While writing that previous post, I needed a title for it.
Asked chat GPT:
I want to create a title for a blog post
the post will talk about the value of engaging with a material, how cognitive effort is the key to effective learning
I want to contrast it against the idea of merely paying attention, which is something monetised in culture, amplified by the social media platforms
aside from the importance of managing our attention, we need to remember that engagement is more valuable than mere attention
could you suggest some ideas that incorporate the words ‘engagement’ and ‘attention’, the shorter the better, make it snappy and memorable.
OK, these suck:
Sure! Here are some snappy and memorable title ideas that incorporate “engagement” and “attention”:
- “Engagement Over Attention”
- “Engage, Don’t Just Attend”
- “Beyond Attention: Engage!”
- “From Attention to Engagement”
- “Engagement Beats Attention”
- “Choose Engagement, Not Attention”
- “The Power of Engagement”
- “Engage to Learn, Not Just Attend”
- “Attention Isn’t Enough: Engage”
- “Attention vs. Engagement: The Real Deal”
Then the magic of rubberducking manifested. Before even reading the suggested titles above, this popped into my head: “Attention is cheap. Engagement is gold”
Asked GPT-4o for more suggestions along the same sentiment:
can you improve “attention is cheap, engagement is gold”
Out of all the suggestions (which are better than the previous batch), I think these are good. There’s a sense of motion and dimensional-hook in the story-like arc of ‘Point A – Point B‘.
- “From Cheap Attention to Golden Engagement”
- “Beyond Cheap Attention: Embrace Golden Engagement”
- “Engage: Turning Cheap Attention into Gold”
But I still ended up using the one I thought of myself. IKEA Effect? Perhaps. Mostly I think those above are kinda cheesy. But mainly, I’d love to have some of those motion-magic but I think the content of the post wouldn’t justify the promise.
After publishing these last three posts, there are so many different directions I can take from here
- Questions are probiotics for knowledge. // /cognitive-efforts > meta-comment
- An underrated magic that human has access to: creating a shared language to encode a concept
- We know but we don’t do: hitting the glass ceiling of the propositional tyranny.
- Prompting (and iterating on prompts) is a form of rubberducking. Writing to think is rubberducking.
- Different levels and realms of engagement // related to: [[tech flattens]]
- Attention management hacks: The gamification of our attention.
- Attention harvesting machines: The commodification of our attention.
