We’ll keep your attention over here so you don’t notice what’s going on over there.

That’s one way magic tricks work.

It’s also how pickpockets work.

And in a way, it’s how many parts of our culture can work.

Not that there’s necessarily a magician or thief orchestrating how we consume the culture. But distraction and diversions do exist. And there is a cost.

Ask the literary classics. Ask the art studio. Ask the local hiking trail.

We cannot attend to everything. So attention in one area comes at the expense of attention in another.

It’s OK to be selective with our attention. Indeed, we ought to be.