From Value to Growth to Attention Investing: How Markets Deviate From the Usual Fundamentals

The Evolution of What Investors Value

For over a century, investing philosophies have evolved alongside technology and culture.

• First came value investing, the timeless search for undervalued companies.

• Then, growth investing, chasing companies that could scale faster than the market.

• Now, in the age of social media and algorithmic feeds, we’ve entered a third era:

Attention investing, where mindshare, not balance sheets, drives market value.

In this new paradigm, visibility is liquidity and attention is alpha.

Phase 1: Value Investing — The Era of Fundamentals

Pioneered by Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett, value investing dominated the 20th century.
It’s grounded in logic and patience:

• Find assets trading below intrinsic value.

• Buy quality businesses on discount.

• Let the market eventually recognize the truth.

The metrics? Price-to-earnings ratios, book value, dividends, and cash flow.
In the value era, markets rewarded discipline and long-term conviction.

Phase 2: Growth Investing — The Age of Innovation

The late 20th and early 21st centuries saw the rise of growth investing, a shift from undervaluation to potential.
Investors began prioritizing future earnings and market disruption over present stability.
Think of Amazon, Tesla, or Nvidia: their valuations soared long before consistent profitability.

Key growth principles included:

• Scalability > stability

• Innovation > dividends

• Market dominance > current margins

Growth investing expanded the investor imagination but it also stretched valuations to depend on narratives about the future.

Phase 3: Attention Investing — The Age of Virality

Enter the 2020s. It’s a world defined by social media, crypto, and memes.

Now, investors compete not for information, but for attention.

Attention investing is the idea that market value is increasingly driven by how much collective attention an asset commands, regardless of traditional fundamentals.

Key Characteristics:

1. Narrative > Numbers
   The story sells the stock. Assets that trend, meme, or inspire loyalty outperform those that simply perform.

2. Community = Capital
   Retail investors, Reddit traders, and crypto communities move in swarms. A strong community becomes a form of decentralized marketing.

3. Visibility = Liquidity
   The more viral an asset becomes, the more it trades — and that liquidity reinforces its market value.

4. Speed of Sentiment
   In attention markets, moods shift in hours, not quarters. A tweet, meme, or influencer mention can change price trajectories instantly.

The Psychology Behind Attention Investing

Attention investing thrives on behavioral finance dynamics:

• FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) drives buy-ins during social hype.

• Confirmation bias fuels echo chambers where investors reinforce one another’s optimism.

• Recency bias magnifies short-term moves into perceived long-term trends.

These psychological loops turn social attention into market momentum what once was “speculation” now feels like community-driven conviction.

Attention Investing in Practice: From Meme Stocks to Crypto

1. Meme Stocks:
   GameStop and AMC became the poster children of attention investing. Price movements were less about fundamentals, more about the collective energy of online investors.

2. Cryptocurrency:
   Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu thrived as digital assets that captured imagination. Dogecoin’s value surged simply because people talked about it. It’s proof that attention itself can become a currency.

3. NFTs and Digital Art:
   The NFT boom illustrated the purest form of attention markets, where digital scarcity, celebrity endorsements, and virality combined to create multimillion-dollar assets out of memes.

Risks and Realities

Attention investing isn’t sustainable forever.
When attention fades, so does liquidity and price support.
Unlike intrinsic value, attention is fleeting and easy to manipulate.

Investors face new risks:

• Volatility spikes based on social sentiment shifts

• Information overload in always-on markets

• Herd behavior driven by algorithmic visibility

In other words, the same attention that creates value can destroy it overnight.

🌐 The Future: Hybrid Investing

The most successful investors today blend fundamentals with narrative awareness.
They analyze balance sheets and trending hashtags.
They read earnings reports and subreddit sentiment.
This hybrid approach acknowledges that attention now acts as an accelerant to value and growth, not a replacement for them.

In the attention economy, the loudest signal wins but the strongest story endures.

🧭 Conclusion

The evolution from value to growth to attention investing mirrors society’s broader shift from industrial production to digital connection.
While fundamentals still matter, attention has become a force multiplier in modern markets.

For investors and builders alike, understanding how attention shapes value is essential.
In today’s markets, you invest in conversations.