Have you noticed? The promotion pipeline is crowded

AI is working to get a permanent position, robots are practicing taking shifts independently, and the U.S. stock market is in charge of preemptively celebrating their success. I’m busy too—except my direct supervisor isn’t a person, but a piece of glass that lights up hundreds of times a day

Its requirements are crystal clear: wake up and clock in immediately, keep breakfast online, complete the first wave of commuting “information swallowing,” and patrol the world again before sleep. It doesn’t pay me a salary, yet it has the most complete performance data—knows what time I slack off, which video I lingered on, and what I searched for in the middle of the night, the kind of questions that can’t be written in the year-end summary

I used to think I was the boss of my phone. Then I realized I’m more like a human-shaped power bank for it. When it runs out of battery, I’m out hunting for an outlet; when I’m not in the mood, it suggests I watch one more

This supervisor never barks orders—only a tiny red dot lights up in the corner. The dot is small, but the power is huge, like it’s reminding the world something just happened—and that only you were kicked out of the group chat. So I start working late on my own: open one link, then another, and finally travel for work straight from financial news to a video of a cat jumping down from the top of the fridge

It also really knows how to motivate. A stranger likes something and you get a candy; if no one replies to your messages, they deduct a bit of your self-respect; if short videos keep hitting, it schedules an in-brain team-building event. By the time I’m finally ready to do my work, my attention has already been chopped into twelve temporary workers—none of whom are willing to sign a long-term contract

At the year-end interview, I gave myself a low score. I’ve seen a lot of information, but I remember little; I’ve replied to many people, but I haven’t really chatted with many; I’ve saved countless “read later,” but “later” never turned into onboarding

So next year’s performance goals are pretty simple: the phone takes a break at dinner, I go to work when I’m walking, and the last face before sleep stays with the mirror me. It can still be a tool, but it no longer doubles as the CEO of my life

The phone didn’t eat us—it just learned our hunger

If you’ve gotten this far

You should learn to cherish your precious attention