2025 was a really intense year, and I knew as I was living it that it was all too much to absorb as it was happening. Someday I am going to wake up, as if from a dream, and be astonished by all that’s happened.

I haven’t historically been a big word of the year person. It’s felt like a lot of pressure. But sometime late last fall, the word “attention” started to feel compelling. Like a haunting, something to pay attention (lol) to. I decided that one of the things I wanted to do, not so much a resolution or an intention or a goal, but an orientation and a topic to explore, was fix my attention, whatever that meant. A focus on attention also seems like it could help me process and absorb the events of the last year or so.

Putting together this casual syllabus isn’t so much about making more work for myself, but establishing a theme and some texts to direct what I’m thinking about this year. A topic to anchor around, a lens through which to view my days. A motif to notice. It doesn’t feel like work! It feels like fun.

Here’s what I’m including so far:

ATTENSITY! A Manifesto for the Attention Liberation Movement

Late one night I was scrolling and came across an ad for ATTENSITY! A Manifesto for the Attention Liberation Movement authored by the Friends of Attention. The cover was eye catching, the topic was something that had been smoldering in the back of my mind, and the preorder incentive was a cool hat. Sold. Upon further digging, I discovered that it was compiled by a group that was featured this article in The New Yorker that a friend had passed along a couple years ago and has been knocking around in my brain ever since.

Internet Phone Book

I’ve mentioned the Internet Phone Book, described as “a directory for exploring the vast poetic web,” in my newsletter, but I’m finding that it’s an interesting artifact to consider in the context of attention. I’m not interested in permanently and completely logging off. I’ve gained a lot from the web and I’m curious to explore the spaces where it feels like people are maintaining their own little digital gardens. It feels like a specific type of attention activism.

New Rules Next Week: Corita Kent’s Legacy Through the Eyes of Twenty Artists and Writers

I picked this up at Open Editions in San Francisco after spending some time in the desert for DWeb Camp. I’d been meaning to spend more time with Corita Kent and meant to read this as soon as we got home. Alas, this was at least a year and a half ago. It’s time. I love the idea of including it on this list and experiencing it through the lens of attention as one of the guiding texts of my year.

The Secret Playbook

“A creative game plan for humans only.” A zine, a poster, an essay, all in one. I don’t remember where I first came across this, but maybe Instagram? Wherever it was I DMed Robin asking where to find one shortly before he released it for sale. It’s short, but it’s stuck with me.