Rob Walker is a writer, teacher, and journalist. He studied journalism and started his career working for trade magazines. In the early 2000s, he worked for Slate under the leadership of Michael Kinsley who suggested he should write a weekly column about advertising. Kinsley's perspective was advertising was a key cultural force but it wasn't understood or appreciated as such. Rob found this somewhat of a challenge, being dismissive of brands and ads himself. However, eventually, he got hooked on the topic and he ended up spending a decade writing the "Consumed" column for the New York Times Magazine. Rob is now focused on helping people find interesting ways of escaping the Attention Economy by seeking out new moments of opportunity and discovery which he started exploring with his 2019 book, the Art of Noticing, and has followed up with in his subsequent Subtack newsletter.