# Intellectual rent seeking In the same way that economic rent seekers increase their share of existing wealth without creating new wealth, intellectual rent seekers seek to increase their share of the attention in a discipline without contributing to that discipline. Many thought leaders do this. People tend to look good because they have continued to look good. * [[Full-time thought leaders try to become gatekeepers to knowledge]] * [[Professional thought leaders are incentivized to mystify things]] <!-- #evergreen --> [Web URL for this note](http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Intellectual+rent+seeking) [Comment on this note](http://via.hypothes.is/http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Intellectual+rent+seeking)