I'm So Tired of All the Attention-Grabbing Bullshit
It's time to take a break and ignore the attention market
Going online is like walking onto a bazaar where everyone is poking you, luring you, and yelling at you.
I’m a founder, intrapreneur, and former CIO rethinking governance for the one-person business, navigating sole accountability in the age of intelligent machines—informed by plenty of scar tissue. All posts are free, always. Paying supporters keep it that way (and get a full-color PDF of my book Human Robot Agent plus other monthly extras as a thank-you)—for just one café latte per month.
I’m so tired of social media feeds.
I’m tired of the syrupy, vague, I-have-nothing-to-say-but-must-post-a-Note platitudes that take up half my feed on Substack. “Show up consistently, and the results will follow.” “Be kind to yourself today; you’re doing the best you can.” “Your voice is your moat—nobody can compete with that.” As if just keeping your mouth shut is a recipe for disaster.
I’m tired of seeing ever-pervasive Substack and LinkedIn note formulas … Spicy opinion + contrarian twist. Mini-framework in three simple bullet points. “X things I wish I knew earlier.” Hot take followed by a poll or question. “Here’s what I did, here’s what happened.” And don’t forget to make your first sentence bold!
I’m tired of the endless parade of carousels, infographics, and inspirational quotes dominating my feeds, each one more pointless and forgettable than the last. As if meaningless chatter received a visual upgrade. Hardly a word gets written these days without some AI-assisted process auto-embellishing it with lines, labels, logos, arrows, avatars, annotations, charts, chevrons, and checkmarks.
I’m tired of getting sucked into algorithmic recommendation rabbit holes. After chuckling at one funny video of a child doing a face-plant in the snow, the only videos I get are of kids from all over the world falling, slipping, dropping, sinking, collapsing, plunging, and plummeting. And, of course, I get endless videos about snow.
I’m tired of all the DMs I get from people trying to sell me their products and services. “Gently resurfacing this in your inbox.” “Just following up on my last message in case it slipped through.” “If this isn’t a priority at the moment, no worries at all—just let me know.” “I’ve followed up a few times and haven’t heard back.” Indeed, and you most certainly won’t!
I’m tired of the endless ratings and evaluations that companies want me to give them. “Enjoying this? Rate us in the app.” “Your feedback means a lot to us—could you share a short review?” “Other people rely on honest feedback. Mind sharing yours in a quick evaluation?” I almost dread submitting a helpdesk ticket because it inevitably ends with a plea for an evaluation.
And like probably everyone else, I’m very tired of clickbait headlines that find their way across all social media and news platforms. “The Shocking Truth About [Common Belief]” “11 Little-Known Facts About [News Topic]” “Experts Are Sounding the Alarm About [Trend]. Here’s Why” and “5 Crazy Moments From Yesterday’s [Event] — Number 3 Is Wild.”
I’m so tired. Going online is like walking onto a bazaar where everyone is constantly poking you, luring you, and yelling at you.
What I’m most tired of is feeling compelled to participate in this relentless attention theatre myself. Testing different headlines for my posts. Checking conversion rates. Optimizing for discoverability. Frantically evaluating the statistics dashboard. We all want to be read. We crave to be liked. There’s no shame in admitting the desire to be heard. And so we play the same game, whether we enjoy it or not. Indeed, I plead guilty to a few of the annoying practices I listed above (but not all of them).
Because it never stops, does it?
The choice seems clear: either market like a maniac or languish like a loser.
The third path—just write like you enjoy it and cherish the few who appreciate that—seems unattainable in the age of AI-generated slop. (And yes, I used those em-dashes intentionally. I typed them myself.)
It might be worth a try.
Just write what I want and screw the whole attention market. I will think about that while I enjoy a well-deserved vacation in Sicily.
Jurgen, Solo Chief.
P.S. Did you ever try ignoring the algorithms for two weeks? How did it go?
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“You are arrogant, condescending, and disrespectful.”
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I’m with you, Jurgen.
And thank you for writing in actual paragraphs. I am tired of posts written in a string of one sentence paragraphs, because supposedly anything more than that is considered a “wall of text” that our feeble brains cannot climb.
*sigh*
And my question is: is it really necessary? Or is it something we do because we think we have to, because otherwise people will forget about us, won’t hire us… or whatever idea each of us has that makes us feel we have to do something we don’t really want to?
I read less and less online; if I want to learn something, I even buy a book, second-hand if possible... I love to think about the stories it must have lived through.
And as for the self-employed or businesses... they used to get by without the internet; people hired them without the internet. I don’t know if all those people who post and post—regardless of the reason—because they depend on the algorithm to stay visible and active, actually get their money’s worth. I understand the fear of saying, ‘I’m going to stop doing this... will I lose my job? Will I sell less? Will I lose followers?’ I don’t know, it saddens me to think they have to live like that. What self-imposed pressure caused by the system. That system that wants our minds elsewhere so we don’t see what’s really happening. So we don’t think, don’t question, just watch and accept—this cycle that only makes us want more and more, and not stop, and not think about what would happen if we did...
Do you really need to do this? What would you lose if you didn’t? Is it worth it if it doesn’t really make you happy? Is money better than freedom? Do you really need that much just to get by?