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‘‘The only factor becoming scarce in a world of abundance is human attention” – Kevin Kelly in ‘Wired’

In Computer Science, there is a condition called Memory Leak, where a Program, after using a chunk of Memory, doesn't properly free and return it to the Computer. The result will be pieces of memory scattered throughout the RAM inaccessible to the system and dominated by garbage Objects left by the ill-behaved program.

The human brain faces the same issue everyday.
When you have conscious or unconscious cognitive activity about something that you have stopped working on, and definitely are not supposed to think about now, you're experiencing memory leak. That something has taken a cognitive space in your limited attention that it had to return to you.

And there is a term for it, Attention Residue.
More formally Attention Residue, according to Sophie Leroy of University of Minnesota, is the persistence of cognitive activity about Task A even though one stopped working on Task A and currently performs a Task B.
Dr. Leroy conducted a research on a total of 162 individuals on two different studies to find out what factors affect the smooth transition while switching between tasks.
The proposed factors to have an impact on the process are:
- Task Completion
- Time Pressure

The study confirmed the proposition that, apart from finishing Task A before starting Task B, completing the task under high time pressure( limited time window) can play a role to reduce attention residue and attain cognitive closure (the end of cognitive processing obtained through psychological resolve after reaching an end point subjectively evaluated as satisfactory).
In addition, finishing a task, especially in high time pressure, improved the performance on the given task at hand, and resulted in elevated confidence. This confidence can then influence the performance on subsequent tasks.

What this possibly could indicate is, according to Dr. Leroy's own word, that unfinished, and or interrupted tasks are dangerous because they can easily turn to residue beyond our control. And the role of social media and cellphones is a prominent factor that doesn't even need to be explained in this sense. But attention, despite how we ignore its scarcity, is one of the treasures that can shape as much as the personal identity of a person, and by being so, requires a great deal of care.

Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residuewhen switching between work tasks
Sophie Leroy

One of the most basic delusions of our time is that home life takes care of itself naturally, and that the best strategy for dealing with it is to relax and let it take its course. Men especially like to comfort themselves with this notion. They know how hard it is to succeed on the job, how much effort they have to put into their careers. So at home they just want to unwind, and feel that any serious demand from the family is unwarranted. They often have an almost superstitious faith in the integrity of the home. Only when it is too late—when the wife has become dependent on alcohol, when the children have turned into cold strangers—do many men wake up to the fact that the family, like any other joint enterprise, needs constant investments of psychic energy to assure its existence.

To play the trumpet well, a musician cannot let more than a few days pass without practicing. An athlete who does not run regularly will soon be out of shape, and will no longer enjoy running. Any manager knows that his company will start falling apart if his attention wanders. In each case, without concentration, a complex activity breaks down into chaos. Why should the family be different? Unconditional acceptance, the complete trust family members ought to have for one another, is meaningful only when it is accompanied by an unstinting investment of attention. Otherwise it is just an empty gesture, a hypocritical pretense indistinguishable from disinterest.

Flow in the Family
Mihaly Csikszentmihaly

‘Do you belong to those, who caused it?’, said a voice.
Dandelion sharply turned around.
The dryad leaning on the pine had hair the color of silver, he could see that even in twilight.

‘An unpleasant view,’ she said and crossed her hands on her chest. ‘The one, who lost everything. It is interesting, bard, because I once thought that one can never lose everything, that something always has to remain. Always. Even in the times of contempt, where naivety can take revenge in the cruelest way, one cannot lose everything. And he... He lost a lot of blood, the option of healthy walking, partial movement of his left hand, a witcher's sword, the woman he loves, the daughter he miraculously found, confidence, faith... I told myself, that there had to be something he had not lost. But I was wrong, he has nothing, not even that razor.’

Dandelion didn't say anything, The dryad didn't move.

‘I asked, if you also took part in it.’ she said after a while. ‘Perhaps my question was pointless. Obviously, it is also your fault. If someone has friends, but still loses everything, they are also guilty. For what they did, or did not. Guilty for not knowing, what they had to do.’
‘What could I have done ?’ he whispered silently. ‘What could I have changed?’
‘I don't know,’ answered the dryad.
‘I didn't tell him everything...’
‘That I know.’
‘I'm not guilty.’
‘But you are.’

Time of Contempt
The Witcher 4 - Andrzej Sapkowski

‘I predict a bad end for your race,’ Zoltan said grimly.

‘Every rational creature in this world, when they fall into poverty, misery and unhappiness, commonly join with their kinsmen, because among them it is easier to survive the bad times, because they help each other. But among you humans, each of you looks at only how to make something out of misfortune. If hungry, then food is not distributed, the weakest is devoured. Such a procedure makes sense for wolves, allowing the individual to survive healthier and stronger. But among intelligent races such selection usually allows the dominant and biggest bastards to survive. Analyze this how you want.’

Baptism of Fire
The Witcher 5 - Andrzej Sapkowski

He knew he was supposed to move on. Recover. Put it behind him. His few stray friends and few stray relatives had said as much, and he knew that if he were on the outside looking in, he would tell that other Teddy to buck up and suck in your gut and get on with the rest of your life.
But to do that, he'd have to find a way to put Dolores on a shelf, to allow her to gather dust in the hope that enough dust would accumulate to soften his memory of her. Mute her image. Until one day she'd be less a person who had lived and more the dream of one.

They say, Get over her, you have to get over her, but get over to what? To this fucking life? How am I going to get you out of my mind? It hasn't worked so far, so how am I supposed to do that? How am I supposed to let you go, that's all I'm asking. I want to hold you again, smell you, and, yes too, I just want you to fade. To please, please fade...

Shutter Island,
Dennis Lehane

If we assume that people on average act out of self-interest we'll be less disappointed than if we assume that people on average act out of altruism. This does not mean that we can't make things better. But doing so demands that we first understand why we are the way we are.
Richard Dawkins said in The Selfish Gene: "Be warned that if you wish, as I do, to build a society in which individuals cooperate generously and unselfishly towards a common good, you can expect little help from biological nature. Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish."

Seeking Wisdom, Peter Bevelin

"I have no use whatsoever for projections or forecasts. They create an illusion of apparent precision. The more meticulous they are, the more concerned you should be. We never look at projections, but we care very much about, and look very deeply at, track records. If a company has a lousy track record, but a very bright future, we will miss the opportunity ...
I do not understand why any buyer of a business looks at a bunch of projections put together by a seller or his agent. You can almost say that it's naive to think that those projections have any utility whatsoever. We're just not interested.
If we don't have some idea ourselves of what the future is, to sit there and listen to some other guy who's trying to sell us the business or get a commission on it tell us what the future's going to be -like I say, it's very naive."
- Warren Buffett

Seeking Wisdom, Peter Bevelin

Cicero once wrote that to be completely free one must become a slave to a set of laws. In other words, accepting limitations is liberating. For example, by making up one’s mind to invest psychic energy exclusively in a monogamous marriage, regardless of any problems, obstacles, or more attractive options that may come along later, one is freed of the constant pressure of trying to maximize emotional returns. Having made the commitment that an old-fashioned marriage demands, and having made it willingly instead of being compelled by tradition, a person no longer needs to worry whether she has made the right choice, or whether the grass might be greener somewhere else. As a result a great deal of energy gets freed up for living, instead of being spent on wondering about how to live.

Flow in the Family
Mihaly Csikszentmihaly

The couch was in semi-darkness, shielded from the moon by a column, but a ribbon of moonlight stretched from the porch steps to the bed. And once the procurator lost connection with what surrounded him in reality, he immediately set out on the shining road and went up it straight towards the moon. He even burst out laughing in his sleep from happiness, so wonderful and inimitable did everything come to be on the transparent, pale blue road. He walked in the company of Banga, his dog, and beside him walked the wandering philosopher, Yeshua Ha-Nozri.

They were arguing about something very complex and important, and neither of them could refute the other. They did not agree with each other in anything, and that made their argument especially interesting and endless. It went without saying that today’s execution proved to be a sheer misunderstanding: here this philosopher, who had thought up such an incredibly absurd thing as that all men are good, was walking beside him, therefore he was alive. And, of course, it would be terrible even to think that one could execute such a man. There had been no execution! No execution! That was the loveliness of this journey up the stairway of the moon.

There was as much free time as they needed, and the storm would come only towards evening, and cowardice was undoubtedly one of the most terrible vices. Thus spoke Yeshua Ha-Nozri.

"No, philosopher, I disagree with you: it is the most terrible vice! He, for example, the present procurator of Judea and former tribune of a legion, had been no coward that time, in the Valley of the Virgins, when the fierce Germani had almost torn Ratslayer the Giant to pieces. But, good heavens, philosopher! How can you, with your intelligence, allow yourself to think that, for the sake of a man who has committed a crime against Caesar, the procurator of Judea would ruin his career?"

‘Yes, yes . . .’, Pilate moaned and sobbed in his sleep. 'Of course he would. In the morning he still would not, but now, at night, after weighing everything, he would agree to ruin it. He would do everything to save the decidedly innocent, mad dreamer and healer from execution!'

"Now we shall always be together," said the ragged wandering philosopher in his dream, who for some unknown reason had crossed paths with the equestrian of the golden spear. "Where there’s one of us, straight away there will be the other! Whenever I am remembered, you will at once be remembered, too! I, the foundling, the son of unknown parents, and you, the son of an astrologer-king and a miller’s daughter, the beautiful Pila."

"Yes, and don’t you forget to remember me, the astrologer’s son," Pilate asked in his dream. And securing in his dream a nod from the En-Sarid beggar who was walking beside him, the cruel procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, wept and laughed from joy in his dream.

"The Burial"
The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov

Gods, my gods! How sad the evening earth! How mysterious the mists over the swamps! He who has wandered in these mists, he who has suffered much before death, he who has flown over this earth bearing on himself too heavy a burden, knows it. The weary man knows it. And without regret he leaves the mists of the earth, its swamps and rivers, with a light heart he gives himself into the hands of death, knowing that she alone can bring him peace.

"Forgiveness and Eternal Refuge"
The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov

Spectator sports like football are normally zero sum games for a good reason. It is more exciting for crowds to watch players striving mightily against one another than to watch them conniving amicably. But real life, both human life and plant and animal life, is not set up for the benefit of spectators. Many situations in real life are, as a matter of fact, equivalent to nonzero sum games. Nature often plays the role of ‘banker’, and individuals can therefore benefit from one another’s success. They do not have to do down rivals in order to benefit themselves. Without departing from the fundamental laws of the selfish gene, we can see how cooperation and mutual assistance can flourish even in a basically selfish world.

"12. Nice Guys Finish First"
The Selfish Gene
by Richard Dawkins

FIND SOURCES OF WISDOM THAT WITHSTAND MIMESIS

Experts play an increasingly prominent role in our society. But what makes an expert? A degree? A podcast? Increasingly, experts are crowned mimetically, like fashion.
Because there is less and less agreement about cultural values and even about the value of science itself (consider the debates about climate change), people find “experts” whose expertise is largely a product of mimetic validation. It’s critical to cut through mimesis and find sources of knowledge that are less subject to mimesis.
Find sources that have stood the test of time. Be wary of self-proclaimed and crowd-proclaimed experts.
It’s less likely that experts will be mimetically chosen in the hard sciences (physics, math, chemistry) because people have to show their work. But it’s easy for someone to become an overnight expert on “productivity” merely because they got published in the right place. Scientism fools people because it is a mimetic game dressed up as science.
The key is carefully curating our sources of knowledge so that we are able to get down to what is true regardless of how many other people want to believe it. And that means doing the work.

Every once in a while, then, it’s good to deconstruct the mimetic layers behind someone’s authority and think seriously about how we chose our sources of knowledge in the first place. We might find that the road to our favorite experts was paved with mimetic influence.

Wanting, Luke Burgis

Drugs is another example of how we actively seek to escape from reality rather than gaining objectivity in it. Drug consumption occurs in the whole spectrum of social classes, from the wealthy to the poor and destitute. It is a practise that can be traced since the beginning of time and in all types of societies, from civilised to non-civilised. It is in human nature to seek comfort and pleasure, and drugs is one way that humans found of doing it. The effect of drugs is to chemically alter the state of consciousness. And we deliberately pursuit this for several reasons: as recreation, as part of spiritual rituals, as relaxation or as an escape from the pain and suffering of reality. Objective reality doesn’t offer comfort (on the contrary, in many cases it can be painful) neither is spiritually fulfilling. To deliberately alter our state of mind through drugs is another example of how we actively pursuit comfort and we actively escape from objectivity.

Another example of how we actively search to escape from reality is entertainment. Entertainment is pursuit for many reasons: to escape from boredom or just as a distraction. But one of the reasons we look for entertainment is to momentarily escape from the burdens of daily life. We find entertainment in many forms: sports, music, literature, theatre, spectacles or movies. And how important is for us to escape from reality is reflected on the demand for entertainment. And the demand for entertainment is reflected on the high income of footballers, actors, pop stars, novelists, etc. We seem to have an insatiable demand for entertainment. Entertainment and escaping from reality is valued much higher than objectivity.

Holidays is another example of how we actively seek to escape from reality. Holidays is a time to relax and distract the mind. Nobody goes on holidays to the library or joins a course to learn something new. Holidays is also a time to enjoy and leave behind the compromises, responsibilities and burdens of our daily life. Going away on holidays for example is the best way of doing this and escaping from our daily life. So holidays is not only a time to rest and enjoy, but it is also time when temporarily escape from the reality we live in into a more pleasant one. Holidays is another example of how we actively pursue escaping to a more pleasant reality. Tourism is an industry of enormous size and importance. And its size is a measure of how highly we value escaping from our reality. If we consider how much resources and energy we invest on holidays and weekends, we soon realise the importance we give to escape from our reality and seek comfort from it.

In general, we invest much more time, energy and resources on entertainment, holidays, drugs or comforting metaphysics to escape or avoid reality than on gaining objectivity on it. Reality is often painful, and by nature we tend to seek comfort from pain. In order to do this we sometimes escape from reality or we adjust our world views into more comfortable ones. So not only we tend to be passive on gaining objectivity on Nature, but we are actually active on either escaping from reality or adjusting our subjective views into more comforting ones.

Philosophy of Nature