Feldman's Faves: September 15, 2025

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

There is so much happening this week.

First and foremost, I want to take this opportunity to welcome Annie, Joeley and Molly to our section. We did really well in this year’s draft!! There will be some training but they are all eager to hit the ground running so please start involving them in your files.

Second, please join me in wishing both Brian and Tyler all the best who are celebrating their birthdays this week.

But wait, there’s more (and more Brian) – huge congratulations to Brian on the birth of baby #3 (when I last checked there was no name yet). Six more to go and you will have a future starting line up for the Jays….

Finally, as you know, I generally don’t bring actual work stuff into this forum but I am attaching a brief from Harvard Business School that was put together to teach about the Gildan Proxy Fight. At some point I will move on but this just came up so re-living the “glory days” with Brenda and Jay just one more time…... Read or ignore at your leisure.

HBS CASE (A) - 226006-PDF-ENG.PDF

Download PDF • 1.97MB

HBS CASE (B) 226007-PDF-ENG.PDF

Download PDF • 364KB

This week’s theme deals with different types of health.

THE SIRENS’ CALL – HOW ATTENTION BECAME THE WORLD’S MOST ENDANGERED RESOURCE - By: Chris Hayes – Last Sunday was a very busy day – they Jays were playing the Yankees, the Men’s US Open Final was happening as were multiple NFL games. At the same time, my phone, texts, WHATSAPP and emails were coming at me non-stop – just another Sunday in our lives. Somehow I managed to watch all the various games, deal with the various work and family crises that kept coming, while occasionally watching clips from OASIS’ show in Los Angeles. But at some point during the day I realized this is the way we all live our lives these days and it can’t be right. You are everywhere and nowhere at the same time. The problem, of course, is that we can only PROPERLY focus our attention on one thing at a time even though we all think we are all master multi-taskers. We are now living in the “age of attention”, not really the information age. There is so much information available to all of us (statement of the obvious #1) but our attention is a very scarce resource (statement of the obvious #2). That idea is the basis premise of Chris Haye’s new book – The Siren’s Call. Hayes goes into great detail about this issue from both a scientific and historical perspective. The truth is there is not much in this book that all of us don’t already know but it is packaged in a way that makes you think (assuming you have the attention span to read it……). That As one reviewer notes, “As you might imagine, I was looking forward to reading the new book by Chris Hayes, The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource. It did not disappoint. The book is educational, intelligent, and engaging, and Hayes does an excellent job explaining how we got to where we are. Poignantly, Hayes argues that, from birth, “we are built and formed by attention, destroyed by neglect.” I couldn’t agree more.

The Historical Context of our Attention Economy - Hayes draws fascinating parallels between the commodification of labor during the Industrial Age and today’s commodification of attention. Hayes quotes karl Marx writing in his Theory of Labor in 1844, “The worker only feels himself outside his work, and in his work, feels outside himself.” It was the perfect quote for Hayes to use to illustrate the parallels to our digital age. Similar to the commodification of labor during the industrial age, in the digital age, it is our attention that’s being commercialized against our will. Hayes reveals how attention merchants exploit our basic neural responses, making attention management more crucial than ever. As he notes, “Attention can be extracted from us at a purely sensory level before our will even gets to weigh in.”

The Backlash Growth Market -The book was thoroughly engaging, and the last chapter was one of my favorite parts. It’s titled, “Reclaiming Our Attention.” In this chapter, he makes an interesting case that products and services that help us reclaim our attention may emerge as a sort of “backlash growth market.” Hayes chronicles the rise of private and semi-private uses of social media platforms as an example, and then he calls for a movement to support this “attention resistance.”

Connecting Without Algorithms - Like Hayes, I also advocate the use of online spaces that are not commercialized and driven by algorithms. This supports our ability to pay attention to the things and the people that we choose, in a way that is curated by us, with intention, instead of in a way that is curated for us to support someone else’s profit. I participate in two private, invitation-only chat groups—one on Slack and one on Zulip (a Slack alternative). As opposed to what you’d find on many social media platforms, on these private channels, there are no ads popping up and no tool is “tracking” what we discuss or click on, or serving us content to manipulate our behavior. I’m also part of several group texts with different groups of family (both origin families and chosen families), and several others with pickleball groups. (Yes, I’m obsessed and I play almost every day.) In The Sirens’ Call, I learned that Signal, an encrypted texting platform, is a nonprofit, which led me to learn that their motto is “privacy over profit.” Other algorithm-free platforms include Mastodon for social networking and Element for communication.

Friends of Attention - One specific action item Hayes recommends is that readers consider getting involved in Friends of Attention and their Strother School of Radical Attention (SoRA), with which I have been acquainted. My personal challenge with getting involved in these is the paradox of either in-person attendance in New York, 1,700 miles from where I live, or the prospect of spending time with strangers on a screen. Still, I applaud the effort and I hope it succeeds. And if you live in New York or don’t otherwise spend a lot of time looking at screens, I recommend you get involved.

A Useful Companion - For the last fifteen years or more, my work has focused on how to regain control over our attention so that we can be the ultimate arbiter of our experiences, and, therefore, our lives. While The Sirens’ Call goes deep into the historical roots of how and why our attention is being stolen—and makes a compelling case about why it matters—my work provides the practical system that individuals and teams can implement to regain control of their attention, and accomplish more with less stress. Understanding is important to awareness and awareness is critical to our ability to change, so The Sirens’ Call is a useful companion to any of my books. Leaders using my Empowered Productivity™ system are likely to find it an especially fascinating read.

The Sirens’ Call: Absolutely Worth Reading - While I’ve spent years teaching people how to manage their attention, Hayes provides the intellectual foundation for understanding why these skills are so critical. His deep analysis of attention as a commodity will help you understand the forces working against your focus—the first step toward taking back control of your attention and, ultimately, your life.”

The recent push at Toronto schools to ban Smart Phones is an attempt to address this issue. It is certainly a start but hardly a solution that will fix this state in which all live. If anyone has any ideas I would be very curious to hear them. Here’s a good review from the NYT - https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/books/review/superbloom-nicholas-carr-the-sirens-call-chris-hayes.html

TED TALKS DAILY - Why having fun is the secret to a healthier life | Catherine Price - How do you define fun? Is it something you do? Is it being with someone special? Do you need to force it or does it come naturally? Obviously, this question will be answered differently by everyone. But when we have fun we just live in the moment and let it happen. Having fun is both a health intervention and a moment of joy. So how do we get there? Rule No.1 – stay of your phone and don’t get ideas for social media. Rather focus on its key ingredients – increase distractions (i.e. put down your freakin’ phone), find the “right people” with who to connect and do something you like to do that is different from every day life. In this PODCAST Catherine Price gives a bit of a how to guide. Here’s an excerpt from the PODCAST itself, “Have you had your daily dose of fun? It's not just enjoyable, it's also essential for your health and happiness, says science journalist Catherine Price. She proposes a new definition of fun -- what she calls "true fun" -- and shares easy, evidence-backed ways to weave playfulness, flow and connection into your everyday life.” https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ted-talks-daily/id160904630?i=1000723187814

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation.

And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon