Escaping the Algorithm (developing taste)
We treat everything as a poll and not as criticism. And that felt very efficient to me for a while. And now it feels very weird.
‘The Ezra Klein Show’ • Opinion | How to Discover Your Own Taste - The New York Times
Not all opinions deserve equal weight. Gatekeepers are demonized now, and in part for good reason as they (like anything) can be used for harm, but they are also useful in many contexts. This culture has swung the pendulum too far and now we live in this almost nihilistic culture where everything/everyone can do/say anything, so nothing matters. We have prioritized noise over signal. Gatekeepers/curators provide that signal.
“We’ve never had more freedom, more choices. But in reality, most people are subtly funneled into the same streams, the same pools of ‘socially approved’ culture, cuisine and ideas.... You might think you’re choosing, but you never really are. When your ideas, interests, and even daily meals are largely inspired by whatever was already approved,... See more
320 / Resisting algorithmic comfort
we should be embracing our humanity instead of blindly improving efficiency. And that involves using our new AI technology in more deft ways than generating more content for humans to evaluate.
Amelia Wattenberger • Why Chatbots Are Not the Future of Interfaces
Slow and inefficient wins the race.
Developing taste depends on mastering the fundamentals.
A tradeoff occurs every time you get feedback. You become slightly more mainstream, slightly more aligned with the zeitgeist. You become marginally more of an exploiter than an explorer, standing on the shoulders of the giants who conceived the paradigm you’re striving to build upon. This is very effective when you want to align your work with... See more
Sari Azout • #82: Connecting dots, cultivating intention, and building a more human internet
To me, the key to keeping taste is to be true to yourself.
Evan Armstrong • The Art of Scaling Taste
Your ideas are a product of the information you consume. Improving your outputs requires actively directing your attention to high-quality information streams and diverting attention from low-quality ones.
The tricky thing is that our information ecosystem is full of talented marketers who masquerade as experts with convincing copywriting techniques
... See moreNick DeWilde • Becoming an Expert Generalist
