Materials Science → Mohs Hardness Scale
Two interacting scales determine whether you'll be interrupted. Hardness vs Sharpness. It's physics, not willpower.
What disrupts what, and why?
This isn't about willpower, discipline, or trying harder. It's math. If the stimulus is sharper than your attention is hard, you will be interrupted. The only question is whether you design for this or fight against physics.
Like Mohs scale measures mineral hardness, these scales measure attention dynamics.
Your resistance to interruption. How hard is your current attention state?
The penetrating power of a stimulus. How sharp is what's trying to interrupt you?
The math guarantees failure. When engineered stimuli are 2 points sharper than typical attention hardness, disruption isn't a matter of willpower—it's physics. You can't flex your way past this. You have to change the equation.
Extraction technology doesn't create new stimuli—it sharpens existing ones beyond natural levels.
| Natural Stimulus | Natural Sharpness | Engineered Version | Engineered Sharpness | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friend waves at you | 3 | Social notification | 6 | +3 |
| Interesting rumor | 3 | Clickbait headline | 5-6 | +2-3 |
| Tribal information | 4 | Outrage content | 7 | +3 |
| Potential reward | 3 | Variable reward schedule | 6 | +3 |
| Novel information | 3 | Infinite scroll | 5 | +2 |
Your baseline hardness isn't fixed—these factors reduce it.
You can change the equation from either side. Most people ignore the easier lever.
Notice: Reducing sharpness is faster and more effective than building hardness.
Most people do neither. The rare ones do both.