Optimizing for Attention Instead of Advantage

Founders aren’t running out of ideas. They’re running out of signal.

Every conversation I’ve had this month follows the same pattern: teams investing in content output, social presence, “AI thought leadership”— all while quietly admitting their advantage is eroding.

Attention has become the proxy for progress. It’s easy to measure, easy to celebrate, and easy to confuse with traction.

But attention is the cheapest currency in a saturated market. The expensive currency—the one that compounds—is advantage. Differentiation. Moat. Positioning that survives the next cycle.

Right now I’m watching people optimize for the part of the game with the shortest half-life. Likes instead of leverage. Visibility instead of velocity. Narrative momentum instead of real momentum.

This isn’t a moral critique. It’s an allocation problem.

If your strategy depends on winning the feed, you’re already dependent on an environment you don’t control. And when the narrative shifts—as it always does—you lose twice: the attention you bought and the time you spent buying it.

The founders who win the next phase won’t be the loudest. They’ll be the ones who built while everyone else was broadcasting.

More on that in the next post.