According to the content that comes out of the content mills, the cashiers at Trader Joe’s are trained / encouraged / required to engage customers in friendly conversations at checkout. I don’t know if the content mills speak the truth, but I’ve always enjoyed speaking with Trader Joe’s cashiers.
The internet has ruined "Not knowing." Anyone with a smartphone can look up the answer to any question, which erodes some of the mystery of life and the humility and wonderment of not knowing something and having to think about why that is and use your imagination to consider what the possible answers could be.
Obviously this is exacerbated by the fact the internet is loaded with bullshit and misinformation.
Agree. The fact that we assume any answer to any question we ask the internet will be fact is bizarre. But I do it all the time. Usually, to find out if something in my refrigerator needs to be thrown away. And you do encounter a lot of bad writing along the way. People just putting words down in random order to vaguely explain something that most people already know. And that's considered searchable content.
I miss the days of having to go to the library to "learn more" about something. Or asking some random person in your life who has the lived experience to tell you what you want to know. Our attention spans for learning are shorter now, too. We want quick, bullet point answers to everything.
I will say that You Tube has allowed my husband to fix a lot of small appliances over the last several years. And he's only been electrocuted once. So...
I feel for those writers. They aren't paid a lot, and they're told to write for an audience of one: SEO. It's all a traffic hustle to tell you that your almond milk is still good, or more likely, tell you it's bad so the hustlers running the game get you to throw out good almond milk just so they can sell your data profile to the people who sell you the almond milk.
But on the upside, DIY home repair has improved A LOT since the 20th century!
Sadly, those underpaid content writers will be the first ones pushed out by our AI friend ChatGTP and his brethren, who excel at regurgitating information in quick, easy to digest bites. Perhaps when your normies have exhausted their oeuvre of song lyric queries, you could host a hypothetical picnic where you ask ChatG "how do you sleep at night?" Inquiring humans want to know.
Also, if I didn't sufficiently thank you for the shout out - THANK YOU! Honestly, seeing my little art badges on people's substacks feels like the equivalent of giving someone you think is cool a sticker in third grade and then seeing that sticker on the Trapper Keeper they use every day.
Knowing I didn't lose you at Trapper Keeper is one of the many reasons I think you're cool. 😎
Except there’s so much overload of info out there and so much bad info which means...knowing...but not always necessary knowing accurately, which opens up a whole new bag a worms
Have you read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore? It has a lot to say about the disappearance of old knowledge, mostly in the form of books that don't make the jump to digital, but also about how the knowledge that is digitized is often buried.
Hey, you can't trust anything ChatGPT says! Lead singer George "Wydell" Jones Jr. of The Edsels wrote the song. Wikipedia, referencing Colin Larkin, ed. (1997). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music (First ed.). Virgin Books. p. 175. ISBN 0-7535-0149-X.
Holy crap! You really took ChatGTP (and me) to school on this one, Betsy. And you brought citations! Thank you for correcting the record! I'd like to make it up to you by using your song suggestion for the next ChatGTP question, but I worry that the AI will just make something up, and you'll have to go digging into the books for the right answer. Also, way to prove that books and knowing how to use them remains the gold standard for knowledge!
I'm told by a high authority, who reminds me he has a bachelors in psychology & computer science plus a MASTERS in English, aka my husband, that ChatCPT will write anything and agree with you because it wants to please you. My husband is really very sweet, but it would be as funny if I said it any other way.
And look what I found in my work email. It's another reason not to subscribe to LawToolBox.com:
"You've heard about the AI-powered ChatGPT by now and the impact it is having on the legal industry. Developed by OpenAI, this incredible language model is revolutionizing the way law firms and legal professionals work.
Here's a few exciting use cases for ChatGPT:
Supercharged Legal Research: No more endless digging through documents - ChatGPT quickly finds the relevant info for your cases.
Swift Document Drafting: Draft contracts, pleadings, and motions in a snap, thanks to ChatGPT's text generation prowess.
Always-On Client Communication: Keep clients happy with instant, accurate responses, 24/7.
Data-Driven Insights: Make informed strategic decisions with ChatGPT's legal analytics capabilities."
Wow! Why go to law school when all you need is ChatGTP? Just curious, are you a lawyer, or was LawToolBox, which I won't subscribe, spamming you? Also, thank your husband for his take, I get the sense that ChatGTP is a people pleaser.
Yup, I'm a self-employed lawyer. I really, really wish ChatGTP could have taken the Bar for me. I'm thinking about retiring, but not sure what to retire TO. I'll thank John on your behalf, and I know he'd say please check out A Tractor in the Rain, a Substack by his friend, Tori.
And to think, you added something to the 14,477,404 times that ram-a-lama-ding-dong has been played.
I miss reading the local newspaper. I don’t know if The Internet (damn you Al Gore) killed newspapers, but it surely ruined newspapers. A better method of reading the daily comics than newspapers hasn’t been invented. Just to think I could be reading a comic from your Trader Joe’s cashier even though she probably wouldn’t like having to create a 3 panel comic every day.
And letters to the editor. It certainly ruined them. Maybe that’s why newspapers are dying. Online communities are what letters to the editor turned into. Now I can write some nonsense and easily publish it at the tail end of the 57th most popular comedy newsletter. Click!
One of the things that really kills me about the internet and newspapers, especially local newspapers, is that the one who did the killing, as they say, was Craigslist, a site that's given me hours of reading joy (missed connections are not to be missed), some new furniture, two apartments, some dates in my single days, and put some money in my pocket when I sold my old stuff. Those classified ads that used to run in the newspaper, and that now run on CL, were high margin cash cows for newspaper publishers.
I never wrote for a local paper, but I did write for California Lawyer Magazine for a few years. It was a monthly put out by The Daily Journal, the largest daily legal newspaper in the nation at the time. The Daily Journal made a fortune on legal notices (same size as classified ads), and they used some of that fortune to fund the spectacularly unprofitable California Lawyer Magazine, a beautiful glossy you used to see in every law firm lobby. Before it folded, my rate for a cover story was $3 a word. For context, the last online outlet I freelanced for paid 50 cents per word--and that was considered good!
Also, letters to the editor! Holy cow those can be gold.
My Trader Joe convos are never that long and achieve that sort of depth. Maybe I need to buy more groceries? It only takes like four minutes to check me out.
4. Thanks for the shoutout! Your adoption of my suggestion brought me joy today. As for a question for Yoshimi to ask the robot, maybe try this one: "Do you realize that you have the most beautiful face?"
3. The depth of acceptance and empathy Sophia and your situation normies have for Vase Dude is inspiring.
2. So far, Substack has built the best framework for online communities that I've come across. Let's hope they don't ruin it too quickly.
1. I have told people about Substack in passing. I've noticed some people on the outside feeling a little suspicious of it because of its reputation as an "alternative media" source. You know, a place for people to feel safe with their "isms." That's at least partially true. But I'll paraphrase Phil Stutz to help people feel more comfortable. "Life is like a string of pearls, and within each pearl is a little turd." I don't need Substack to be perfect. I just need it to be better for discourse than Twitter. And, so far, it is!
Great points all around, Andrew! I agree that Substack is better than anything else I've come across as a writer, and I hope they don't mess it up too soon. Maybe we should write a letter to the shareholders, or light a candle, or do something to keep them from messing up the nice thing they built.
It's funny that you should mention movie theaters and record stores being ruined by the internet. That feels true, but it's also true that I've been going to my local movie theater A LOT this year, and I've even popped into my local record store a few times. I love both places, and I hope they last forever. But also, it's important to acknowledge that my local movie theater keeps me coming back with a mobile app and loyalty points, and my local record store, according to the owner, does more than half of its business online.
Mar 29, 2023·edited Apr 3, 2023Liked by Michael Estrin
2. I have avoided online communities since their inception with the EXCEPTION of Substack, which has been 99.999% positive. I did, however, just have my first brush with shit. It's a weird way to be. I don't really get what the shit giver gets out of the transaction. They didn't get to see me cringe/frown and even if they did... what the FUCK?
3. Thanks for asking Sophia my question!!! I feel vicariously cool for talking to her through you.
5. The internet ruined day-to-day life for hermit/introverts. Our desire to not be "seen" being our weird selves now makes us appear "inauthentic" to the greater universe. The internet also ruined the word "authentic". For me at least.
PROCRASTINATING??? I'M NETWORKING! At least I hope that's what I'm doing, because I don't think I can write procrastination off on my taxes next year. 😂
The dividers look killer. So glad I went the extra mile and mined your "about" page for visual inspiration.
That's good advice, and I need to take that advice from time to time. What's cool is that the vast majority of people doing just great on this platform, and we should celebrate that, rather than highlight the trolls, right? Curious: what's your advice for letting the shit trolls throw roll right off your shoulders?
I'm oversensitive about stuff that feels attacky, even if the attacker is just mindlessly throwing shit/shade. Finding a friend or two to commiserate with you on the shittiness is very helpful. 😊 Even if you just end up agreeing you shouldn't take it personally, which we know we shouldn't, but things are going to hit you the way they hit you. Dress in layers, maybe? So you can just shrug off the top layer that gets shit on and move forward with your day. Ideally, this won't turn into a strip poker scenario where you're attacked multiple times. Luckily, we have "delete" and "block" buttons to assist us with troll removal.
I absolutely HATE talking to the TJ cashiers, the superficial friendliness and the ‘any plans for the weekend’ crap. YES, this says everything about ME 😬😳😂😂
Have you considered responding with something like, "I'm scouting out grocery stores where nobody speaks"? Might not be the friendliest response, but maybe the TJ's cashier will appreciate how you feel about the superficial chit chat.
Online communities. I have joined a cross stitch group, and numerous dog & Guinea pig groups on Facebook. They are largely free of divisiveness, and if continuing drama pops up, I’m gone faster than Scotty could beam up a landing party.
Hey Michael, at the risk of sounding like your mother, it was me, Bo B, who posed the question about who put the ram in the ding- dong. Unless, this “Tim B” person also made the same suggestion and you chose his. I find it improbable that two normies would have the same ram in ding-dong curiosity, so I think you might have made a boo-boo.
Haha! I just checked. Tim B suggested it too, but you suggested it first, Bo! So yes, big screw up on my part. I'm so sorry. Feel free to make another song suggestion, but do keep in mind Betsy's comment about how ChatGTP got this one wrong.
First the compliment -- Your writing shifts topics so well and delivers a nugget of fun in each section.
Fun story Michael -- the Trader Joe's schtick was fun. I'm not sure but think you shade toward pessimism with the "content mills" and online communities. My opinion is these sorts of matters don't really change. There are a lot of no content stories all over the web about Trader Joe's. My opinion is Freakanomics likely originated the story MANY YEARS ago on their excellent blog and I heard it on NPR. Some of us probably subscribe and are supporting members of NPR. The internet makes it easier to copy someone elses work -- less friction is what the Internet fundamentally has delivered to the world. I figure the same folks who copied others homework thinking "I'll never use this" remain part of the world. The joy of learning and orginality will always exist for the true believers. They happen to be the folks on the rock that change the world and make it a better place. Trader Joe's is just difficult to copy because it is authentic and so different than what the retail consultants likely preach.
Just like the NYTimes remains the paper of record and lots of clods COPY original information, akin to the fascination with ChatGPT. Likewise, I think "all the online communities turn to shit" is true until it isn''t. There are durable places to connect on the internet but clods like Facebook clone original ideas and have nothing to add. We cannot hope for the broad spectrum of people to reject Instagram and the lot but rather love being part of the safe herd. I only wonder where such complainers spend their time on Social Media. I don't judge as some people probably genuinely enjoy it and get something out of it. Just not my thing.
Mark, I want to thank you for this comment and for sharing your opinion. You're right, there's a lot of pessimism in my feelings about the internet, but as I think you know, I'm not really a pessimistic person. I should probably write more about this topic because my pessimism makes me uneasy. For now though, I think my pessimism comes from the fact that the promise of the internet was that it would always surface the best content, but what's happened is just the opposite because, sad to say, there's a lot more money on owning a content mill than there is in making quality media like what you hear on Freakanomics or read in The NY Times. Maybe that's changing with tools like Substack--I hope so--but I can't escape the fact that throughout the 20 years of my career, budgets and jobs for producing original material have been in steady decline, while new content plays that only reward tech platform shareholders just keep coming. But again, thank you for this comment, you've given me a lot to think about, and I love the use of the word "clod."
Your content is entertaining, funny, thoughtful n provocative. Being mostly retired I have more time to think about this kind of stuff.
I keep coming back b/c your content surprises me. I love that. I started my career using a arpanet terminal. Creepy the internet started as a distributed way to communicate in wartime. Thru that lens it's cool we ended up with individual creative platforms like YouTube.
I feel things began going sideways with FB and a way for people to isolate with the like-minded without leaving the house. I'm glad my personality never cared for it. Not better just lucky.
I remain an optimist. Grocery stores forty years ago were shitty. Now something for everyone. I feel media similar. I love NYT & NPR -- wish for more options but they continue to be great.
Mark, thank you for your optimism! It really touches me. And I love your perspective. It must be fascinating to have watched this thing grow from an arpanet terminal to this moment. Have you written about your arpanet terminal days? I'd be so curious to read that. Speaking of reading, you might find "Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World" by Malcolm Harris to be an interesting read.
You are a GREAT listener. I just finished the Palo Alto book - I have a great friend who measures history books by having a good map and learning something -- I learned a lot reading the book!!!
Here's a FUNNY arpanet terminal tidbit -- In my office as a young lad, we had a guy who was simply brilliant, insightful and a little bit weird -- At the time there weren't that many users but the network was growing fast -- since I want to give credit where credit is due, Alan G says to me -- you should be real careful how you pick your user ID for the network -- I think there was a 12 character limit -- he guided just choose your ID as your name without vowels -- no one will EVER THINK to use that -- I created my identity as MRKJMSDLN accordingly -- the super weird thing he said was if people read your name without vowels your brain will fill them in...kinda weird, kinda fun -- here we sit and I still have never signed up for a website user ID and found someone had already used MRKJMSDLN -- Alan G was the smartest person I have ever met in my life -- the work I did with that company was fascinating yet at times unfulfilling -- there are many things that need to be done but being a part of their creation takes a toll
The ARPANET was remarkable even in the form I used it -- incredibly resilient -- maybe I will do a post about it thanks!!! I wrote briefly about all of the innovations that have evolved from DARPA -- it is simply ridiculous and very few employees in the think tank. I never had anything to do with that organization but imagine that sitting in the lunchroom would be a master class in listening in on conversations!
Good morning Michael, Freelance Wizard was the first thing I read this morning while enjoying my first cup of coffee. Thank you for starting my day with a happy thought and a smile.
Yeah, I do find myself recommending Substack to folks I think it would really benefit. I was on the plane to this year’s Game Developer Conference and I met a journalist who covers mobile gaming, and I was like, “Substack was built for you.” (It wasn’t built for me and my tiny text adventures, lol.) He took it to heart, I think.
That's awesome! Also, I like to think that somewhere out there someone has built a perfect platform for interactive fiction and one of its power users will one day find you and share a platform that was built for Geoffrey Golden.
The internet has ruined "Not knowing." Anyone with a smartphone can look up the answer to any question, which erodes some of the mystery of life and the humility and wonderment of not knowing something and having to think about why that is and use your imagination to consider what the possible answers could be.
Obviously this is exacerbated by the fact the internet is loaded with bullshit and misinformation.
Have you seen Betsy's comment about ChatGTP's response to this week's hypothetical picnic? It is on point!
BOOM!
Agree. The fact that we assume any answer to any question we ask the internet will be fact is bizarre. But I do it all the time. Usually, to find out if something in my refrigerator needs to be thrown away. And you do encounter a lot of bad writing along the way. People just putting words down in random order to vaguely explain something that most people already know. And that's considered searchable content.
I miss the days of having to go to the library to "learn more" about something. Or asking some random person in your life who has the lived experience to tell you what you want to know. Our attention spans for learning are shorter now, too. We want quick, bullet point answers to everything.
I will say that You Tube has allowed my husband to fix a lot of small appliances over the last several years. And he's only been electrocuted once. So...
I feel for those writers. They aren't paid a lot, and they're told to write for an audience of one: SEO. It's all a traffic hustle to tell you that your almond milk is still good, or more likely, tell you it's bad so the hustlers running the game get you to throw out good almond milk just so they can sell your data profile to the people who sell you the almond milk.
But on the upside, DIY home repair has improved A LOT since the 20th century!
Sadly, those underpaid content writers will be the first ones pushed out by our AI friend ChatGTP and his brethren, who excel at regurgitating information in quick, easy to digest bites. Perhaps when your normies have exhausted their oeuvre of song lyric queries, you could host a hypothetical picnic where you ask ChatG "how do you sleep at night?" Inquiring humans want to know.
Also, if I didn't sufficiently thank you for the shout out - THANK YOU! Honestly, seeing my little art badges on people's substacks feels like the equivalent of giving someone you think is cool a sticker in third grade and then seeing that sticker on the Trapper Keeper they use every day.
Knowing I didn't lose you at Trapper Keeper is one of the many reasons I think you're cool. 😎
You, sir, strike me as a person trained in scientific research. Stay curious about the universe!
Except there’s so much overload of info out there and so much bad info which means...knowing...but not always necessary knowing accurately, which opens up a whole new bag a worms
Have you read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore? It has a lot to say about the disappearance of old knowledge, mostly in the form of books that don't make the jump to digital, but also about how the knowledge that is digitized is often buried.
No! Sounds intriguing though
Hey, you can't trust anything ChatGPT says! Lead singer George "Wydell" Jones Jr. of The Edsels wrote the song. Wikipedia, referencing Colin Larkin, ed. (1997). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music (First ed.). Virgin Books. p. 175. ISBN 0-7535-0149-X.
Holy crap! You really took ChatGTP (and me) to school on this one, Betsy. And you brought citations! Thank you for correcting the record! I'd like to make it up to you by using your song suggestion for the next ChatGTP question, but I worry that the AI will just make something up, and you'll have to go digging into the books for the right answer. Also, way to prove that books and knowing how to use them remains the gold standard for knowledge!
But how do we know that Larkin edited that book correctly? Are we assuming that Virgin Books wouldn’t publish any incorrect fact?
Ah, the US Government agrees … https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=1&ti=1,1&Search%5FArg=ram%20a%20lama%20ding%20Dong&Search%5FCode=FT%2A&CNT=25&PID=FuL7fQQuVyPwGLuQXc53ZOT4AO70G&SEQ=20230329134703&SID=5
Thanks for tracking this down!
I'm told by a high authority, who reminds me he has a bachelors in psychology & computer science plus a MASTERS in English, aka my husband, that ChatCPT will write anything and agree with you because it wants to please you. My husband is really very sweet, but it would be as funny if I said it any other way.
And look what I found in my work email. It's another reason not to subscribe to LawToolBox.com:
"You've heard about the AI-powered ChatGPT by now and the impact it is having on the legal industry. Developed by OpenAI, this incredible language model is revolutionizing the way law firms and legal professionals work.
Here's a few exciting use cases for ChatGPT:
Supercharged Legal Research: No more endless digging through documents - ChatGPT quickly finds the relevant info for your cases.
Swift Document Drafting: Draft contracts, pleadings, and motions in a snap, thanks to ChatGPT's text generation prowess.
Always-On Client Communication: Keep clients happy with instant, accurate responses, 24/7.
Data-Driven Insights: Make informed strategic decisions with ChatGPT's legal analytics capabilities."
Wow! Why go to law school when all you need is ChatGTP? Just curious, are you a lawyer, or was LawToolBox, which I won't subscribe, spamming you? Also, thank your husband for his take, I get the sense that ChatGTP is a people pleaser.
Yup, I'm a self-employed lawyer. I really, really wish ChatGTP could have taken the Bar for me. I'm thinking about retiring, but not sure what to retire TO. I'll thank John on your behalf, and I know he'd say please check out A Tractor in the Rain, a Substack by his friend, Tori.
*Now* it is said! Betsy for the win!
And to think, you added something to the 14,477,404 times that ram-a-lama-ding-dong has been played.
I miss reading the local newspaper. I don’t know if The Internet (damn you Al Gore) killed newspapers, but it surely ruined newspapers. A better method of reading the daily comics than newspapers hasn’t been invented. Just to think I could be reading a comic from your Trader Joe’s cashier even though she probably wouldn’t like having to create a 3 panel comic every day.
And letters to the editor. It certainly ruined them. Maybe that’s why newspapers are dying. Online communities are what letters to the editor turned into. Now I can write some nonsense and easily publish it at the tail end of the 57th most popular comedy newsletter. Click!
One of the things that really kills me about the internet and newspapers, especially local newspapers, is that the one who did the killing, as they say, was Craigslist, a site that's given me hours of reading joy (missed connections are not to be missed), some new furniture, two apartments, some dates in my single days, and put some money in my pocket when I sold my old stuff. Those classified ads that used to run in the newspaper, and that now run on CL, were high margin cash cows for newspaper publishers.
I never wrote for a local paper, but I did write for California Lawyer Magazine for a few years. It was a monthly put out by The Daily Journal, the largest daily legal newspaper in the nation at the time. The Daily Journal made a fortune on legal notices (same size as classified ads), and they used some of that fortune to fund the spectacularly unprofitable California Lawyer Magazine, a beautiful glossy you used to see in every law firm lobby. Before it folded, my rate for a cover story was $3 a word. For context, the last online outlet I freelanced for paid 50 cents per word--and that was considered good!
Also, letters to the editor! Holy cow those can be gold.
😂😂🙌
I really enjoyed your Trader Joe’s chat. You seem like a really cool person and a good writer.
Thank you, Toni!
My Trader Joe convos are never that long and achieve that sort of depth. Maybe I need to buy more groceries? It only takes like four minutes to check me out.
Wizards can cover a lot of ground in four minutes. Also, I usually buy groceries for the week. Freelance wizards meal prep.
😆😆😆
5. Damon Krukowski from Dada Drummer Almanach made a good case for the internet ruining movie theatres and record stores. https://dadadrummer.substack.com/p/planned-obsolescence
4. Thanks for the shoutout! Your adoption of my suggestion brought me joy today. As for a question for Yoshimi to ask the robot, maybe try this one: "Do you realize that you have the most beautiful face?"
3. The depth of acceptance and empathy Sophia and your situation normies have for Vase Dude is inspiring.
2. So far, Substack has built the best framework for online communities that I've come across. Let's hope they don't ruin it too quickly.
1. I have told people about Substack in passing. I've noticed some people on the outside feeling a little suspicious of it because of its reputation as an "alternative media" source. You know, a place for people to feel safe with their "isms." That's at least partially true. But I'll paraphrase Phil Stutz to help people feel more comfortable. "Life is like a string of pearls, and within each pearl is a little turd." I don't need Substack to be perfect. I just need it to be better for discourse than Twitter. And, so far, it is!
Great points all around, Andrew! I agree that Substack is better than anything else I've come across as a writer, and I hope they don't mess it up too soon. Maybe we should write a letter to the shareholders, or light a candle, or do something to keep them from messing up the nice thing they built.
It's funny that you should mention movie theaters and record stores being ruined by the internet. That feels true, but it's also true that I've been going to my local movie theater A LOT this year, and I've even popped into my local record store a few times. I love both places, and I hope they last forever. But also, it's important to acknowledge that my local movie theater keeps me coming back with a mobile app and loyalty points, and my local record store, according to the owner, does more than half of its business online.
2. I have avoided online communities since their inception with the EXCEPTION of Substack, which has been 99.999% positive. I did, however, just have my first brush with shit. It's a weird way to be. I don't really get what the shit giver gets out of the transaction. They didn't get to see me cringe/frown and even if they did... what the FUCK?
3. Thanks for asking Sophia my question!!! I feel vicariously cool for talking to her through you.
5. The internet ruined day-to-day life for hermit/introverts. Our desire to not be "seen" being our weird selves now makes us appear "inauthentic" to the greater universe. The internet also ruined the word "authentic". For me at least.
PROCRASTINATING??? I'M NETWORKING! At least I hope that's what I'm doing, because I don't think I can write procrastination off on my taxes next year. 😂
The dividers look killer. So glad I went the extra mile and mined your "about" page for visual inspiration.
I’ve gotten a few of these. There’s always an Asshole or two willing to be a cock. Don’t ever take it personally 👌
That's good advice, and I need to take that advice from time to time. What's cool is that the vast majority of people doing just great on this platform, and we should celebrate that, rather than highlight the trolls, right? Curious: what's your advice for letting the shit trolls throw roll right off your shoulders?
I'm oversensitive about stuff that feels attacky, even if the attacker is just mindlessly throwing shit/shade. Finding a friend or two to commiserate with you on the shittiness is very helpful. 😊 Even if you just end up agreeing you shouldn't take it personally, which we know we shouldn't, but things are going to hit you the way they hit you. Dress in layers, maybe? So you can just shrug off the top layer that gets shit on and move forward with your day. Ideally, this won't turn into a strip poker scenario where you're attacked multiple times. Luckily, we have "delete" and "block" buttons to assist us with troll removal.
I feel you
Lately I’m practicing not responding to those ones at all; just letting it go
On my other stack, Sincere American Writing, I banned a guy who I’m pretty sure was a Nazi 😳😳😳
The question we’ll forever be indebted to Tina for: What’s love got to do with it?
I absolutely HATE talking to the TJ cashiers, the superficial friendliness and the ‘any plans for the weekend’ crap. YES, this says everything about ME 😬😳😂😂
Have you considered responding with something like, "I'm scouting out grocery stores where nobody speaks"? Might not be the friendliest response, but maybe the TJ's cashier will appreciate how you feel about the superficial chit chat.
😬😳😆
What’s the story, morning glory?
Are you referring to the Oasis album? Not sure if I know a song by that title, and given today's SNAFU, I want to make sure I'm getting this right.
Yes! Title track of their second album.
OK, you got it! And if I mess this up, I know can count on you to tell me. Thanks Bo!
Online communities. I have joined a cross stitch group, and numerous dog & Guinea pig groups on Facebook. They are largely free of divisiveness, and if continuing drama pops up, I’m gone faster than Scotty could beam up a landing party.
Those groups sound lovely! Especially the dog groups. If you can't share cute dog photos in peace, you've got real problems. 🐶
Hey Michael, at the risk of sounding like your mother, it was me, Bo B, who posed the question about who put the ram in the ding- dong. Unless, this “Tim B” person also made the same suggestion and you chose his. I find it improbable that two normies would have the same ram in ding-dong curiosity, so I think you might have made a boo-boo.
“Ram” on, Bo! Oh ... wait ... wrong song.
Haha! I just checked. Tim B suggested it too, but you suggested it first, Bo! So yes, big screw up on my part. I'm so sorry. Feel free to make another song suggestion, but do keep in mind Betsy's comment about how ChatGTP got this one wrong.
WARNING -- OPINION
First the compliment -- Your writing shifts topics so well and delivers a nugget of fun in each section.
Fun story Michael -- the Trader Joe's schtick was fun. I'm not sure but think you shade toward pessimism with the "content mills" and online communities. My opinion is these sorts of matters don't really change. There are a lot of no content stories all over the web about Trader Joe's. My opinion is Freakanomics likely originated the story MANY YEARS ago on their excellent blog and I heard it on NPR. Some of us probably subscribe and are supporting members of NPR. The internet makes it easier to copy someone elses work -- less friction is what the Internet fundamentally has delivered to the world. I figure the same folks who copied others homework thinking "I'll never use this" remain part of the world. The joy of learning and orginality will always exist for the true believers. They happen to be the folks on the rock that change the world and make it a better place. Trader Joe's is just difficult to copy because it is authentic and so different than what the retail consultants likely preach.
Just like the NYTimes remains the paper of record and lots of clods COPY original information, akin to the fascination with ChatGPT. Likewise, I think "all the online communities turn to shit" is true until it isn''t. There are durable places to connect on the internet but clods like Facebook clone original ideas and have nothing to add. We cannot hope for the broad spectrum of people to reject Instagram and the lot but rather love being part of the safe herd. I only wonder where such complainers spend their time on Social Media. I don't judge as some people probably genuinely enjoy it and get something out of it. Just not my thing.
Mark, I want to thank you for this comment and for sharing your opinion. You're right, there's a lot of pessimism in my feelings about the internet, but as I think you know, I'm not really a pessimistic person. I should probably write more about this topic because my pessimism makes me uneasy. For now though, I think my pessimism comes from the fact that the promise of the internet was that it would always surface the best content, but what's happened is just the opposite because, sad to say, there's a lot more money on owning a content mill than there is in making quality media like what you hear on Freakanomics or read in The NY Times. Maybe that's changing with tools like Substack--I hope so--but I can't escape the fact that throughout the 20 years of my career, budgets and jobs for producing original material have been in steady decline, while new content plays that only reward tech platform shareholders just keep coming. But again, thank you for this comment, you've given me a lot to think about, and I love the use of the word "clod."
Your content is entertaining, funny, thoughtful n provocative. Being mostly retired I have more time to think about this kind of stuff.
I keep coming back b/c your content surprises me. I love that. I started my career using a arpanet terminal. Creepy the internet started as a distributed way to communicate in wartime. Thru that lens it's cool we ended up with individual creative platforms like YouTube.
I feel things began going sideways with FB and a way for people to isolate with the like-minded without leaving the house. I'm glad my personality never cared for it. Not better just lucky.
I remain an optimist. Grocery stores forty years ago were shitty. Now something for everyone. I feel media similar. I love NYT & NPR -- wish for more options but they continue to be great.
Mark, thank you for your optimism! It really touches me. And I love your perspective. It must be fascinating to have watched this thing grow from an arpanet terminal to this moment. Have you written about your arpanet terminal days? I'd be so curious to read that. Speaking of reading, you might find "Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World" by Malcolm Harris to be an interesting read.
You are a GREAT listener. I just finished the Palo Alto book - I have a great friend who measures history books by having a good map and learning something -- I learned a lot reading the book!!!
Here's a FUNNY arpanet terminal tidbit -- In my office as a young lad, we had a guy who was simply brilliant, insightful and a little bit weird -- At the time there weren't that many users but the network was growing fast -- since I want to give credit where credit is due, Alan G says to me -- you should be real careful how you pick your user ID for the network -- I think there was a 12 character limit -- he guided just choose your ID as your name without vowels -- no one will EVER THINK to use that -- I created my identity as MRKJMSDLN accordingly -- the super weird thing he said was if people read your name without vowels your brain will fill them in...kinda weird, kinda fun -- here we sit and I still have never signed up for a website user ID and found someone had already used MRKJMSDLN -- Alan G was the smartest person I have ever met in my life -- the work I did with that company was fascinating yet at times unfulfilling -- there are many things that need to be done but being a part of their creation takes a toll
The ARPANET was remarkable even in the form I used it -- incredibly resilient -- maybe I will do a post about it thanks!!! I wrote briefly about all of the innovations that have evolved from DARPA -- it is simply ridiculous and very few employees in the think tank. I never had anything to do with that organization but imagine that sitting in the lunchroom would be a master class in listening in on conversations!
Good morning Michael, Freelance Wizard was the first thing I read this morning while enjoying my first cup of coffee. Thank you for starting my day with a happy thought and a smile.
Thank you, Judith! I'm glad this brought a smile to your face. Thank you for sharing that with me!
Yeah, I do find myself recommending Substack to folks I think it would really benefit. I was on the plane to this year’s Game Developer Conference and I met a journalist who covers mobile gaming, and I was like, “Substack was built for you.” (It wasn’t built for me and my tiny text adventures, lol.) He took it to heart, I think.
That's awesome! Also, I like to think that somewhere out there someone has built a perfect platform for interactive fiction and one of its power users will one day find you and share a platform that was built for Geoffrey Golden.
Karma! I love it!
👌
And I thought I had posed the Rama Lama Ding Dong question. Hmm. I know I meant to...
It’s possible you did! As you can see this one went sideways.
Maybe it was the Bomp in the Bomp-sha-bomp-sha-bomp?