Herbert Simon and the Attention Economy concept

Herbert Simon was a famous North American economist, winner of the Nobel Prize and an important author in the field of administration, with the book Comportamento Administrativo being one of his main works.

He is sometimes considered among scholars of his work as a kind of “mathematical sociologist” – a definition that he himself seemed inclined to accept – due to the fact that his attempts to solve sociological problems always tended towards logical demonstration, the analysis of statistical data and mainly a critical view of the way scientists in general deal with the information factor, with information technology being the object of some of their most important studies.

We have, for example, in the conference “Designing Organizations for an information-rich world”[1], from 1971, his important concept of Attention Economy enshrined in the following explanation: “An era rich in information causes a scarcity of what it consumes. And what it consumes is obvious, it is the attention of its receptors.” (p. 40)

An enormous range of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate it efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that may consume it.

He considers that whether a high-capacity information system, such as a computer for example, will be part of the solution to the overabundance of information, or part of the problem, depends on the distribution of its attention between four classes of activities: listening, allocating, thinking and speak.

It will be part of the solution in an organization if it absorbs more information than it produces, if it “listens” and “thinks” information more than it speaks. (p. 42). To cite just one of the many considerations about the Attention Economy issue that this study raises.

Nowadays, a huge range of professionals such as data scientists, advertisers, marketing specialists, entrepreneurs in general, can find in Simon’s studies a conceptual basis to reflect on entire panoramas of the information age, such as the transition that occurred from web 1.0 to 2.0, as well as from 3.0 to the imminent 4.0, in addition to topics such as SEO (search engine optimization), mobile application development optimization, marketing strategies for social networks, etc.

What have you done to advance your personal knowledge, or that exercised within the scope of your organization or professional activity?

Reference:

1. SIMON, Herbert. Designing Organizations for an Information-Rich-World. Balti-more, MD: The Johns Hopkins. Press, 1971. Access em: Dec/18