s—those things that are Pressing, Proximate, Pleasant and Popular—leaving very little time to do those things that are truly important.

The most basic way to get someone's attention is this: Break a pattern. Humans adapt incredibly quickly to consistent patterns. Figure out what is counterintuitive about the message-i.e., What are the unexpected implications of your core message? Communicate your message in a way that breaks your audiences' guessing machines.

Strategy and structure are fundamentally about attention. After all, in the world of everyday decision-making, what are strategy and structure? Both strategy and structure are mental constructs, important not in themselves, but for their impact on the people in the organization. There is no absolute reality of a firm's strategy or its structure, or at least not one that we can all agree on. Rather, strategies and structures are tools to help us think. They matter only to the extent that they help executives, managers and employees work effectively. In other words, they are vehicles for focusing attention.

Organizational structure is the plan for, and the reality of, how power and responsibility are distributed across an organization. We humans are social animals. So, inside our groups, we focus on hierarchy; outside, we focus on the identifiable groups or individuals who represent opportunity or threat. Thus, organizational structure is a powerful vehicle for focusing employees' and external stakeholders' attention on a particular aspect of the business. It sends a message that some issues are more important than others.

What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.

A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.

Awareness is not a giver of solace--it is just the opposite. It is a disturber and an awakener. Able leaders are usually sharply awake and reasonably disturbed. They are not seekers after solace. They have their own inner serenity.

Attention is the currency of the information age.

The fact that the Web is distracting is not an accident. It is the Web's hyperlinked nature to pull our attention here and there. But it is not clear that this represents a weakening of our culture's intellectual powers, a lack of focus.... Maybe set free in a field of abundance, our hunger moves us from three meals a day to day-long grazing.... Perhaps the Web isn't shortening our attention span. Perhaps the world is just getting more interesting.