moneyball

This is not to say that influencers such as Clavicular deserve no blame for their choices—only that they have come of age in a media environment where fealty to an audience and online performance seem so second nature that they adopt the logic of the attention economy by default. Making content becomes one’s only belief structure. The Claviculars... See more

I’ve struggled with this balance myself. When the audience responds to something I’ve written, it can be tempting to chase the revenue and viewership by repeating the format. Repeatability and audience fervor can build a business, but kill the artist.

Remi Carlioz calls this the Logged World , where your sense of self only becomes legible through data and metrics. Carlioz coins the Logged World as the modern inversion to what philosopher Edmund Husserl called the Lebenswelt: the lifeworld , the world which is simply there and can only truly be known “through seeing, touching, feeling, hearing... See more

Ad legend Bill Bernbach letter on creativity, written in 1947:

Dear ________:

Our agency is getting big. That’s something to be happy about. But it’s something to worry about, too, and I don’t mind telling you I’m damned worried. I’m worried that we’re going to fall into the trap of bigness, that we’re going to worship techniques instead of

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It's scary to admit that you can't control the future; it's a lot easier to distract yourself by trying to optimize every decision, no matter how insignificant.

Cultural Moneyballism, in this light, sacrifices exuberance for the sake of formulaic symmetry. It sacrifices diversity for the sake of familiarity. It solves finite games at the expense of infinite games. Its genius dulls the rough edges of entertainment. I think that’s worth caring about. It is definitely worth asking the question: In a world

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That environment doesn’t produce “nihilism.” It produces rational repositioning.

If the expected value of the traditional path collapses, people move further out on the risk curve. Not because they’re delusional, but because they can do basic math.

When everything is measured in terms of engagement, content will be optimized for addictiveness. Not entertainment or artistic merit. Not intellectual substance or creativity. Pure, plain addictiveness.