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Some notes on influenceering

lcamtuf.substack.com

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Re: Some notes on influenceering

#41

Post by mattgreenrocks »

Hearing about the CTR of his videos vs his followers is really interesting. There’s a narrative that once you build up a sufficient following then you have a better shot at getting eyeballs on future things you make.

But these stats throw some cold water on that. People don’t magically convert from follower to customer or viewer.

I think these narratives are pushed implicitly by the platforms to justify their stranglehold, and the creators themselves who have won big. At a certain scale, the model works, but due to very uneven distribution of attention, it’s tough to be that person.

Also, most social media platforms are so infuriatingly mind-numbing now with everyone running around speaking in that faux-authoritative voice when they’re just offering their opinion.

I want a great reset of the internet where the subject matter experts are the ones getting attention, not the people who post stupid engagement bait all day. But that won’t happen.

Re: Some notes on influenceering

#42

Post by M5x7wI3CmbEem10 »

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #15
luu wrote: post #8

> Some of my most popular posts are throwaway quips and memes that went viral on social media. One of my life’s crowning achievements is this: [witty, throwaway, quip tweet]. > In contrast, some of the work I put weeks or months into essentially lost the SEO game and gets nearly zero traffic ... Even though I don’t write for money, there is an immense pressure to produce clickbait — even if simply to add “hey, since…

My experience on the internet suggests that high-signal information usually has very low memetic fitness. All the good sources of information I've found have been buried away and I've come across them serendipitously. Not particularly surprising though, entertainment is the lowest common denominator so it's much easier for that kind of stuff to spread. High-signal information is the complete opposite: very few people…

any high-signal sources in particular?

Re: Some notes on influenceering

#43

Post by glial »

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #15
luu wrote: post #8

> Some of my most popular posts are throwaway quips and memes that went viral on social media. One of my life’s crowning achievements is this: [witty, throwaway, quip tweet]. > In contrast, some of the work I put weeks or months into essentially lost the SEO game and gets nearly zero traffic ... Even though I don’t write for money, there is an immense pressure to produce clickbait — even if simply to add “hey, since…

My experience on the internet suggests that high-signal information usually has very low memetic fitness. All the good sources of information I've found have been buried away and I've come across them serendipitously. Not particularly surprising though, entertainment is the lowest common denominator so it's much easier for that kind of stuff to spread. High-signal information is the complete opposite: very few people…

> Closer to the minimal amount of information I need

It makes me wonder what this 'need' is that can be filled by memetic drivel.

Re: Some notes on influenceering

#44

Post by immibis »

dinkleberg wrote: post #6

The best thing I've learned about "influenceering" is to stop thinking you're hot shit and focus on being useful (or entertaining if that is what you're about). Years ago I was pumping content out all the time and I was just creating the content for the sake of creating it. Consequently, the content was mostly pointless and garbage. If you want to treat your social media as a public journal that is cool, but not like…

Unfortunately we live in a society which doesn't reward that. At all. If you can be content with being the most usefully informative guy on the planet and receiving less recognition for it than the guy who makes funny faces on TikTok all day... good for you. Most people cannot.

One thing that might help with this is actual face-to-face connections. Join a hackerspace or something. A smaller number of people may interact with you than on your blog, but they're a substantially more complex interactions, not just a view counter going up.

Re: Some notes on influenceering

#45

Post by immibis »

boredemployee wrote: post #7
skilled wrote: post #5

The problem is that communities got replaced by algorithms who think on your behalf. The algorithm is by definition random , and yet for countless years now it is how most social media sites, including popular developer communities, operate. In the era of the feed and timeline, nobody bothers to check “Following” when you have “Recommended” enabled by default. The former requires effort , while the latter gives a fal…

>> In the era of the feed and timeline, nobody bothers to check “Following” when you have “Recommended” enabled by default. That's something I really hate and I feel pretty dumb that I found just some weeks ago that I can change X's feed to show me the posts people who I follow. I wonder if that's true for instagram as well because I can't stand to see random posts anymore. To be honest, I'm getting tired of it. i.e:…

If a chronological feed of everyone you follow is what you want, you'll love the Fediverse because it has so little algorithm that it's actually a flaw.

Although, if you follow lots of people, a chronological feed is still just "random posts", because they are the ones that happened to get posted just before you looked at the feed. A customized feed would be better - some way to up-weight insightful posts and down-weight memes.

Re: Some notes on influenceering

#46

Post by immibis »

M5x7wI3CmbEem10 wrote: post #42
ZephyrBlu wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience on the internet suggests that high-signal information usually has very low memetic fitness. All the good sources of information I've found have been buried away and I've come across them serendipitously. Not particularly surprising though, entertainment is the lowest common denominator so it's much easier for that kind of stuff to spread. High-signal information is the complete opposite: very few people…

any high-signal sources in particular?

you just want some to look at? OTOH danluu, prog21, lcamtuf (of course). I had more, but I forgot them. Because they have low memetic fitness.

Hacker News, compared to Reddit.

Re: Some notes on influenceering

#47

Post by sdwr »

glial wrote: post #43
ZephyrBlu wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience on the internet suggests that high-signal information usually has very low memetic fitness. All the good sources of information I've found have been buried away and I've come across them serendipitously. Not particularly surprising though, entertainment is the lowest common denominator so it's much easier for that kind of stuff to spread. High-signal information is the complete opposite: very few people…

> Closer to the minimal amount of information I need It makes me wonder what this 'need' is that can be filled by memetic drivel.

If I had to guess, "memetic drivel" gives off the same subconscious signals as safe, healthy communities.

Demonstrating that the speaker is at ease, receives broad support from listeners, and can say things without fear of reprisal.

Re: Some notes on influenceering

#48

Post by gavinhoward »

This is why you must self-host. And use HN for comments.

You may think I'm joking, but my pure self-hosted website can get more attention through HN if I put effort into blog posts.

I have two blog posts that say the same thing, one with a ragebait tone, and one that is moderate. HN loved the moderate one.

I love this site.

Anyway, I think he hit on the reason: other platforms give you bad signals for their own benefit. HN still gives a good signal, and self-hosting avoids bad signals from bad platforms.

Re: Some notes on influenceering

#49

Post by jfoutz »

completely unrelated (pretty much)

But this is still one of my favorite parts of the internet - https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/gcnc/ amazing, information dense guide to actually making stuff. I reached out once to the author, who was patient and kind.

I get through my days, I make stuff I do stuff, and I'm generally content with that. The author, lcamtuf, from my very limited interaction seems "extra". Maybe it really just is writing stuff down. Maybe I should do more of that.

Re: Some notes on influenceering

#50

Post by gavinhoward »

bawolff wrote: post #31
luu wrote: post #8

> Some of my most popular posts are throwaway quips and memes that went viral on social media. One of my life’s crowning achievements is this: [witty, throwaway, quip tweet]. > In contrast, some of the work I put weeks or months into essentially lost the SEO game and gets nearly zero traffic ... Even though I don’t write for money, there is an immense pressure to produce clickbait — even if simply to add “hey, since…

I wonder though if there is a long term benefit. E.g. people might pay attention to you because of your reputation. Your reputation might be based on high effort posts (over the long term) even if they get less attention. The lower effort posts might get more direct attention but only because of your reputation which is indirectly caused by the high effort posts which much fewer people read. Just a theory, i wonder i…

I am only a little Internet famous, but this matches my experience. But I also self-host and stay away from poisonous platforms.
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