Why Humans Are Bad At Allocating Their Attention?

For the 99,99% of our time on Earth humans lived in the information scarce environments and our brains evolved to react

Humans evolved in the conditions of scarcity of carbohydrates and fats in our natural environments. Today we’re able to manufacture sugars & fats in large quantities so these ingredients are no longer scarce.

But our natural instincts push us towards these even though, these might be unhealthy for us in large doses. Twentieth century era of supermarkets and processed foods combined with our cravings for carbohydrates resulted in obesity epidemics in the developed world.

We're seeing the same process unfolding with regard to information. people will mostly click information that is ‘bad’ for them.

Clickbait, spammy ads, content containing false claims, content that confirms their biases, prejudices etc. Humans naturally respond faster to danger and negative messages as we’re wired to avoid danger.