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The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

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Re: The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

#11

Post by davidthewatson »

Animats wrote: post #8
OliverM wrote: post #3

I like the sentiment but this could have been a tweet. If it was it wouldn't be preaching to the choir. I am being glib above but in the spirit of useful feedback, the article needs editing for length. It's not that it's badly written, I just found that it took too circuitous a route to make its point.

> the article needs editing for length That's 30 to 45 seconds of reading time. Admittedly it could be shorter, but still, it's not excessive.

I disagree, while liking the tone of the piece and the style of the writer.

However, the appropriate length that the original commenter refers to is, in fact, a tweet.

The reason is simple: the SOTA in internet criticism is quite old whether you read Neil Postman, Mitch Kapor, Sherry Turkle, or David Courtwright. The Turkle and Courtwright quotes are easy to find being more recent. The Kapor quote from the EFF dates to 1993 and so Google et al have found a way to lose it, and if you can find it, you may not be able to read it.

Re: The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

#13

Post by meandthewallaby »

pipo234 wrote: post #4
OliverM wrote: post #3

I like the sentiment but this could have been a tweet. If it was it wouldn't be preaching to the choir. I am being glib above but in the spirit of useful feedback, the article needs editing for length. It's not that it's badly written, I just found that it took too circuitous a route to make its point.

I, for one, learned a new word: Ennui. And I believe I finally understand what people mean when referring to a cargo cult. A tweet most definitely would not have sufficed. Thanks for the long read, interesting an well written. (And: true, I'm probably living under a rock for being so ignorant) :-)

Because of the curse of the autodidact, do note that "ennui" is pronounced "on-wee," as it comes from French ("ennui" is "boredom" in French). It is not, as I found out rather embarrassingly, "en-you-eye".

Incidentally, I agree with you. While there could be some editing for length (oh well), the point was well made with a great example to start out with, and a bit of a discussion about some of the effects of being trapped in the Ennui Engine. It definitely hit on something I've noticed about myself.

I have a pile of books I've been meaning to read but haven't gotten to. I have lots of articles that I'd like to read but haven't made time yet. But I'd pull up Reddit and just scroll there. I deleted Twitter when Elon bought it and decided to burn it to the ground, and I'll be deleting Reddit now. Not so much to make a stand, but really just using this opportunity of upheaval as a way for my old head to extricate itself from the Ennui Engine.

Re: The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

#14

Post by klik99 »

pipo234 wrote: post #4
OliverM wrote: post #3

I like the sentiment but this could have been a tweet. If it was it wouldn't be preaching to the choir. I am being glib above but in the spirit of useful feedback, the article needs editing for length. It's not that it's badly written, I just found that it took too circuitous a route to make its point.

I, for one, learned a new word: Ennui. And I believe I finally understand what people mean when referring to a cargo cult. A tweet most definitely would not have sufficed. Thanks for the long read, interesting an well written. (And: true, I'm probably living under a rock for being so ignorant) :-)

Everyone learns these things from different places! I used to get annoyed at content explaining things I already knew well until I realized that I once learned it from somewhere that wasn't the "original place". I forget who said it, but someone said good writing isn't about writing something new, it's about saying existing truths in interesting ways. This piece didn't really land for me, but glad it did for you.

Re: The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

#15

Post by klik99 »

FrustratedMonky wrote: post #12

The cargo cult metaphor is stretched pretty thin. Could have just stuck to discussing Skinner.

I think cargo cult is an interesting way of thinking of intrinsic motivations of addiction, and useful as a personal tool to assist breaking addictive cycles, whereas Skinner is a more scientific view of external effects.

I mean, I agree this piece was way too long though

Re: The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

#16

Post by jjkaczor »

meandthewallaby wrote: post #13
pipo234 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I, for one, learned a new word: Ennui. And I believe I finally understand what people mean when referring to a cargo cult. A tweet most definitely would not have sufficed. Thanks for the long read, interesting an well written. (And: true, I'm probably living under a rock for being so ignorant) :-)

Because of the curse of the autodidact, do note that "ennui" is pronounced "on-wee," as it comes from French ("ennui" is "boredom" in French). It is not, as I found out rather embarrassingly, "en-you-eye". Incidentally, I agree with you. While there could be some editing for length (oh well), the point was well made with a great example to start out with, and a bit of a discussion about some of the effects of being t…

'It is not, as I found out rather embarrassingly, "en-you-eye"'

Don't worry, as someone whose vocabulary was extended through voracious reading, I have made several of those "fox passes" over the years... (with that being the most memorable!)

Re: The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

#19

Post by bee_rider »

DrScientist wrote: post #9
RegW wrote: post #6

> Our upvotes, likes, shares, and retweets need to be reserved for only those things which truly deserve to be amplified, not just because we personally appreciate them, but because they’re of exceptional quality. Sounds great, but with all the morons reacting prolifically to every piece of trash, will my one carefully allotted upvote be valued? I like the idea of Quadratic Voting: https://www.economist.com/interacti…

Interesting. When I looked at their example poll - what was interesting was I started to think tactically - as votes now cost - I'm much more interested in not wasting votes on issues that aren't going to be closely fought. ie Even if I had strong feelings about topic X - should I vote if I already can guess the outcome of the vote - surely smarter to avoid wasting that vote and focus on something that's likely to be…

Maybe we can come up with a scheme to combine all our votes into a giant finite state machine…

Re: The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

#20

Post by mistermann »

namaria wrote: post #5
cgio wrote: post #2

I upvoted this one but wonder whether I did it because it cunningly convinced me to consume a long form content just to eat the pellet for the fact I read it to the end. I agree with many of the statements, always keep an eye out though for the potential I am just the old man who does not get the sophistication that goes into phenomenally only cheap, thoughtless content. What if the new art is not articulated in ligh…

I found it pretty vapid. Goes to show high effort by itself cannot ensure high quality.

Interestingly, the author addressed this sort of thing a few times in the article.
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