These days, we get so much of our content in bite-sized, isolated bits — links in an email, tweets, Slack messages, blog posts. We consume information because it’s in front of us, rather than because it’s relevant for us. This continually present dynamic discourages reflection and thought. The future of content is about interfaces that can help us... See more

What we actually need are researchers who study particular phenomena in depth: how algorithms shape behavior, how communities form and dissolve, the difference between political extremism and nihilism

This dynamic explains a puzzle about intellectual discourse: why do some thinkers resort to esoteric or Straussian writing - deliberately obscuring their ideas from public view?

The answer becomes clear through this framework. Academic seminars, private discussions, and carefully-gated intellectual spaces allow more tolerance for idea exploration... See more

Journals used to be the answer; traditionally, they were tasked with filtering out poor research and curating high quality work. However, journals have fundamentally failed to scale with the explosion of research output, often taking years to review and publish while knowledge evolves at internet speed. Moreover, commercial incentive structures... See more

Higher status for technologists, lower status for journalists; ambiguous changes for teachers. Vox will never live this down. The people most freaked out about COVID-19 were people who pay attention to exponential growth for a living; if you design viral mechanics for apps, you probably have a good idea of how to extrapolate 33% daily growth. The... See more