Sam Liebeskind
@samliebeskind
product partnerships at New_Public; previously community & growth @ Geneva
Sam Liebeskind
Part of what prevents people from starting their own software company is the pervasiveness of a singular popular narrative: the idea that money is the primary reason to do so. That the way to make software profitable is to scale, and the way to scale is to get investment from VCs. Software, for better or for worse, plays an increasingly primary... See more
Instead of asking whether or not a platform optimizes for engagement, it can be more helpful to ask how explicit or implicit these engagement signals are, and provide users with more controls to allow them to tweak their online experience.
“None of these anti-Instagram platforms can succeed over the long term because a true escape from something like Instagram would require not only getting off social platforms — any social platforms — but also getting out of society itself.“
phoebe • Normal sounds
The prime directive in Japanese society is “thou shalt not discomfit thy neighbor.” Ever. Even on trivial things. Prosocial behavior is a totalizing ideology. People take it seriously. A blanket taboo bans any behavior that might create any inconvenience to people around you, let alone—heaven forbid—open conflict. Kids get this ethos drilled into... See more
Quico Toro • 10 Observations About Tokyo
Max Weber introduced a three-fold typology of legitimacy, the sentiments that get people to acquiesce to authority, especially regarding rules or commands they may dislike or disagree with.[viii] For most of human history, the most common kinds of authority have been traditional or charismatic. Traditional authority appeals to the “eternal... See more
Ari Schulman • Why Speech Platforms Can Never Escape Politics | National Affairs
Social Platform Trust & Safety and Future of Trust
3 ways that rules have “legitimacy” - Traditional authority, charismatic authority, and legal validity / objective rationality
As we are fed more content, we are pushed deeper into algorithmic niches. In return, we are encouraged to engage with more extreme and polarizing identifiers because it is more labelable, more indexable by the machine — the creation of the “Island". On this island, the slang, in-jokes, and archetypes which emerge as a community develops in... See more
I kinda like this of using "flashtags" to indicate "Hill Dying Status" when giving feedback to one another
the tldr is: it's a system to quickly communicate how strongly you feel about something when adding a comment to a doc/notion, sharing feedback in email or slack, etc....
#fyi — had a thought, no real hill to die on.
#suggestion — there’s a hill, I’m not going to die on it. But this is what I would do if I were you.
#recommendation — I’m climbing the hill, I won’t die on it. But I’ve thought about this a lot, and don’t ignore the feedback.
#plea — I don’t like dying on hills and that’s not really what we do, but this is a good candidate for it. You should trust me on this one, the same way I trust you on many other ones.
ofc not everything needs to be so rigid and structured, but seems useful in a world of remote work where non-verbal cues aren't as easily legible
We agree with those who think revitalizing place-based identities and local engagement may help to break down these walls. If we redirect people’s attention back to local politics and working with fellow community members on projects that have a tangible impact, perhaps we can restart a positive feedback loop and regenerate the crosscutting... See more