Esther Dyson on the Attention Economy and the Quantification of Everything

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4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2013

⏱️ 61 minutes

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Summary

Esther Dyson talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the market for attention and how technology has changed, how much we pay attention to others, and vice versa. Along the way Dyson reminisces about Steve Jobs, the nature of the start-up and venture capital world, and the future of space travel.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:06.4	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:11.0	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find links
0:16.3	and other information related to today's conversation.
0:19.0	You'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done going
0:23.3	back to 2006.
0:25.4	Our email address is maladycontalk.org.
0:27.9	We'd love to hear from you.
0:29.8	Today is January 3rd, 2013, and my guest is Esther Dyson, author, investor, and my
0:39.6	favorite title in a long time, internet court jester, spelled J-E-S-T-H-E-R.
0:45.0	Esther, welcome to Econ Talk.
0:47.2	Thank you.
0:48.2	Glad to be here.
0:49.2	Our topic for today to start with, at least, is an essay you wrote recently on what is
0:52.5	called the Attention Economy.
0:54.1	The idea that a lot of us spend time on the internet in very non-commercial ways, but
0:59.5	I'm sure we're going to get into other issues as well, but let's start there.
1:02.3	What do you mean by the Attention Economy?
1:04.3	Okay.
1:05.3	Well, first, and somewhat ironically, I need to make sure to point your attention at Michael
1:13.6	Goldhober, who originally, I'm not sure who originally coined the term or the concept,
1:20.0	but he was definitely there early, and he wrote a piece, or we corrode, I don't know,
	...

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