It is not about getting through the noise anymore, it is getting through all the local news that is suddenly more important and does impact people’s lives more than anything else in the world.
Everyone is depressed.
The world cannot care less about what you do.
The world cannot care less about what I do.
It hurts when friends and family get sick.
It hurts when we cannot hang out with friends.
It hurts to watch the TV where politicians play politics.
I open my Twitter and there’s a friend in Armenia and there’s a war. A friend in Nigeria and there’s a war. A friend in Belarus and there’s a war. The situation in the UK, Hong Kong, the US… All this while the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer…
And you care how to sell your product or service instead.
And I too care how to sell my product or service instead as well.
I want to care about my friends, the sick world, the pandemic and global warming too. But I just don’t have any emotional capacity for this. I know you too feel emotionally dead by now.
You and I, we care about selling our products or services instead so our employees can cater to their families. Or perhaps we lie to ourselves because we’re in a privileged situation and we want to get the most of it.
I cannot really reply to myself now. I honestly don’t know.
What I know is the general mood of public unconsciousness is globally low, and telling your story, selling your product, getting noticed is hard. It is not about getting through the noise anymore, it is getting through all the local news that is suddenly more important and does impact people’s lives more than anything else in the world.
Attention economy.
That’s what we’re trying to solve now with Karina and Lera, my co-founders. Attention economy.
The problems are two:
- The solution is shifting as the global situation develops
- The problem is not yet recognized as a problem
The 2-nd problem is more fun to unpack.
People with budgets still think in old paradigms like “let’s buyout the branding of a conference” or “let’s sponsor a party” since previously they got lots of relevant leads at a particular global event.
It is a glorified Zoom call.
Everything is a Zoom call now.
The after-party is a Zoom call.
The investor pitch is a Zoom call.
Your sponsored booth is a Zoom call.
Your conference talk is also a Zoom call.
I know, myself and many experienced developer relations and developer events folks are on the forefront of content - text, video, audio, tutorials, meetups - creation and consumption. We get to learn the new tools and to feel the new experiences first. And we are to build up a narrative and suggest solutions to our employers.
How do we make the sick tired world interested in what we're selling - our products or services?
How do we inspire people to switch off from the doomscrolling and to care about what we do for a brief moment? That’s the attention economy deal.
Content formats? Platforms? Art and covers?
Yes. Also empathy.
Cliff-hanger. Like and subscribe. I need my dopamine to continue.
I am listening to Muse on a CD that I purchased in Copenhagen sometime in 2010. I have a library of music on compact discs and a dedicated hardware CD player. I am also old enough to remember ЖЖ, Livejournal or a kind of Russian MySpace where one could put the music they’re listening while blogging.
The 40-min Hullabaloo album is over hinting I am out of time for the first essay. See you next week?
But if you feel salty for the cliff-hanger and cannot wait for the next week, here's further reading for you today:
- https://hbr.org/2020/02/the-era-of-antisocial-social-media
- https://constine.substack.com/p/what-does-mean-well
- https://www.wired.com/story/how-work-became-an-inescapable-hellhole
Funny. I feel I am writing this for myself, but I also feel that I rely on dopamine to continue…
I will continue blogging on dev.to, but if by any chance you check your inbox more often than dev.to, scroll up for a tiny substack link on top.
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