Brian Sholis

- “Perhaps our biggest time error is near bias—caring too much about what’s about to happen, and too little about the future.”

- “Textual interfaces make automation trivial, and automation tools much easier to build.”

- "Even if we’re anonymous or confusing to other people, we remain pellucid and knowable to platforms, which establish a recognizable personal brand of sorts algorithmically. When we encounter ourselves in the guise of recommended content and customized ads, we are meeting our coherent public image, as the platforms have deduced it from an entire... See more

- "An expansive brand accepts a place in society as a type of public good, operating with a simple logic of forever expanding to nourish its every cultural touchpoint."

- "the concrete practices of the tech industry now structure identity and individuality in ways that support its own hegemony. While it presents endless avenues for expression, it sees us as wholly reducible to market logic, where we are real to the degree that our consumption habits are rational. This vision of selfhood promotes uniformity and... See more

* “What changes your life is your peers… The people you rise up with. They’re your power base. Not the person who’s already done it.”

A thoughtful essay about how our online identities—even when our default mode is misdirection or obfuscation—are visible to the platforms we use, and by extension to capitalism and its prerogatives.

- “What is our role in the world? To what extent is our institution a vehicle for political progress as opposed to academic excellence? Rational decision-making is impossible if these questions are left hanging, but at the same time it’s not hard to see why nobody tries to resolve them.”