Much has been said about Robert Moses' multi-decade reign in NYC. Typically this includes his nuanced understanding of power or critiquing top-down urban design. But there's a subtler thread that ran through his life. A superpower we all have access to: radical attention. While others debated, Moses (cunningly noticed): - Which bureaucrats made what decisions - Which laws had exploitable loopholes - Which public projects could fund private agendas - Which communities couldn't fight back @nayafia points this out in one of my favorite sections of her book Antimemetics: "Though his legacy is controversial, Moses demonstrates how champions can drive the overhaul of complex systems: by patiently working within and around the structures in ways that most people don’t have the stamina for, or don’t even notice exist. Moses wasn’t superhuman; he just paid attention to the things that others did not. He was able to grapple with the kind of intricacy that overwhelms most people, which is why true reform in systems like healthcare, academia or politics often depends on inside players who aren't distracted by surface-level noise." In our conversation on , Nadia and I discussed why attention is upstream of everything else: ideas, power, creativity, and even happiness. It's available on all platforms below.