What we value

Examining what this "value" thing is we are all trying to create

What we have long called the creator economy is evolving to become more of a “meaning economy,” where the creators and brands and experiences that engage us will do so through story, craft, and a deeper and more sophisticated sense of meaning. The creator economy was ultimately driven by content (enabled by ubiquitous access to content creation and... See more

Meaning is tied to values. Values are scarce.

The binge eating and compulsive spending, the perfectionism and procrastination, the ways we habitually go into hiding.

The Source 🌊

A lot of this is rooted in societal pressures.

Creators make money so they can make stuff, instead of the other way around.

Dr. Gena Gorlin • Fantastic Builders and Where to Find Them, 5th Installment

This is an important thing to realize.

"Your boos mean nothing, I've seen what makes you cheer" is actually an excellent and life-affirming attitude

Divya Venn • Tweet

This is incredible

The Rise of SNARF

SNARF stands for Stakes/Novelty/Anger/Retention/Fear. SNARF is the kind of content that evolves when a platform asks an AI to maximize usage. Content creators need to please the AI algorithms or they become irrelevant. Millions of creators make SNARF content to stay in the feed and earn a living.

Jonah Peretti • The Anti-SNARF Manifesto

This is one of the battles we are fighting. Kill SNARF with fire.

Collapsed states are simpler states, so anyone working towards a simpler state — and anyone telling an intelligible tale is doing precisely that — is working towards a collapse. The failure of a world begins with a failure of the imagination to comprehend increased complexity, and an urge to retreat to greater simplicity.

every story is a degrowth story

I don’t think this is necessarily degrowth, it’s compression. This feels like simplicity is a return to understanding of what’s valuable after building on top of it. It’s the flower budding, blooming, wilting, and blooming again. It’s cyclical and growth oriented, because uncapped growth is deadly to the environment and will be rejected.

Similar to Zhang Yiming, Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t care very much about the content on his platforms and is much more interested in technology and AI.

Jonah Peretti • The Anti-SNARF Manifesto

Boom. This is the issue.

Fire up a blank page with a question in mind, however, and the world becomes grownup Blue’s Clues. You’re reading something or talking to someone and it’s almost as if you see a blue paw print and hear little kids shouting “A clue! A clue!” whenever something you might be able to use appears.

Long Questions/Short Answers

This is a clue!