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What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

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Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#111

Post by sehugg »

martythemaniak wrote: post #10

One thing that I find interesting is how none of the great dystopian works of the 20th century featured celebrities as the ruling class. The antagonists are like Bond villains, smart, sophisticated, rational, cruel. A worthy adversary you could respect and feel good about struggling against. Our reality is that we've made our lives so advanced and comfortable, that our fantasies can try to become our reality. I guess…

"A Face in the Crowd" comes close, with Andy Griffith playing a populist hero who gets involved in politics. Near the movie's climax, the front-runner offers him the position of "Secretary for National Morale".

Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#112

Post by futureastronaut »

johnwheeler wrote: post #108
futureastronaut wrote: post #105

I imagine that everybody who watches too much Fox News or Rachel Maddow has a manifesto like this up their sleeve. Just like everybody has a book, which should not necessarily be written. There's something distinctly sad about a disenfranchised person devoting most of their time and thoughts to politics. The entire circus is a scam.

Did you even RTFA? It’s by no means a political rant. It’s about how information asymmetry is being resolved by the internet and how that’s affecting consumer tastes. This wriitng is on par with Yuval Noah Hurari

Of course I didn't read every word of this lengthy opinion essay, I skimmed it and it's nothing new. I loved the ending though:

> Essays like this are a team effort. This essay was inspired by a frustrating conversation at Thanksgiving dinner. They say not to talk about politics, and guess what… we talked about politics. However, the disagreement was productive. It sent me on a long journey to dig deeper and find my own answers.

I'm sure the author's a great person to hang out with. He sees the truth and speaks it to power! Um, and would you pass me some potatoes?

Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#113

Post by [deleted] »

xtiansimon wrote: post #102
jjoonathan wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The introduction's tacky and condescending tone lost me. Does it get better?

"condescending"? Was there a particular passage which you feel had the 'superior talking down to inferior' characteristic? Dialectical arguments tend to long, boring, and esoterical. I found the intro a mix of jocular and dialectical, which for me turned out to be the payoff for some of the article's repetitiveness.

[deleted]

Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#114

Post by geezerjay »

martythemaniak wrote: post #75
miloshadzic wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget Idiocracy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGUNPMPrxvA

Well, the US does currently have a president who got (at least partly) famous in the Pro Wrestling circuit, so big points there. But it's only a superficial resemblance. President Comacho saw a real problem (lack of food), realized he needed help tacking the issue, sought out literally the smartest person in the world, followed his advice and solved the issue. President Trump makes up problems, staffs his cabinet wit…

Spot on.

I would add that Idiocracy's theme was the dumbing down of society, but in spite of society's failings the democratic government continued functioning well in working on the citizen's best interests. Unfortunatly Trump's government appears to be doing the exact opposite, to the point of looking as a government ran by anarchists trying to undermine it from within. That's arguably far worse than Idiocracy's central theme.

Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#115

Post by tsunamifury »

martythemaniak wrote: post #109
tsunamifury wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered that the rational bond villains use celebrities as a visibility and accountability shield to accomplish goals that would otherwise be shut down if proposed directly?

I have, and you can make the case that this is what's happening, and use Trumps 2017 tax cut as a very good example of elites complaining about him, but successfully using him for their own ends. And that would be true, but I don't believe that overall, since it presupposes that just because someone is a celebrity, they are necessarily some sort of mindless, insentient vessel that optimizes for fame and can otherwise…

Useful idiots work freelance, because any longer and they become a liability. I think there is a vast pool of freelance celebrity today, with a deep bench of influencers attempting to expand it further. So if Kim doesn’t work tomorrow, someone else will. The difficulty with Trump is that his office has a 4 year appointment and he accomplished his goal in 2, leading to 2 more goalless years.

Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#117

Post by lazulicurio »

Mary-Jane wrote: post #78
blueboo wrote: post #48

It's nicely written but I don't know how thoughtful it is. > Big institutions, whose dominance once seemed eternal, are on the brink of collapse. > The explosion of information has undermined and obsoleted the 20th-century organizational model. Big brands are losing market share. Big universities are going bankrupt. Big political parties are splintering and losing their control over the political narrative. Isn't the…

The point wasn't that David has beat Goliath. Netflix and Apple are examples of companies that changed the rules: when was the last time you visited a Blockbuster or used your Palm Pilot? What happened to companies like Sears, Border's, Radio Shack, Kodak? The point is that the mindset that used to enable these companies now works against them.

I could maybe see Netflix as an example of what the author was talking about, but how exactly does Apple fit in there? Apple is all about branding and mass-market appeal.

FWIW I had the same thoughts as the GP while reading the article. Look at the examples that it gives for brand fragmentation: Halo-Top, Talenti, So Delicious, Ciao Bella, and Coconut Bliss.

Talenti is a subsidiary of Unilever. Ciao Bella is 50% owned by Sherbrooke Capital Management. So Delicious is produced by WhiteWave which is owned by Danone (Dannon).

I think the article makes some good points, but ultimately gets a bit too cute trying to paint "information abundance" as the cause for all the discussed structural changes.

Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#118

Post by [deleted] »

martythemaniak wrote: post #109
tsunamifury wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered that the rational bond villains use celebrities as a visibility and accountability shield to accomplish goals that would otherwise be shut down if proposed directly?

I have, and you can make the case that this is what's happening, and use Trumps 2017 tax cut as a very good example of elites complaining about him, but successfully using him for their own ends. And that would be true, but I don't believe that overall, since it presupposes that just because someone is a celebrity, they are necessarily some sort of mindless, insentient vessel that optimizes for fame and can otherwise…

[deleted]

Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#119

Post by spaced-out »

miloshadzic wrote: post #21
martythemaniak wrote: post #10

One thing that I find interesting is how none of the great dystopian works of the 20th century featured celebrities as the ruling class. The antagonists are like Bond villains, smart, sophisticated, rational, cruel. A worthy adversary you could respect and feel good about struggling against. Our reality is that we've made our lives so advanced and comfortable, that our fantasies can try to become our reality. I guess…

Don't forget Idiocracy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGUNPMPrxvA

Ironically, Idiocracy was too optimistic. The "idiots" of the future still ultimately respected knowledge and facts. They made the main character president once he clearly demonstrated he was the best person for the job.

In real life they'd just say the "big government deep state" is spreading "fake news" about Brawndo.

Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#120

Post by qualipetv »

jolux wrote: post #29

Comparing AOC to Trump got a laugh out of me. Acting like they’re even comparably detached from reality is ludicrous. Having political ambition and a vision of a changed society is not a bad thing if the thing you’re railing against is real and dangerous (climate change inaction). Leveraging the pervasive racist elements of American society into executive power for the purpose of building an expensive, unnecessary, a…

It took me two clicks to find out he's one of the nouveau grifters fawning over right wing demagogues (ie Jordan Peterson).

Funny how you can identify these kind of personalities within a few sentences from their oh-so objective writing. I'd love for HN to acquire some critical thinking skills to dismiss pseudo-'data-driven' articles like this one.

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