Ep 177. The New Attention Economy: How 2026 Algorithms Decide What Gets Seen

𝑨𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝑨𝒍𝒈𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒎𝒔 & 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒔 - Episode 2

In the last episode, I looked at why some ideas stick by reviewing 𝑀𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑆𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑘. It gave us a powerful reminder: clear, emotionally resonant messages survive. But in 2026, there’s another layer to the story, one that didn’t exist when that book was written.

Today, attention itself is mediated by algorithms.

Before a human ever sees your digital message, an invisible system has already made a decision about it. Algorithms rank, filter, interpret, and prioritise digital content based on thousands of signals. In many cases, they determine whether your message is amplified, quietly buried, or never shown at all.

So if we want to communicate effectively digitally today, we need to understand not just how people think, but how platforms decide what people see.

So, let’s dive in.