Mind Assets: Preserving Your True Wealth

In a world of inflated prices and distractions, your greatest wealth isn’t money—it’s your mind.

Life has gotten expensive. But you don’t need me to tell you that—you already know. Whether or not you’ve checked your latest receipt or bank statement, you can feel it. Inflation is one of the most talked-about economic challenges of the decade. But it’s more than a hit to your wallet. It’s also about your time and attention.

An Inflation Primer
Economically, inflation reflects changes in the money supply. When the supply of money aligns with the availability of goods and services, inflation remains low, and money retains its value. But if the supply of goods decreases or the money supply increases dramatically, the purchasing power of money drops—that’s inflation.

At its core, money is an abstraction of time. Historically, humans traded goods and services directly. But bartering had its challenges—unequal value, mismatched needs, and the lack of a way to save value for the future. Money solved these problems by becoming a portable, divisible, and transferable store of value.

Time, on the other hand, is how we allocate our attention. It’s a construct of the mind, shaped by our focus.

Time Inflation – Devaluing Our Attention
If money is an abstraction of time, then inflation devalues not only our money but also our time. More troubling, it’s leading to the devaluation of our attention. This perspective offers insight into how inflation permeates different aspects of modern life.

Consider content platforms. Most of us pay for at least one streaming service, often more. These prices are rising (traditional inflation), but the monetization of our attention has also evolved. Ad-free services now feature ads unless you pay extra. Platforms like YouTube make skipping ads harder and push formerly free features behind a paywall. Social media feeds are saturated with sponsored content, and ads follow us everywhere—from Uber rides to elevator screens.

Even travel reflects this trend. Last week, I was in boarding group 9 on a flight. Nine! I remember when there were three groups. Then five. Now nine. Everything’s an upsell—boarding priority, checked bags, snacks. (I wonder if bathroom access might be next?)

Politics mirrors this relentless attention grab. Campaigns used to flare up before elections and fade away. Now, politics is always-on—perpetual noise, anger, and campaigning. The intrusion isn’t limited to commercials or fliers; it’s crept into inboxes and text messages, demanding our attention at every turn.

The Attention Inflation Cycle
Here’s how it happens: A corporation or government becomes indispensable by offering a valuable good, service, or policy—often at little cost, subsidized by investors, lobbyists, or taxpayers. Once it scales and gains power, sustainability isn’t enough; growth becomes the goal. It absorbs competitors, starts new ventures, and evolves into a monopoly or oligopoly.

With control established, the focus shifts from providing value to extracting it. Users become the product. Their behaviors are tracked, turned into data, and leveraged to keep them locked into the system. The result? A relentless barrage of content designed to monopolize our attention.

Investing In Mind Assets
This era of inflation is eroding the value of our minds. We’re inundated with mindless videos, clickbait headlines, and endless content churned out by algorithms. It’s a digital dopamine farm that pulls us away from what truly matters: moments that give life meaning.

To protect against monetary inflation, people turn to hard assets—scarce resources that retain value over time (real estate, gold, Bitcoin, stocks, etc). Similarly, we can safeguard our attention by investing it in "mind assets." These are activities and experiences that nurture long-term growth and well-being, rather than fleeting dopamine hits.

Mind assets differ for everyone but share common traits: they enrich our understanding, strengthen relationships, foster creativity, enhance physical health, and connect us to the present. Examples include:

- Quality time with loved ones
- Reading and learning
- Creative pursuits
- Meditation and mindfulness
- Physical activity
- Connecting with nature

By prioritizing these activities, we preserve the value of our time and attention and protect ourselves from the relentless pull of superficial distractions.

Final Thoughts
We live in an inflationary world. The way we invest our minds determines who we are and who we might become. Invest wisely.