Cost-Benefit of Attention


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Old (as in 1999), but interesting article here by Charles Sieloff.

What I liked about it was the idea that there are two sides of “knowledge provision”. One is concentrating on making information/content etc more valuable, more relevant and more helpful; the other is ignore the benefits of that information and instead focus on how to make sure the costs of paying attention to information are lowered, both for individuals and for groups.

Put another way, let’s say the value of a “knowledge system” is V, then there is an implicit equation for working it out.

V(ks) = V(info) – Cost(attention to info).

And the ways to maximise the value of the system? Concentrate on improving the value of the information, concentrate on reducing the cost of paying attention to it, and both together. Erm, easy as falling off a log.