Andy Walsh2x Exited Founder, Startup Strategist & Podcast Host

Why founders are losing the attention war before it starts

11 May 2026 · 1 min

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Andy Walsh warns that attention spans have collapsed to 70 seconds for college students, citing Johann Hari's Stolen Focus. Founders face a crisis: people can't concentrate long enough to engage with what you're building. The problem is urgent and structural, not just a distraction habit.

Chapters

It feels like it's mission critical in the stage that we're at in the world, just at large, like everyone across the world, which is crazy that no one's talking about this as an endemic, which I see it as. It's a real problem. Johann Hari's Stolen Focus is one of my favorite books, and I recommend people read it because it gives you some of the data that you're talking about, concentration you talked about, like college students in the US can concentrate for around a minute 10 on a task. Before they drift off and do something else. That is alarming to be able to start something, last a minute, and then tap out and do something else.