What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to Stacking Slabs. This is your hobby content alternative flagship episode time coming at you. Excited to be here. Excited to talk about a topic that caught my attention when flipping through my reader, landing on an article about attention, and I thought, you know what?

There are things from this piece that I think could be explored from a hobby perspective and might get us to think. And that's what we try to do here on the flagship episode of Stacking Slabs. Dig into the human behavior, the psychology, the way we do the things we do, and apply them to the hobby that we love. And, man, I love this hobby. It is so much fun.

It is so diverse. Things are moving so quickly, and we've got some awesome content prepared to deliver to you, the loyal listener of the Stacking Slabs audience. If you are not already, make sure you hit follow on this feed so you can get all of the latest and greatest episodes from the Stacking Slabs network. If you're enjoying them, make sure you tell a damn friend. And if you want more, head on over to the Patreon group.

Link is in the show notes. I wanna shout out my good friends at Inferno Red Technology for sponsoring the flagship episode of Stacking Slabs. They're the engineering team behind some of the biggest names in sports and collectibles like DC Sports 87, Commsea Collectors, Upper Deck, and eBay from AI powered solutions for startups to full stack platforms for industry leaders. Their team can tackle your toughest technology challenge. They build awesome software for the hobby, for leagues and fans, and for everyone in between.

See what they can build for you at inferno red dot com. On the other side of this, we have another build for the hobby, episode with Scott, CEO at Inferno Red. We talked to AI in the hobby, and it was a lot of fun. That comes out tomorrow if you're listening to this on launch day. A lot of plugs.

Let's get into it, man. I'm ready to go. I'm ready. I'm fired up. I'm thinking a lot about my own collecting as always, but I was just doing what we do.

I was scrolling through my reader, and I landed on a National Geographic article. And this National Geographic article gave a statistic that just caught my attention. It said that it said, over the past two decades, our average attention span on a task has plummeted from two and a half minutes to forty seconds. Now let's think about that. Most of us switch what we're doing in well under a minute, whether it's checking notifications or hopping to a new task.

This erosion of sustained attention has been linked to higher stress, more errors, lower productivity. The good news, scientists say our focus isn't permanently lost, but with the right strategies, we can retrain our brains to get the attention back now. I know I feel this. I got a lot of tasks going on at all times. There's a lot of, messages coming my way on a lot of different channels.

I don't know about you, but people call me crazy for this. I'm on team do not disturb. I am grinding. I my work is very intimate. I don't wanna be interrupted.

So I'm twenty four seven on team do not disturb, and I have the the the I give the stars to the important people who can bypass the do not disturb wall. It's just I gotta do it based on the way I'm wired and my personality type. If I don't do it, I'll spend all day doing stuff that I shouldn't be doing, and that's not a good way to be productive. So why does this matter for collectors in this hobby? In 2026, collecting is more connected and collaborative than ever.

We post our latest pickups on Instagram. We chat in online groups. People watch breaks, consume hobby content. Our phones buzz with auction alerts, new product drops, hobby news. You name it.

It never stops. There's notifications going off right now as I'm recording this. In in this for our focus, it's it's nonstop. Cut out that last in this for our focus, Ron. Alright.

One, two, three. In this environment, attention is constantly under siege. There's always a shiny new thing vying for our focus. If our attention spans are shrinking, it's easy to see how our collecting experience can suffer. We might lose sight of what we're trying to accomplish.

We might make silly buys or simply not enjoy the hobby due to the constraint of the constant distraction. Because this article hit me and because those statistics were so strong and because I believe in stats and because I believe in science and because I believe in all these things, I like to apply them to what we're doing or how we're operating in the hobby. So in this episode, we'll explore attention and how it impacts our collecting pursuits. I wanna dive into shiny object syndrome. I've talked about this a little bit throughout the history of stacking slabs or why we're drawn to whatever's new or trendy in the hobby often at the expense of our original plans.

Changing lanes, how abandoning one collecting lane for the next big thing, even temporarily, can be can have long term ramifications on our collecting and satisfaction. The attention tug and war, how businesses and content creators in the hobby compete for our eyeballs and the strategies that we can use to manage this attention economy so it doesn't derail us. And we are very much in the attention economy. We are constantly getting push and pull different directions. And as a creator, I'm trying to get the attention of as many of the right type of collectors as possible to keep coming back and listening to my stuff, and I'm not the only one.

So along the way, we'll get probably a little bit nerdy about attention, touching on psychology and even technology's role. But most importantly, we'll discuss how to apply this filter to the barrage of hobby content, effectively shrinking the seat to focus on what really matters to you, your taste, your interest. I'll start here too before we get into shiny object syndrome and how it impacts the hobbies. I have been in the world for the last sixteen, seventeen years. I've been in the attention game.

I've been trying to get attention for of others through roles in businesses that I've been in and very much so being a solo business owner in the hobby and working on stacking slabs. The game is attention, but attention is not enough. Attempt for me, my perspective. So much of what we see is these quick hits, these pull in, check this out, let's get the views. Like, I'm not worried about the views.

I'm worried about something I say resonating so deeply that you come back and you want more and you want more because this is this is long form content. Like, we're we're playing a different game. We're trying to and I understand. Like, for me to get the attention of you and then earn the trust for you to listen to a thirty minute episode or several thirty minute episodes or even an hour long episode every week is it's it's it's a challenge, but that's the game. So let's start with shiny object syndrome.

And I think one of the biggest pitfalls in collecting is shiny object syndrome. And it is this pop psychology that refers to undue focus on new and trendy items or ideas only to drop them as soon as the novelty wears off. In other words, we chase the shiny object, a new product release, hype rookie card, the hottest insert, not because it fits our plan, but simply it's new and everyone's talking about it. This National Geographic article framed it up as our brains are wired with a spotlight of attention that illuminates one thing at a time. And in this moment of social media, the spotlight often gets yanked around whatever is trending in this moment.

In the hobby, shiny object syndrome might look like this, where you're focused on collecting your favorite player or completing a particular set, but suddenly your flash this flashy new project drops and or a different player starts breaking out, your social feed explodes with post about it, and it feels too strong to not itch. Maybe I should be on this too. There's this element of fee FOMO. It makes it especially susceptible to these distractions. It feels urgent and exciting to chase this new thing, and our brains even reward us for this novelty, encountering some new can trigger dopamine in this neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward.

No wonder a new release or a hot trend immediately grabs our attention and hijacks our focus. This has been going on from a month plus with Tom Scrum basketball. It's crazy. It's a wild phenomenon to monitor. The problem is these shiny objects can lead us off course.

We end up diverting time and money to cards or projects we didn't originally care about that much. As soon as the novelty wears off, we're left wondering why we chased it in the first place. Research shows that constantly switching our focus comes at a cost. Each time we pivot, our brain has to dump the mental schema of what we're doing and load a new one, which depletes cognitive resources. In a lab setting, even controlled task switching reliably slowed people down and increased errors, reinforcing that multitasking or multicolecting carries inherent costs.

If we're always chasing the next shiny object in the hobby, we risk not finishing what we start and making more mistakes along the way. Most long term collectors can relate to half finished project, abandoned PC items the shiny object syndrome leaves behind. I'm this resonates with me as I've started and stopped so many PCs in my time. There's this tongue in cheek term in crafting circles for projects you started and completed completed called UFOs or unfinished objects. In card collecting, this could be that album of cards you stopped filling or that player collection you gave up on because another player got hot.

It's common. So if you see this pattern in your life, you're not alone. Recognizing the allure of the shiny new object is the first step to managing it. There's a cost associated with abandoning your lane. What happens when shiny object syndrome goes from a momentary distraction to a full on change of course?

You abandon your lane. Maybe you committed to collecting vintage baseball, but then you got swept up in modern basketball hype and sold off some vintage pieces to finance this new Topps chrome set. Or perhaps you diligently are building a Kobe Bryant collection only to divert it into a prospecting of the latest draft class because everyone else seems to be doing it. When we abandon a current collecting lane due to a surge or attention elsewhere, even if temporary, it leaves long term consequences. First, there's an opportunity cost.

Collecting is often a long game. Values appreciate over years. Personal collections gain meaning over time, and sets or projects reach completion only with patience. If a temporary distraction causes you to pause or give up your primary goal, you might miss out on progress that's hard to regain. For example, stepping away from your main project might mean missing a rare item that you needed or having to buy back later a higher price because you sold them during this distraction.

In hindsight, many collectors regret selling pieces that didn't seem exciting in that moment, only to realize later they were core to their collection. Second, constantly switching lanes can undermine the joy and satisfaction you get from the hobby. There is a special satisfaction in seeing a focused collecting project through. Say, finishing a set or having a well curated PC of a player you love. When you keep changing direction, that sense of completion remains out of reach.

You might end up disjointed you you might end up with a disjointed collection or having random hot cards that don't truly resonate. It's the collector's equivalent of having many half read books and never finishing one. Exciting at first, but eventually, it becomes unfulfilling. There's a psychological toll. Inconsistent attention can lead to feelings or guilt of frustration.

In fact, this pattern is something people with ADHD know well. The cycle of hyper focus on a new interest then losing interest and feeling bad about abandoning a project. Even if you don't have ADHD, the modern environment can induce similar patterns. One moment, you're laser focused on research every detail of this new card, and then the next moment, you burned out. You're burned out, and you're waiting for the next spark.

Over time, this inconsistency can erode your confidence in your collecting choices. I wanna be clear. Evolving as a collector isn't a bad thing. I talk about it all the time. I'm a I I believe in this.

I believe in our ability to change in those sparks help us grow in this space. But our interests do legitimately change over time, and sometimes abandoning one lane for another is a conscious positive decision. The key is intention. There's a difference between thoughtfully changing your focus between versus being yanked around for whatever got your attention last week. The former comes from your own evolving passions, and the latter comes from external noise.

If it's the noise that's causing you to jump, it might be time to step back and examine why. Is the new direction really what you want, or are you under the sway of the hobby hype machine? There's this tug of war that exists between businesses and creators competing for you, the collector. It's no accident that our attention is constantly being pulled in the hobby, and it's by design. We live in this attention economy where a myriad of businesses and creators are literally competing for minutes and hours of your day.

I appreciate it. You I'm I'm I have your attention right now if you're listening to this, and there is, and I don't take that for granted. It's valuable commodity. And platforms and brands monetize it through advertising, and click sales, on their platforms. Consider the role of hobby businesses.

Card manufacturers pump out a product after product, each with its own marketing buzz, exclusive inserts, limited time chase cards, and well generated hype and urgency. Auction platforms and marketplaces have nonstop alerts. There's this constant tug of war to get your attention. Then we have content creators and influencers in the hobby. From YouTube channels opening boxes to podcasts like this one to Instagram influencers flashing their hits, many of these creators are passionate collectors themselves contributing positively to the community.

But by nature, content creation rewards what grabs attention. Big hits, sensational takes, trending topics, these naturally float to the top. Influencers have become taste makers in a world of collecting. The they wield this considerable power in shaping what other collectors pay attention to and chase. This is something I'm constantly examining.

I'm constantly seeing how it impacts me as a collector. Social media algorithms amplify this effect. The algorithms are designed to maximize engagement, not to ensure not to ensure you see what's supposed to be important to you. They will serve up what's trending, what's hot, which hobby topic is the flashiest, jumping from one to the next because that's what constant they constantly put in front of us. So how do we manage this?

It starts with awareness, recognizing when you open up your social app, you're entering a place where everyone's trying to get your focus, and just pausing and recognizing that is half the battle. So how do we reclaim our our attention? What are the filters we can create? With so many distractions, the skill that true can truly elevate your collecting experience is intentional focus. Think of it as putting on a pair of special glasses that a filter you glare at objects and hype so you can clearly see what matters to you.

How do you develop that filter? There's some things that I do regularly, and I wanna share them with you. So it's clarifying your collecting priorities. Does this fit my personal collecting? Continuing to challenge yourself, asking you those questions.

The more that I clarify my own collecting priorities, I can begin to see what sticks or what fits and what doesn't when it's coming my way. I've gotten really damn good at filtering out content, filtering out people, filtering out voices that do not connect, resonate, or add value to what I'm doing. The more we're clarifying our collecting priorities, the more it's easy to do. Audit your social media feed. We all need to do this.

Do it, like, once every six months. Just get rid of people that are pissing you off, that are bringing you down, that are not contributing to a positive experience. Like, don't be scared to do that. If you don't wanna unfollow people, just mute people. But the more we audit and clean up our own feed, the more the algorithms will help us out.

We've gotta set boundaries on notifications. I'm team do not disturb. I can't take it all at once because if I take all the notifications at once, I'll never get anything done. But the goal here is to minimize interruptions. And in this attention economy, everyone's trying to get your attention, and that's why I think there's some balance in our collecting journey that can happen when we minimize these notifications.

I think there's this practice of mindful collecting, and that's before making a purchase or pivoting to a new collecting idea, taking a mindful pause, asking, am I doing this because it aligns with my collecting goals or simply because I'm caught in the moment? The more we can consider incorporating mindful practices outside of collecting, that's important too. And I think the more I'm mindful about the way I'm treating myself outside of the hobby, the the the more I then can transfer that into the hobby. I think it's all good to reconnect with your yourself. Right?

Reconnect. Ask yourself the questions. Why are you here? What are you doing? The more you understand your roles and goals of yourself in the collecting experience, the easier it is to block off attention seekers that are coming your way.

I think by applying these kinds of filters or habits, you create a protective bubble. You're essentially telling your brain what's worthy of its focus. And over time, that makes a huge difference. Just as we train our attention to be scattered, we also train it to be stronger and resilient. Experts might compare it to things like muscle training with practice.

Your ability to focus can grow. Distractions have less pull. Imagine being able to scroll past a hype post without a twinge of FOMO because you know exactly what you're after in your collecting world. That is achievable with intentional practice. Our attention may be under attack in today's world, but as collectors, we have the power to defend it and direct it.

The fact that the average focus has shrunk to forty seconds is a wake up call. But but in it's a the fact that the average focus has struck to forty seconds is a wake up call, not to abandon technology or social media, but to use them more intentionally. In context of the hobby, this means being aware of shiny object syndrome and to pull pull of the new and the trendy, recognizing when outside influences are steering us and constantly decoding what we want to pay attention to. Remember, it's collecting. It's your own personal journey.

The more you enjoy it, the more you build out your filters, and the more you dig in, the better it gets. Hopefully, this resonates, and it gives you some ideas on how you can think about attention in this economy. Appreciate you listening to stacking slabs. We'll talk to you soon.