Attention Economy

Concept

The unifying principle that binds Red Bull and Elon Musk is attention economics: The idea that in a world moving toward post-scarcity,1 the attention of human beings becomes increasingly valuable.

And not just “valuable,” but in extreme cases, much more valuable than goods and services. For instance:

In 2020, Tesla delivered 499,550 cars. Tesla’s market cap is currently $661.57 billion. Let’s compare that with the Big Four’s numbers for 2020:

2. The Attention Economy

The unifying principle that binds Red Bull and Elon Musk is attention economics: The idea that in a world moving toward post-scarcity,¹ the attention of human beings becomes increasingly valuable.

And not just “valuable,” but in extreme cases, much more valuable than goods and services. For instance:

In 2020, Tesla delivered 499,550 cars. Tesla’s market cap is currently $661.57 billion. Let’s compare that with the Big Four’s numbers for 2020:

So, you know, you could revolutionize supply chain logistics and vehicle reliability. Then you could make several million cars and trade them to consumers for money.

Or you could have a memelord as your CEO. They’re equally valid business plans.

So, you know, you could revolutionize supply chain logistics and vehicle reliability. Then you could make several million cars and trade them to consumers for money.

Or you could have a memelord as your CEO. They’re equally valid business plans.

Critique

Market Cap (stock value) is not the same as real value. Obviously, the 50x more cars that major automakers produce create much more value to society, albeit with apparently higher pollution [1] than Tesla.

Thus, we can say that memelords create large perceived value, for valid reasons - they produce significant value and add excitement to it.