A better account of attention would begin with the ordinary case rather than the laboratory one. What looks like attention from the outside is usually something simpler from the inside: tiredness, a deadline, a wish not to look foolish. A pattern this consistent is not a character flaw. It is a design feature, and design features can be worked with. The usual story is that we are careless calculators. The better story is that we are careful about the wrong things.
What the evidence shows
The textbook treats attention as a preference to be revealed. In practice it is a story we tell ourselves after the fact. If you want to see attention at work, watch a queue form where there is no reason for one. Understanding people turns out to be a more urgent task than changing them, and a great deal harder. Nobody sets out to be governed by the group chat, yet it shapes an astonishing share of the ordinary day.
