There are all kinds of capital; financial capital, political capital, social capital, state capitals, capital letter, etc.
Cal Newport, author of Deep Work, frequently uses the term “attention capital,” which is easy to grasp. You own your attention and spend it as you see fit. People sometimes forcefully demand that we pay attention! That’s fine as long as I am gaining value some kind of value for what I am buying with my attention.
Often we are simply conned out out our attention by clever advertisers, device makers or people who know how to manipulate our emotions.
When it’s money, it is easy to quantify the loss.
“Crap! I just blew $50 bucks on something stupid.”
However, loss of attention is much more insidious and we may not even realize it.