Marketing is something that doesn’t come naturally to me, but the more I’ve been working on product development, the more I’ve come to realize the importance of discoverability.
It can be hard to tell what’s noise and what’s signal in today’s digital landscape, and I’m gonna explore some strategies for becoming a signal people can curiously tune into, rather than a noise they can’t wait to skip. I’m no marketing expert by any means, but I’m gonna try to explore some strategies for becoming a signal people can curiously tune into, rather than a noise they can’t wait to skip.
The Problem
We’ve built an internet optimized for attention — not understanding, not wonder, not depth. Just attention. Harvested. Measured. Monetized.
It’s the oil of the digital age, and we’ve gotten good — too good — at drilling for it. Hooks. Clickbait. Doomscrolling. Everything designed to capture the eye and hold the mind hostage.
But what if we stopped optimizing for attention, and started optimizing for curiosity?
The Difference Matters
Attention is passive. It’s what happens when something flashes loud enough or bright enough to interrupt us. Curiosity is active. It’s what happens when something invites us in — and we choose to follow.
One is extracted. The other is cultivated.
One is transactional. The other is transformative.
One says: “Keep watching.” The other asks: “What do you think?”
A New Design Ethic
Treating curiosity as sacred — rather than attention as capital — means we must rethink the entire architecture of the digital experience.
From Interruption to Invitation What if our feeds weren’t optimized to keep us scrolling, but to provoke questions we want to linger with?
From Novelty to Depth Instead of endless content, we’d value layered, re-readable, regenerative media — the kind that grows with us.
From Conversion Funnels to Exploration Maps Marketers wouldn’t trap users in loops. They’d light paths through complexity. Spark discovery. Encourage agency.
From Surveillance to Stewardship The platforms that “know us best” would protect our inner lives, not exploit them. Curiosity needs trust. It dies in hostile environments.
What This Changes
If curiosity becomes the unit of value:
- Creators are rewarded not for noise, but for nourishing minds.
- Audiences grow more discerning, exploratory, self-directed.
- Brands align with meaning instead of manipulation.
- Technologies evolve from addictive systems into catalysts for understanding.
We’d move from an extractive attention economy to a curiosity commons — a place where questions are more valuable than clicks.
The Big Shift
This isn’t a UX tweak. It’s a moral reorientation.
It means building a world where what sparks wonder matters more than what hijacks eyes. Where human minds aren’t just targets, but terrains to be explored — with care.
Because curiosity isn’t just a better metric. It’s the beginning of everything that matters.