Attention Exhaustion and Frameworks

Jul 22, 2025

I often see first-time managers, or senior engineers aspiring to staff, burn themselves out because they spend too long in the “deriving everything from first principles” mode. A tough people management problem, a string of reliability incidents, a challenging EM/PM relationship, a go/no-go decision, a meeting agenda – creating new, innovative solutions every time quickly exhausts them.

This also happens often with the most talented engineers I know, because they thrive on creative energy. 

I think a person’s “capacity for work” is not about the time and effort they spend on it, but rather attention (focus energy).

Learning “frameworks” just means learning shortcuts based on other peoples’ experiences. It lowers the overall attention you need to dedicate to a problem and increases your capacity for work.

As a manager supporting these people – I’ve started to look for how my people are using shortcuts. I structure my conversations to check in on how they’re applying system 1-style thinking to increasingly complex challenges, and their outcomes. These are people who are growing in their role.