Mic Check Vol. 12: WTF happened to our attention span?

It’s official: we’re pivoting to Web3.

Is anyone proud of their attention span? Or are you also embarrassed when you think about the percent of class lectures you actually listened to? 

The studies that attempt to measure how attention spans have changed over the past few decades are iffy at best, but, in my opinion, they are irrelevant anyway. We’ve been trying to hack attention for a very long time. 

Regardless of if you actually know the meaning of ethos, pathos, and logos, you’ve definitely heard the terms. Popularized a few years ago in 300 BC, these ideas were being used by Aristotle to make his public speaking more persuasive. The goal? Get listeners and get buy-in. Fast forward a couple thousand years and Mr. Beast is optimizing video with jump cuts and crazy hooks seconds after you press “play”. The goal? Get viewers and get buy-in. Same game, different tools. 

The bar to get someone’s attention keeps getting raised. Three years ago, we were across from each other in a conference room and I had (most) of your attention. But now, I am one of 100 tabs, one of 1,000 emails in your inbox, and one of 10,000 notifications in Slack. If you want to get buy-in with investors or your cross-functional team, it starts with earning their attention.

How do you plan on standing out with engaging, personable, attention-grabbing content? If you’re open to ideas, start with Lenny’s podcast from earlier this week with Wes Kao on persuasive communication and listen closely to their conversation on state changes. 

-Raman
 

📚 Open tabs

What team Rhetoric is reading during those awkwardly-timed few minutes between Zooms. 

Loved reading this piece about how manual work is better than bad automation. This is especially relevant for developers and product teams, but there's a lesson in here for everyone who tends to jump to full-scale before MVP. 

Who better to learn the art of storytelling from than Jad Abumrad? If you've enjoyed Radiolab, More Perfect, or Dolly Parton’s America, I highly recommend checking out Descript's breakdown of Jad's 5 tips for better storytelling. 

Looking for an industry ripe for disruption? +1 for building a useful, less panic-inducing WebMD. 

✨ New ways to present better

Here's what's going on at Rhetoric this week:

Replace slides is live! You can now update or switch out visuals without replacing the whole deck. 

Have a feature idea you want to see in Rhetoric? Add it to our public roadmap! 

❤️ Your friends can be great presenters, too

Found this useful and know someone who wants to up their speaking game? Want to help us banish the grip that flat, written text has over our lives once and for all? Or perhaps you just like cool hats?

Share Mic Check with your network and we'll hook you up with some swag.