internet culture
Why do people construct and then give away free languages? Well, the creation of a good computer language is the work of an apex programmer. To have produced a successful language is acknowledged as a monumental effort, akin to publishing a multivolume history of a war, or fighting in one. The reward is glory.
Changing a language is like fighting... See more
Changing a language is like fighting... See more
PAUL FORD • Paul Ford: What Is Code? | Bloomberg
Once front-running other participants in financial markets or cultural production becomes a common strategy, trends become inefficiencies – temporary blips of difference or spikes in value that are bound for correction. Being early as a meta is replaced by catching people offsides. Betting on the return to the mean.
The Nemesis Guide to Being Early *Summer ‘24 Edition*
Such guides go by many names—call them influencers, or content creators, or just “this one guy I follow.” Guided by their own cultivated sense of taste, they bring their audiences news and insights in a particular cultural area, whether it’s fashion, books, music, food, or film.
Perhaps the best way to think of these guides is as curators; like a... See more
Perhaps the best way to think of these guides is as curators; like a... See more
archive.is
Flattened, algorithmically-driven, risk-averse, accounting-based reboot culture continues to win despite the incredible diversity and eagerness of the creator economy and its long tail of choice and representation.
But despite a firehouse of hot takes, nothing much has changed over the years. Perhaps it’s gotten worse ?
In 2024, all of the Top 15... See more
But despite a firehouse of hot takes, nothing much has changed over the years. Perhaps it’s gotten worse ?
In 2024, all of the Top 15... See more
Cultural Singularity & The Need for Friction: The Business Case for Thinking the Inverse
all our models that justify transport investment assume that travel time is always a disutility. In other words, the more time you spend in transit, the worse off you are. If you come along with fancy ideas suggesting that people may sometimes prefer slower to faster, it fucks up our whole model.”
So this is what’s happened to the world:... See more
So this is what’s happened to the world:... See more
Adam Grant • Are We Too Impatient to Be Intelligent?
Serendipity, that essential urban amenity, requires friction: If you never stop moving, and if everyone gets the hell out of your way, you’re less likely to have any unexpected encounter, although you will check off your to-do list more quickly. Paradoxically, the internet, which has eliminated so much friction from the physical world, has also... See more
Drew Austin • Halfway to a Third Place
i think people need to deeply examine what MSCHF has done right and wrong if they want to take this approach this time around - killers at the attention playbook but not really able to gain any meaningful network effects for value
x.com
This is also what the internet is becoming: a dark forest.
In response to the ads, the tracking, the trolling, the hype, and other predatory behaviors, we’re retreating to our dark forests of the internet, and away from the mainstream.
This very email is an example of this. This theory is being shared on a private channel sent to 500 people who I... See more
In response to the ads, the tracking, the trolling, the hype, and other predatory behaviors, we’re retreating to our dark forests of the internet, and away from the mainstream.
This very email is an example of this. This theory is being shared on a private channel sent to 500 people who I... See more