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the most powerful attention-consuming tools in the history of the world

2026-10-02 · letter vlog · John · 4:15 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Economics, Nerdfighteria) · mode: Personal essay · tags: calendar ritual, self promotion, on location

On his Hollywood, Ending tour and replying to Hank's video on whether they are still YouTubers, John argues that 'consuming content' really means engaging with art, that our attention is enormously valuable and we choose who captures it, that art predates capitalism and the current system will end, and that Nerdfighteria has demanded the brothers make art rather than content.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting from the tour; reply to Hank's YouTubers video; 'consuming content' means engaging with art under capitalism

  • ★★ John loved Hank's video yesterday on whether they are still YouTubers; it made him think a lot about the phrase content consumption. — 00:00:01 · YouTuber
  • ★★★ John says consuming content is a central theme of Hollywood, Ending: it really means engaging with art, but within capitalism we view that engagement as consumption and art as content. — 00:00:01 · Hollywood, Ending, capitalism
  • ★ Pizzamas rolls on; John is in his 13th different hotel room in 15 days and feels reasonably disoriented; the description says he is on a five-hour drive to his next tour stop. — 00:00:01 · Pizzamas

00:00:29 — Personalized algorithms and the value of attention; Annie Dillard's line; consumption, growth and content as art

  • ★★ John suspects the phrase consuming content says more about our historical moment than it means to. (hedged) — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ John observes that personalized algorithms, the most powerful attention-consuming tools in history, are offered to you free all the time because your attention is that valuable. — 00:00:29 · recommender system, attention economy
  • ★ John jokes that your attention is so valuable Mark Zuckerberg bought about a tenth of a Hawaiian island with it. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:29 · attention economy
  • ★★★ John says attention is deep down your only resource; collectively it is worth trillions of dollars, and even more, because it is your life. — 00:00:58 · attention economy
  • ★★ John recalls Annie Dillard's line that how we spend our days is how we spend our lives. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ John says consumption has long driven growth in capitalist economies, from food to gasoline to accounting services, and increasingly content too is consumed as part of economic growth. — 00:00:58 · capitalism

00:01:27 — We decide who captures the value of our attention (publisher, Google, Meta); art as a site of joint enchantment

  • ★★ John says what we mean by content is art, creative expression, or bits of consciousness itself. — 00:01:27 · content creator
  • ★★★ John says our attention is incredibly valuable and, though it rarely feels like a decision, we decide who gets to capture that value. — 00:01:27 · attention economy
  • ★★ John gives examples: reading Hollywood, Ending, his publisher and he capture your attention's value; this video he splits with Google; on Instagram Meta captures almost all of it. — 00:01:27 · Hollywood, Ending, Google, Instagram
  • ★★★ John says that since attention is so valuable, being intentional and thoughtful about who gets to claim it is incredibly powerful. — 00:01:57 · attention economy
  • ★★ John finds it incredibly hard in his experience, because personalized algorithms are astonishingly good at capturing and holding his attention. — 00:01:57 · recommender system

  • ★★★ In Hollywood, Ending John tried to argue that art is essential to human experience and a site of joint enchantment where our attention intertwines and deepens our connection. — 00:01:57 · Hollywood, Ending

    “a site of joint enchantment where our attention can intertwine”

00:02:26 — Art predates capitalism; Le Guin's line; serfdom ended and the current system will end too

  • ★★ John says the capitalist system tells us we merely consume content when we engage with and share art, but what happens is more interesting and more important. — 00:02:26 · capitalism
  • ★★★ John does not believe making and distributing art is primarily capitalistic: we made art before capitalism, and shoehorned it into mercantilist and hunter-gatherer economies before. — 00:02:26 · capitalism
  • ★★ John recalls Ursula K. Le Guin's line that capitalism's power feels inescapable, as the divine right of kings once did, and any human power can be resisted and changed. — 00:02:55 · capitalism
  • ★★★ John says serfdom and inherited aristocracy felt natural and inevitable in medieval Europe but were neither and still ended, just as the current system for art and resources feels natural now. — 00:02:55 · Europe

00:03:25 — John wants to be in the art business, not content; Nerdfighteria demanded it; sign-off

  • ★★★ John says the current system will still end, and together we will help decide when and how, and what replaces it, because any human power can be resisted and changed. — 00:03:25 · capitalism

  • ★★★ John does not really want to be in the content creation business, but in the business of making and engaging with art, content as activism and reclaiming attention. — 00:03:25 · content creator, attention economy

    “I want to be in the making and engaging with art business”

  • ★★★ John says for twenty years Nerdfighteria has not just allowed but demanded that the brothers be in those businesses and rethink how art is made and distributed and who captures its value; they are lucky. — 00:03:54 · Nerdfighteria

In the description and comments

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: art · attention economy · capitalism

Also: People: Annie Dillard · Mark Zuckerberg · Ursula K. Le Guin

Projects: Pizzamas

Works: Hollywood, Ending

Organizations: Google · Instagram · Meta Platforms

Terms: content creator · YouTuber

Concepts: consumerism · economic growth · Hunter-gatherer · mercantilism · recommender system · serfdom

Places: Europe · Hawaii

Only in the description or credits: Partners In Health

Also centred on art: The Point of Life · Make Your Art. · My Lungs Are on the Outside of the Body

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