Maybe attention IS really all you need?

The famous paper that kickstarted the LLM revolution found that paying simultaneous attention to everything around a word helps computers understand its meaning far better than other approaches. Where its attention was really mattered.

However, while computers thrive at processing lots of things simultaneously, we humans are notoriously bad at it. Our brains immediately throw away most of the input they receive, in order to focus on what’s most important to them.

AI tools have dramatically expanded my reach as a designer. I now have advanced business strategy and technical capabilities at my fingertips, and it’s given me the ability to build lots of new things. However I find it interesting that I still spend most of my time–my attention–on the interface; the experience; the “design”.

That, I suspect, will continue to be the case for different roles working together on products. Yes, we all have the same access to ever-expanding knowledge and capabilities. And we should all take note of the opportunities and constraints in different areas. But with limited human time and attention, we’ll each end up spending it on the things we are most interested and capable in.

To make something truly great, you’ll still need people who pay most of their attention to the business; others who pay most attention to the technical capabilities; and yes, people who pay most attention to the design.

So maybe attention–in the right places–is all you need.