Longform essay analyzing strategies and consequences of attention-seeking tactics in media and digital culture.
In a series of essays in partnership with Squarespace, we’re making sense of our relationship with reality and how culture is constructed.Making it real is now an act of rebellion, a middle finger to the paralysis brought on by consensus collapse. The line between fact and fantasy continues to blur, but when reality is this negotiable, the soil for preferred futures is fertile. You can just do things. What’s the future you want to see? Making reclaims agency amidst lost meaning. So, don’t escape this reality — design the one you want. We desperately need your alternatives.A website makes it real. Design your world and then get discovered this new year. With built-in tools for SEO and visibility, ensure your vision is discoverable. Track attribution with advanced analytics to learn how or where your audience is coming from. Build a future and find your people.Get StartedThe following piece is a collaboration between Matt Klein + Nick Susi.Nick Susi is a writer and strategy executive, exploring the technological, societal and psychological forces that shape our identity, perception and culture. He has led strategy for dotdotdash, Complex, The FADER and Jay Z’s former media brand Life+Times. His research and writing can be found in Business Of Fashion, Metalabel, Dirt, Boys Club and Joshua Citarella’s Do Not Research.Why are you here?We are at war.An attention war.And right now, soldier, we’re losing on all fronts.In the 5th century BCE, Chinese general and philosopher Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War. It’s the oldest known military treatise in the world. It’s a collection of numbered maxims on how to understand and win battles. Now, in our modern attention war, perhaps there are some amendments to be made to his principles for surviving a battlefield where our own minds are under siege every waking second.And make no mistake. If you don’t learn to command your attention, soldier, someone else sure as hell will.For thousands of years, across ancient history to modern cultu