I like to debate. Sometimes for the sake of debate. Sometimes to learn. Sometimes to know that you and me believe what we're debating. This usually happens on a daily basis at lunch or coffee or somewhere. This is how I gather ideas beyond reading, watching and listening. I do this often with friends. The ones that are way smarter than me are the best. JOE MARCHESE is one such friend. Like the best entrepreneurs he is generous with his time. The past few years our discussions have ranged from the dangers of social media and devices to how to evolve advertising to the attention economy and on and on. Those discussions sometimes end up in this "rantnrave" or in REDEF Sets or our daily curation. They've helped to nurture the ideas that we cover daily. Joe has recently left FOX where he ran ad sales. He's returning to his roots as an EIR at the VC he started, HUMAN VENTURES with some other smarties. And he's got a theory: "We have abdicated our responsibility for curating what is worthy of a fellow human’s attention to A.I. which, in turn, is optimizing only for immediate engagement and advertising margin... The Attention Economy shapes the economy itself. The current Attention Economy is inefficient and not properly pricing negative externalities. Businesses with quality attention are undervalued, and others are losing value by chasing meaningless metrics. But with a strong understanding of what is wrong with the current Attention Economy, and what will come next, there is the opportunity build strong brands that will earn consumer trust as curators creating outsized value." Joe takes a look in "The Attention Economy Crisis: The Future of Content, Commerce and Culture"... The last hundreds of billions of dollars in value creation was innovation that gave people convenience. Businesses, leveraging new technology and business models, gave people their time and attention back. The next wave of innovation will help people spend that time and attention better. "A Reading List For The Attention Economy"... Movie marketing is broken if one of the best films of the years, which is also the funniest film of the year, can't break through at the box office. BOOKSMART had me rolling on the floor every second. Of the best of teen movies. All the stereotypes, but here, the people you went to school with aren't so one dimensional. Part of me thinks if it skipped the theater and launched on NETFLIX it would be a sensation. Maybe it still will be... Run and go see it... Happy Birthday to MICHAEL ARMSTRONG, MAX LUGAVERE, JED SIMON, and DEBRA WHITE. Belated to TARA FORD SPIEGEL, BROOKE GRANT, KRAIG FOX, JON ERLICHMAN, KATIE MCNEILL, MIKE STEIB, JOHN ROSENBERG, JOE RICH, CHARLOTTE SPRINTIS BLECHMAN, and JASON TURNER.