EI's Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss an attention dilemma that has haunted western thought for centuries. READING LIST Our attention dilemma is age-old | Alastair Benn Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium | Seneca The Essays of Michel de Montaigne Don Quixote | Miguel de Cervantes Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones. Image: Detail from Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse, 1903. Credit: SuperStock / Alamy Stock Photo