In this talk Ben Parr opens with a vivid illustration of modern information overload, citing research that shows daily exposure has exploded from the equivalent of 40 newspapers in 1986 to 7 DVDs worth of data today. He argues that this flood of information, combined with constant multitasking, makes it harder for entrepreneurs to capture and retain audience attention. Parr introduces his background as a former Mashable editor and venture capitalist, and references his book Captivology, which distills over 1,000 studies and interviews with thought leaders into a science of attention. He then presents his core framework: a three‑stage model of attention—Immediate (automatic, sensory‑memory driven), Short (conscious, working‑memory driven), and Long (deep, lasting engagement)—using a bonfire analogy (spark, kindling, logs). He illustrates each stage with everyday examples, such as the reflexive reaction to a gunshot, the focus required for a test, and Beyoncé’s evolution from a hit song to a lifelong fan base. Finally, he teases the first of seven “captivation triggers,” the Spark, which initiates the attention process. The talk is designed to give founders practical psychological tools to design products and messages that move users through these stages toward lasting loyalty.
Chapters
So, I don't know about you, but I feel like Doug the Dog. Who's seen Up? Who has not seen Up, actually? One of your assignments is to go and actually watch this movie because your life is incomplete without watching it. You sad, sad, sad students. But I feel like Doug the Dog, constantly distracted by different things. Squirrel! All the time. But it's not— but it is not just me. It is a global phenomenon. Research done at the University of Southern California found that in 1986, the average human being was exposed to approximately 40 newspapers worth of information on a daily basis. By 2006, just 20 years later, that number had grown to over 176 newspapers worth of information daily. And last year, and this was told to me by Microsoft Research, the average human being was exposed to 7 DVDs worth of information daily. Wow. The amount of information we are exposed to and the amount of information we are consuming and creating are increasing exponentially. And yet we are doing a very bad job handling that information. Things like this, constant— this is actually my tweet deck. This is constant, constant multitasking. And in fact, research shows that multitasking is bad for us. Another study found that those who label themselves as heavy multimedia multitaskers are actually the least effective when it comes to completing tasks, switching between tasks, and completing tasks on time. And so you have this combination of more information than ever and constant multitasking that is making us less effective at managing the same 24 hours of time that we've had 1,000 years ago. And so the result is twofold. One, it is harder than ever for all of you as founders, as entrepreneurs, as whatever you might be, To capture attention for your product, for your idea, to— from investors, from users, from customers. And 2, just as important, it is harder than ever to defend your own attention, to focus on what you need to focus, to go and build, because we have these objects that I see a few of you touching and have in your pockets that constantly distract us. And I'll explain more why they do. So that was kind of the genesis for why I wrote this book. For those who don't know me, my name is Ben Parr. I used to be a journalist. I was the editor and co-editor and editor-at-large of Mashable for a very long time before I switched over to venture capital investing, investing in great companies like Ubeam, which does wireless electricity, and Shots, which is one of the fastest-growing social networks for teens. And then, but I also wrote this book to help entrepreneurs and to help people in general. It's called Captivology from HarperCollins. And it's about the science and psychology of attention. Why we pay attention to certain people and products, and how to utilize that science to capture the attention of others. And I went through over 1,000 research studies and I talked to hundreds of thought leaders, everyone from Sheryl Sandberg, Steven Soderbergh, the people behind the Old Spice campaign, Adrian Grenier from Entourage, Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn, all these different people to understand how attention works at a fundamental level. And so I wanna talk a little bit about what some of the things I learned from my research and how it can apply to all of you, how you can use that knowledge to build better products, to capture the attention of your audience. And of course, questions at the end to talk about whatever you're trying to do, where you're having trouble when it comes to attention and retention and getting to that next stage. So I need to talk about 2 things: the 3 stages of attention and the 7 captivation triggers. The stages of attention are how we pay attention. I divide it into this 3-stage model. Because most people think of attention as an on/off switch, but really it comes in degrees. And the 7 Captivation Triggers, and these are the psychological triggers I found through my research that capture attention. So think of attention like a bonfire. A bonfire does not start out as a bonfire. It takes a couple stages, right? You gotta start out with the spark, the ignition. And then you, but you can't go to the bonfire immediately. Then you gotta Like the kindling on fire, you have to get something going. And then finally you can put on the logs and build the bonfire. And attention, in my opinion, is the same kind of thing. And so it kind of goes in 3 stages: immediate attention, short attention, and long attention. And I'm gonna give a very brief description of the 3 so that you understand them. So immediate attention is an automatic response. It's the shortest form of attention. It is the automatic sensation that Movement that we have when we hear a gunshot or someone does this. Awake now? You're awake now? Good. You look really good with that. You look really good. But you see the reaction. It's automatic. It's designed to protect us. Because if we hear a car coming at us, We need to be able to dodge it immediately and not have to think, hmm, should I dodge that car or not? And it happens instantaneously through a system called sensory memory. One thing to note is that memory is an intrinsic part of attention. But once we switch from unconscious to conscious attention, it goes to the second stage, which I call short attention. It's when you start focusing on something like a test or a goddamn dress. It's when we start paying attention consciously to something, you know, to a movie, to a show, to a song, and we start thinking about it a little bit. And it's controlled by this fascinating system in the brain called working memory, which I'm sure some of you who've taken psychology classes— I don't know how many of you actually went to college— helps us figure out which things we should pay attention to and which things go into long-term memory. And it is a really complicated but awesome system. And there's a lot more in my book about it. I don't have time to talk about it now. The final stage of attention I call long attention. And it is the difference between— how I describe it is the difference between listening to a Beyoncé song and becoming a lifelong fan of Beyoncé. Which I'm assuming you're a lifelong fan of Beyoncé. And you're a fan of Beyoncé. And yeah, you're a real big fan of Beyoncé. You're just nodding your head like Beyoncé. But she's done a great job capturing long attention in the sense that all she had to do was put down an album and suddenly it went viral all across the world and became the top-selling album of the year. But it didn't happen just because, it didn't happen overnight. She took years and decades building attention to the level where she is at now. And it is that difference between getting someone to pay attention to your commercial or to your launch versus making them into a lifelong fan, a customer, a user, because it's not enough to get them to just pay attention. They have to stay committed. And that's the big important thing to know about long-term attention. Yeah, the Beyoncé fan group is called the Beyhive. There's a— it's kind of like all the animal terms, you know, like a murder of crows or a puddle of platypi. That's the actual term. So the bonfire attention is the same kind of thing. Immediate attention is the spark, short attention is the kindling, and long attention is the bonfire. Now the big question is how do you create that bonfire in the first place? How do you capture these stages of attention? Well, lucky you, I'm gonna tell you some about that through the captivation triggers. And these are psychological triggers that help capture attention. So the first one is the spark.
