Idea Surplus Disorder #109

Matthew Homann -

In this week's Idea Surplus Disorder: a Thinksgiving request, the shrinking gap between attention and patience, why leaders should speak third, and how your biggest barrier might be the success you’ve already had.

You’ll also find insight into encore anxiety, meeting culture, purpose-led strategy, and the toll a quick email response really takes. Plus: rituals, randomness, and why conversations never end quite right.

And as always, you’ll find a mix of fun finds, practical insights, and thought-provoking quotes to help you lead, live, and think more intentionally.

I'm Matt Homann, and I'm glad you're here.

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On Friday, August 1st, I'll be leading our SuperCollider session. In the New Skills For Work morning session, we'll focus on building collaboration rituals and reimagining the dreaded weekly status meeting.

You can sign up here.

Ideas + Insights

Our attention spans aren't declining, but perhaps our patience is?

"Direct evidence now confirms a moderate upward trend in adult sustained attention performance from the 1990s to today. At the same time, youth sustained attention abilities have remained remarkably constant in recent, suggesting that younger generations are no less capable of concentrating than their predecessors."
So no, just because your daughter uses TikTok does not mean her attention span has decreased. She almost definitely has a bias away from boring content, as there's so much entertaining content available. So yes, if you make a rubbish ad, she'll skip past it immediately. But if you make a good one, she'll still watch all of it. Just as she'll binge watch a great Netflix series for hours.
Attention spans have not declined. But patience for boring content has.

In meetings, leaders should speak third:

When team leaders speak too early in a team discussion, they run the risk of shutting down dissenting opinions before they’re even shared. Instead, make space for a diversity of viewpoints by allowing a few team members to share their thoughts first. Don’t wait too long, however, or else the conversation may meander or workers might interpret a manager’s reticence as silent disapproval. 

Organizations must harness the Power of Purpose:

Given the magnitude of the challenges they face, leaders need to rethink their approach to purpose. Rather than relying on platitudes to move the needle, they need to be boldly honest about how their organization will shape its customers’ future — and how employees can make that future a reality.

Want to gather and talk about something? BookClub it!

We humans, on average, can only hold a single thought for about seven seconds at a time — except when we talk to someone else. As Graeber and Wengrow write: “In conversation, we can hold thoughts and reflect on problems – sometimes for several hours on end.”

Speaking of conversations; they seem to end at a time that nobody desires:

On average, people’s desired conversation time differed from their actual conversation time by seven minutes, or 56% of the conversation. That doesn’t mean they wanted to go seven minutes sooner or seven minutes later — it’s seven minutes different. If you just smush everyone’s answers together, all the people who wanted more cancel out all the people who wanted less, and it gives you the impression that everyone got what they wanted, when in fact, very few people did.

"One in a Million" events are more likely than you think:

There are about eight billion people on this planet. So if an event has a one-in-a-million chance of occurring every day, it should happen to eight thousand people a day, or 2.9 million times a year, and maybe a quarter of a billion times during your lifetime. Even a one-in-a-billion event will become the fate of hundreds of thousands of people during your lifetime.

Encore Anxiety is when the fear of disappointing people you've already impressed is more paralyzing than the fear of impressing nobody at all:

Success changes the game you're playing without telling you. But your previous success wasn't a formula to replicate; it was an outcome of conditions that no longer exist, namely the condition of not having any audience to please. It’s easy to start managing perception instead of pursuing truth. And yet, half the time, your 'audience anxiety' is just you knowing the work isn't good enough for you.

Frustrated at work? You're not alone. In Atlassian's 2025 State of Teams Report, you'll find these stats:

  • 56% of workers say they often find that the only way to get the information they need is to ask someone or schedule a meeting.
  • 25% Executives and teams alike spend a quarter of the workweek searching for information.
  • 74% of executives say lack of communication interferes with speed and quality.
  • 1 in 2 knowledge workers say that teams at their company tend to unknowingly work on the same things.
  • Just 20% of knowledge workers feel confident that their team has an effective process for quickly informing other teams of decisions that may impact their work.
  • Only 7% of executives feel confident they know exactly how the work that each team in their company is doing supports their biggest company goals.

Get workplace rituals right:

Employees react poorly to rituals that create pressure for them to show “fake” enthusiasm. Allow employees to engage authentically without requiring participation in activities that may feel contrived or uncomfortable. This includes forcing employees to attend in the first place. Where possible, make attendance optional, with this policy explicitly communicated by leaders. This is especially critical if the ritual takes place during personal time.

I’m not ignoring your message. I’m just overwhelmed by the tyranny of being reachable:

According to the American Psychological Association, task-switching reduces productivity by up to 40% and increases mental fatigue. Psychologists call it “attention residue”, a mental hangover that lingers after leaving one task (or identity) and moving to the next.
You might be deep in work when a notification pops up; suddenly you’re scrolling, replying, tapping. By the time you return, your body’s at the desk, but your mind’s still catching up.
Replying is not neutral. It takes a toll, especially when you’re juggling so many selves. It starts to make you a little nihilistic.

Yep, we do age faster after turning 50.

Fun Finds

Words of Wisdom

Dreams are letters to ourselves that we write every night but seldom take the time to read. – Montague Ullman
Commit to loving yourself completely. It’s the most radical thing you will do in your lifetime. ― Andrea Gibson
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist. — Pablo Picasso
I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer. – Jim Carrey
Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity. — Simone Weil
A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim. – Georgre Santayana
The goal of life is to be excited to go to work and excited to go home. – Joshua Kushner
While luck may be more appealing than effort, you don't get to choose luck. Effort, on the other hand, is totally available, all the time. – Seth Godin
The human mind does not run on logic any more than a horse runs on petrol. – Rory Sutherland
In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. – Eric Hoffer

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