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The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

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1–10 of 61 posts

Re: The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

#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 lighting but in the surprise out of the subtlety of the chain of simple contents. What if art is transitioning to a more directly dialectic between creators. I see my son working with a group on stickman animations, and I appreciate the community and its shared sense of newfound beauty in the pursuit of a perfection that I cannot fully understand.

Re: The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

#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.

Re: The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

#4
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) :-)

Re: The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

#5
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.

Re: The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

#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/interactive/2021/12/18/quadratic-v...

Re: The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

#7
"There is a solution to all of this...When we scroll through our various feeds, we need to remain consciously aware of what we’re doing and what messages we’re silently sending.'

That's not likely to help. The author is asking for people to devote more attention to something trivial.

Re: The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

#8
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.

Re: The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

#9
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 closely contested?

So you end up with a secondary market in information about how the vote is or is likely to go.

Ideally, as a user, what I'd like is the ability see the existing state of all the polls, and be able to dynamically adjust my vote based on the current voting state.

If the platform doesn't do that - then any differential in information about how the votes might go creates an unfair voting dynamic - ie the voting outcome isn't just about how much you care.....

If you map that back to say hackernews threads and voting - would people hold off voting, hoping somebody else spends their vote first - leading to less interaction.

In the end - isn't the quality of votes simply a reflection of the quality of the electorate?

Re: The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

#10
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…

Strong +1 (squared) to the quadratic voting suggestion. But I don’t think that it could be implemented in any sizable existing community, it is just too abstract of a benefit.

But the discussion around SMOL Webb communities, feels applicable here, the type of person that would get excited about a quadratic coding community is self selected to think more deeply and abstractly in the first place. Plenty of these people exist, but there has not been a Schelling point for them. (definitely correct me if I’m wrong on that!)

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