Attention Economy

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.