On Information
the past, present, and future of how we find, monetize, and relate to information.
sari and
On Information
Reflecting on this email from a Sublime believer:
Consuming media has become a massive time-suck for humankind. Only decades ago, the average person had one source of information, if any — the newspaper. Journalists chronicled happenings relevant to their community. And that was it. Someone got married, someone is selling their house, someone died,
... See moreThe largest companies today are obsessed with generating content in a completely de-ritualized context. But content always exists in tension with form. Ritual is the form we have abandoned in our relentless quest for content.
Ted Gioia • 13 Observations on Ritual
addictive scrolling and swiping can never achieve the sense of closure and boundedness we all crave.
From a Ted Koppel interview in Frontline: News War:
To the extent that we're now judging journalism by the same standards that we apply to entertainment — in other words, give the public what it wants, not necessarily what it ought to hear, what it ought to see, what it needs, but what it wants — that may prove to be one of the greatest tragedie... See more
Back in 2018, I explained this dynamic to Facebook’s head of NewsFeed, warning him that when BuzzFeed creates “meaningful content, it doesn’t get rewarded...the content that is working isn’t our best content” and I explained that the “entire digital media industry is faced with this dilemma. Do you make negative and polarizing content to win on Fac... See more