jwherrman.bsky.social
posts about posts at nymag. have me on your podcast
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hearing users' voices as they struggled to figure out what sort of thing they were talking to was illuminating. The posts tell a complicated story, but it's pretty clear that the more vulnerable you are, the better the chatbot illusion works
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thanks pal
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but as you're saying, everyone gets this — you're basically at work! it's awful but also people are there for work-related reasons (getting more, pretending to do it, raising profiles within it). your average linkedin maniac has more sensible intuitions about this stuff than scolding twitter pundits
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i've tried to write about linkedin's insularity a few times, it's sort of a boring subject but also hugely helpful for understanding everywhere else. it has some of the clearest and most suffocating norms of anywhere, which makes it "work" quite well
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Yeah. It’s tempting to conflate that effect with motive, but there’s plenty of genuine belief in the mix too. But I also think the industry is narratively trapped a bit? Like what else *could* they say under the circumstances?
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thanks pal
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sorry, this one's sorta old. but don't worry, it's also tedious and boring
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As much as the substance of the argument, what's notable is the contrast with Altman et al, who've more fully left the realm of argument for pure prophecy. We're still getting timelines and bets, but also something to engage with. It's a struggle with a lot of AI discourse nymag.com/intelligence...
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yeah, it’s a totally different thing hiding in a familiar interface. a huge deal!
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sorry bout that, it had the wrong link!
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(sorry to repost, bad link!)
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a platform that affirmatively recommends every post isn't "social" media — it's a conventional media outlet, automated (and freed of the pretense of serving a journalistic function)
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it's been coming for a while, but now we have a clear — and grim — picture of what constrained, algorithmic "social" media actually means for activist movements
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lol shoot
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similar to a lot of social media marketing initiatives: the people working on them sort of know they won't work and aren't durable, but they also don't want to talk their employers out of retaining them
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this is true, and I think there was always a disconnect (and some incentive problems) between the people funding this stuff and the people theoretically executing it
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what's strange about this — and significantly disarms the trap I think — is that by any reasonable definition of the "Epstein Files" Trump has already been outed as "in" them
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This will probably sound grosser than I wish it did, but "yank thumb" gets at the epicurean sensuality of true posting that conflicts with the pleas for "debate", which aim to replicate a dispassionate intellectual exercise
In short, I think you're on to something here (as if my opinion matters)
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"thumbyanker" is like a naughtier "straphanger" and kind of distantly related too
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yeah it sounds disgusting in one way and describes something that's similarly disgusting in a different way
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jokey way to describe endlessly refreshing/scrolling for no real purpose. not sure this one's gonna catch on but it's mine and i like it
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Not saying this is ideal, but I'm also not sure what people imagine this place is. If you want to earnestly debate Mark Cuban on Bluesky by all means do it, nobody's stopping you, set the example you want people to follow. But most people are just here to yank thumb
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i do not think these men are interested in saving us from themselves, and i don't think they'll do so accidentally either. but maybe i'm wrong!
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(it’s funny)
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not terribly important imo but the flagrant abuse of "free speech" arguments will eventually hand them back to the left. likewise, the right's incumbency will reignite liberal/left passion for debate culture, which always works in favor of groups unburdened by the impulse/requirement to defend power
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a content distribution meta-note here: i've been writing versions of this post since 2023, and for some reason this one — a slightly different riff on the same dynamic, less comprehensive/analytical than plenty that came before — broke through in a major way. blogging! it's still blogging
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ha, absolutely. YouTube has a similar ecosystem, lots of algorithmic folklore, similar comms strat (lots of reps and posts, big YouTubers get handlers, yet very little actionable information is shared)
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Oh yeah, no argument there. I mean this more as a change in posture, from “we hear you, we share your concerns, we will perform communication” to “well, if you think about it, that was all sort of a silly contingent thing, right?”
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It was never what people wanted (genuine competitive edge) but I mostly mean stuff like search central blog, webmaster forum, the dozens of codenamed algorithm updates through the 2000s-2010s, all that. They hired Danny Sullivan!