annie hall moment

So the thing that these people don't seem to
understand about my work is that we can
*exactly* understand "motivation" by looking
at attention, i.e., by looking at what people do
over a period of time and in aggregate. OK,
we can't necessarily understand their deepest
reasons for it (e.g. maybe they fight crime because
their parents were gunned down in the street -- or
maybe they do it because it's the best cure for
ennui)... but we can definitely begin to see patterns,
like,

A, B, C <quit>
A, B, D, E <quit>
A, B, D, E, F, G <quit>
A, B, C <quit>

etc.

Maybe I'm using the word "motivation" in a nonstandard
way? In any case, I think my work is about understanding
and responding to motivation... I don't know what else
there is to say about it, really.