21–30 of 43 posts
This feels like a submarine article, so I'm going to go off on a tangent, and ask, "For how long will this be true?" With evolving documents like wikipedia and Conflict-free Replicated Data Type (CRDTs) coming into favor, it feels like writing could be a cooperative and multi-player game. Most of the meetings I go to have an EtherPad open for all the participants to collaboratively take notes during the discussion. I…
Writing is a single-player game... until you get an editor involved.
Everyone wants and needs to be heard. Writing is another way of achieving that - putting the message in an internet bottle and letting it float. Your audience may live in another age, past you, but your message is still alive and maybe immortal. By writing you are getting better at writing. You are also getting better at noticing things worth writing about. You are putting a (hopefully) rare perspective into the worl…
As someone who is written over 300 articles on my blog I can relate to the feeling of wondering if my words even matter or make difference. Feeling like they don't matter is the easiest way to quit. Some articles have made a splash, but only for the momentary period it was first published. I always wonder if the next generation of people will ever see it, or will it just get lost in the void. I've come to terms that…
Expanded version of this thinking: https://one.mikro2nd.net/posts/why-no-web-analytics-are-to-b...
I've kicked around the idea of starting a blog. It would be for me and me alone. Just a way to help myself work through some thoughts. There is always some sort of anxiety that stops me from doing it though. The idea of putting thoughts out into the world is scary. The author says my ideas can help people and I'm selfish to not share them but what if I don't want to my ideas to have a wide reach? What if I accidental…
If you become famous then someone will do (c) for you at some point (maybe after you are gone).
As someone who is written over 300 articles on my blog I can relate to the feeling of wondering if my words even matter or make difference. Feeling like they don't matter is the easiest way to quit. Some articles have made a splash, but only for the momentary period it was first published. I always wonder if the next generation of people will ever see it, or will it just get lost in the void. I've come to terms that…
Herman Melville was nearly lost to the void; it's pretty much random happenstance that Moby Dick was discovered thirty years or so after publication. Like the tiktok craze over No Children, I suppose... https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7018310124947147...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just checked my blog. 367 posts. But it’s private with a protected login. It’s written for an audience of one: my son when he’s an adult. Maybe it’s also written for me. I contend that the best writing and the easiest commitment to regular writing is to write for yourself. Always.
Publicly available but protected? Sorry, but that's just mean. Your son will likely never read all, or any, of it. But someone else's son might. If it wasn't login protected, that is.
The problem with "speaking truth to power" is that the shitbags in power already know the truth (that they're shitbags, and that in a just world they would be torn down and humiliated, if not destroyed). What you do by "speaking truth" is reveal to them that you also know this. By doing so, you make yourself dangerous to them. Sometimes, this is what you want. Sometimes, it is not. It is not an easy, one-size-fits-all decision. Your enemies, but also your friends, start to see you as an instrument of war.
Also, with regard to "algorithmic demons"... it's not "algorithms" that are the problem. It's (a) the complete lack of transparency, (b) that the algorithms are often tailored toward objectives other than content quality (which leads to gaming, hence the perceived need for opacity), and (c) that the data now available about us is invariably used against us by bad actors (and that a lack of influence / platform will also be used against us, so I don't know if there's a way to win).
The algorithms themselves aren't so bad; what's worse is that these companies often slip shit into the algorithms that punishes people or ideas they dislike, and of course (a) this is completely unregulated, (b) it's impossible to prove, and (c) you'll often damage your reputation if you point it out (since you sound identical to a crazy person who failed organically and is lashing out at "the algorithm" with unprovable assertions).
Everyone wants and needs to be heard. Writing is another way of achieving that - putting the message in an internet bottle and letting it float. Your audience may live in another age, past you, but your message is still alive and maybe immortal. By writing you are getting better at writing. You are also getting better at noticing things worth writing about. You are putting a (hopefully) rare perspective into the worl…
And if any AI ever produces great writing, it will only be because it has become capable of genuine originality, as many human beings already are and will continue to be no matter what AI does. Rare perspectives aren't going to get exhausted, either by AI or by an increasing human population with more literacy and leisure time. For every piece of low-hanging fruit that gets plucked, several seeds get scattered and ne…
This problem already exists in the bottom reaches of the self-publishing ecosystem--the AI-generated scammy "books" don't sell very well, but they take no effort to create--which could lead to a resurgence of traditional publishing's flagging prestige, but that would be short-lived, because New York publishing is probably no more than 10 years from getting Sokal'd in a high-profile way.