1 00:00:02,440 --> 00:00:03,560 Speaker 1: A zone Media. 2 00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:08,360 Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to Better Offline. I'm your host ed Zichron. 3 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:22,920 Speaker 2: And you know, sometimes recording this show kind of feels 4 00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:25,599 Speaker 2: like narrating the end of the world and watching is 5 00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:27,600 Speaker 2: the growth of or costs right economy. It kind of 6 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:30,960 Speaker 2: poisons every corner of our digital lives, changing everything in 7 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:34,000 Speaker 2: search of growth, growth of revenue, growth of engagement metrics, 8 00:00:34,280 --> 00:00:37,280 Speaker 2: growth of anything. And my core frustration isn't just how 9 00:00:37,320 --> 00:00:40,000 Speaker 2: shitty things have got, but how said shittiness has become 10 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:45,120 Speaker 2: insanely profitable for so many companies. Meta made twenty point 11 00:00:45,159 --> 00:00:48,520 Speaker 2: eight billion dollars of profit in its last reported quarterly 12 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:50,400 Speaker 2: earnings off the back of products that are bordering on 13 00:00:50,479 --> 00:00:54,040 Speaker 2: non functional. Microsoft made twenty four point one one billion 14 00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:57,440 Speaker 2: dollars in profit with an increasingly deteriorating series of productivity 15 00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:01,360 Speaker 2: products and cloud based solutions that its customers absolutely fucking hate. 16 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:04,080 Speaker 2: And Google made twenty six point five billion dollars in 17 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:07,160 Speaker 2: profit from multiple monopolies and making its core search product 18 00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:09,400 Speaker 2: worse as a means of increasing the amount of times 19 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:12,160 Speaker 2: that people search for stuff. You see the business of 20 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:15,080 Speaker 2: making our shit worse to increase revenue growth year of 21 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:18,760 Speaker 2: a year. It's absolutely booming. The products you use every 22 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:21,399 Speaker 2: day are more confusing and more frustrating to use because 23 00:01:21,560 --> 00:01:25,520 Speaker 2: everything must grow, which means in practice that product decisions 24 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:27,720 Speaker 2: now driven in many cases by companies trying to make 25 00:01:27,760 --> 00:01:30,559 Speaker 2: you do something rather than do something for you, which 26 00:01:30,600 --> 00:01:33,280 Speaker 2: in turn means that basic quality control things like I 27 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:38,000 Speaker 2: don't know usability or functionality, they're more secondary considerations to 28 00:01:38,080 --> 00:01:42,240 Speaker 2: the grander rot economy thing. It's why your Facebook newsfeed 29 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:44,679 Speaker 2: doesn't show your posts from friends and family, but happily 30 00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:48,000 Speaker 2: bombards you with ai generated slot of weirdly shiny faced 31 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:51,240 Speaker 2: old people celebrating their birthday alone with a weird heartstring 32 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:54,880 Speaker 2: tug in caption that doesn't really make any sense. It's 33 00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:57,800 Speaker 2: why whenever you search for something, not just on Google 34 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:00,400 Speaker 2: but anywhere, the keywords you use aren't treat. There's an 35 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:03,200 Speaker 2: explicit instruction of something you want to do or see, 36 00:02:03,520 --> 00:02:07,200 Speaker 2: but a kind of interpretive dance of information where maybe 37 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:10,040 Speaker 2: something you want comes out of the end. Look, we 38 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:13,079 Speaker 2: don't use the computer. We negotiate with it to try 39 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:14,720 Speaker 2: and make it do the things we want it to do. 40 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:18,360 Speaker 2: Because the incentives behind modern software development no longer align 41 00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:21,360 Speaker 2: with the user. Too often, when you open up an app, 42 00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 2: you start bargaining with the company behind it, Like Dropbox 43 00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:27,679 Speaker 2: is a great example. You log in and it says, hey, look, 44 00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:29,720 Speaker 2: you could save money switching to an annual plan this 45 00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:32,320 Speaker 2: big pop up and if you agree to that, they've 46 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:36,160 Speaker 2: just secured your annual recurring revenue and they've done something 47 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:38,359 Speaker 2: that they hope you'll forget, which is switch you from 48 00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:41,399 Speaker 2: a monthly to a yearly subscription. You forget that while 49 00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:44,160 Speaker 2: you're stuck with them for a year. Tech companies have 50 00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:46,800 Speaker 2: the perseverance and desperate hunger for your money of a 51 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:51,639 Speaker 2: timeshare salesman, and they're even more craven. And by the way, 52 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:53,800 Speaker 2: all of these things I'm talking about with negotiating with 53 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:56,600 Speaker 2: the computer, this is assuming whatever you're doing actually loads. 54 00:02:56,840 --> 00:02:58,680 Speaker 2: We're all familiar with the tense moment when you open 55 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:01,440 Speaker 2: up Microsoft Teams and just hope it doesn't crash, or 56 00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:04,600 Speaker 2: that maybe I don't know your camera or your video works, 57 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:08,040 Speaker 2: or your audio works, whether anything actually works. We live 58 00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:11,639 Speaker 2: in this weird state of constant digital microaggressions, and as 59 00:03:11,639 --> 00:03:14,600 Speaker 2: I said last year, it's everywhere. Banking apps that now 60 00:03:14,639 --> 00:03:17,360 Speaker 2: have helpful assistance that get in the way of flipping 61 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:20,519 Speaker 2: banking pop ups during online shopping that promise discounts and 62 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:23,000 Speaker 2: exchange for our emails and phone numbers. They can spam 63 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:25,720 Speaker 2: us notifications from apps that are built to push us 64 00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:28,960 Speaker 2: to interact further rather than like and by the way, 65 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:31,200 Speaker 2: a great example here is Instagram. Someone just posted a 66 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:34,240 Speaker 2: comment on someone else's post notifications not sure if you've 67 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:36,440 Speaker 2: got those, Or like the emails we get from Amazon 68 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:38,200 Speaker 2: about an order shipping that don't include any of the 69 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:41,320 Speaker 2: actual information. These are things that are happening not because 70 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:43,800 Speaker 2: the company is like, oh, well, this's better for the customer, 71 00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:46,480 Speaker 2: but because they need you to do something or they 72 00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:48,800 Speaker 2: need to stop someone doing something else. In the case 73 00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:50,680 Speaker 2: of your Amazon emails, by the way, if you're wondering 74 00:03:50,680 --> 00:03:52,960 Speaker 2: why you don't get you don't actually get to see 75 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:55,800 Speaker 2: what's in an Amazon package when it ships now, well 76 00:03:55,840 --> 00:04:00,320 Speaker 2: the reason is because Google was scraping your Gmail finding 77 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:03,360 Speaker 2: out stuff about what people were buying on Amazon. So 78 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:06,680 Speaker 2: Amazon just stopped doing that. They stopped providing any of 79 00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:09,960 Speaker 2: that information when your stuff shipped. Now, Amazon absolutely makes 80 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:14,600 Speaker 2: money off of this themselves. This is Amazon's business, not Google. No, no, no, no, 81 00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:18,440 Speaker 2: you can't rot our customers. There are to rot yet, 82 00:04:18,839 --> 00:04:22,119 Speaker 2: and I'm going to imagine your frustration with tech isn't 83 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:24,359 Speaker 2: born with any kind of hatred of technology, or a 84 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:26,560 Speaker 2: dislike of the Internet, or a lack of appreciation of 85 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:28,760 Speaker 2: what it can or could or used to do, but 86 00:04:28,839 --> 00:04:31,480 Speaker 2: the sense that all of this was once better, and 87 00:04:31,520 --> 00:04:34,039 Speaker 2: that these companies have turned impeding our use of the 88 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:39,560 Speaker 2: computer into a kind of weird, Charlatan filled bacchanalia of capital. 89 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:42,479 Speaker 2: And so much of the pushback I get on my work, 90 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:44,560 Speaker 2: and the pushback I've seen toward other critics as well, 91 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:47,200 Speaker 2: is that I hate technology. But I'd like to argue 92 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:49,560 Speaker 2: that my profound disgust and anger is born of a 93 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:51,599 Speaker 2: great love of technology and a deep awareness of the 94 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:54,400 Speaker 2: positive effects it's had on my life. I don't turn 95 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:56,680 Speaker 2: on the computer every day wanting to be pissed off, 96 00:04:56,680 --> 00:04:58,920 Speaker 2: and I don't imagine any of you do either. We're 97 00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:01,479 Speaker 2: not logging onto whatever social networks were on because we're 98 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:03,640 Speaker 2: ready to be pissed off, or we want to have 99 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:07,000 Speaker 2: our lives interrupted by weird slop. If anything, we'd love 100 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:08,960 Speaker 2: to be delighted by the people we chose to connect 101 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:11,120 Speaker 2: with and the content we consume, and want to simply 102 00:05:11,160 --> 00:05:14,440 Speaker 2: go about our business without just these microaggressions created by 103 00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:17,760 Speaker 2: this growth desperation from companies that are just running out 104 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:20,640 Speaker 2: of runway. They're running out of things to sell us, 105 00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:22,440 Speaker 2: and well, they don't know how to build things we'd 106 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:26,440 Speaker 2: like anyway. Technology has in many ways stopped being about 107 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:28,920 Speaker 2: using technology to help people do things, or at the 108 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:30,920 Speaker 2: very least help the user do something that they want 109 00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:34,200 Speaker 2: to do. Software has, as Mark Andrewsen said, it would 110 00:05:34,200 --> 00:05:36,599 Speaker 2: in twenty eleven, eat in the world, and it's done 111 00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:39,360 Speaker 2: so in the nakedly cynical and usurious way that Mark 112 00:05:39,400 --> 00:05:42,520 Speaker 2: Andrewson really wanted it to, prioritizing the invasion of our 113 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:45,760 Speaker 2: life through prioritizing growth and the collection of as much 114 00:05:45,839 --> 00:05:48,920 Speaker 2: data as possible in the user over any particularly particular 115 00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:52,640 Speaker 2: utility or purpose or value in a stock and dres 116 00:05:52,680 --> 00:05:55,640 Speaker 2: and hint his ilk Saw and I believe they still 117 00:05:55,680 --> 00:05:58,599 Speaker 2: see software not as a thing that provides value, but 118 00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:00,680 Speaker 2: as a means for the tech industry to penetrate and 119 00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:05,200 Speaker 2: disrupt as many industries as possible, pushing legacy providers to 120 00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:08,960 Speaker 2: and I quote transform themselves into software companies rather than 121 00:06:09,080 --> 00:06:12,680 Speaker 2: using software to do things or make products better. And 122 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:15,719 Speaker 2: recent describes Pixar the studio that made movies like Toy 123 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:18,440 Speaker 2: Story and Inside Out, and they were required by Disney 124 00:06:18,480 --> 00:06:20,200 Speaker 2: in two thousand and six. By the way, he describes 125 00:06:20,240 --> 00:06:22,280 Speaker 2: them as a software company rather than the company that 126 00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:27,800 Speaker 2: uses software to make movies, and that distinction is really important. 127 00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:29,880 Speaker 2: I realize it sounds like semantics, but let me put 128 00:06:29,880 --> 00:06:33,240 Speaker 2: it another way. Software has for the tech industry become 129 00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:35,960 Speaker 2: far more about extracting economic value than it has in 130 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:39,120 Speaker 2: providing it. When the tech industry becomes focused on penetrating 131 00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:42,560 Speaker 2: markets to quote Andrews and software companies taking over large 132 00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:45,640 Speaker 2: swards of the economy, there's little consideration of whether said 133 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:49,360 Speaker 2: software is prioritizing the solution to a problem. And nowhere 134 00:06:49,400 --> 00:06:51,479 Speaker 2: is this more obvious than the software we use in 135 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:55,120 Speaker 2: our professional lives. Microsoft Teams is one of the single 136 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:58,839 Speaker 2: worst products I've ever used, because Microsoft's goal isn't to 137 00:06:58,839 --> 00:07:01,000 Speaker 2: make it easy to have digital meetings, but to make 138 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:02,719 Speaker 2: a product good enough and cheap enough to make it 139 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:05,480 Speaker 2: easy for your boss to buy the entire Microsoft three 140 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:08,479 Speaker 2: sixty five Sweet, even if most of the sweet sucks 141 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:11,760 Speaker 2: and people hate it and it doesn't work sometimes or 142 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:14,560 Speaker 2: a lot of the time, and here's another great example, 143 00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:18,040 Speaker 2: Google Drive. Google Drive is one of the worst products 144 00:07:18,120 --> 00:07:21,240 Speaker 2: of all time. The people responsible for designing Google drives 145 00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:25,000 Speaker 2: user interface should be made to explain themselves before a judge. 146 00:07:25,240 --> 00:07:27,280 Speaker 2: Why can't you sort files by side? Why does it 147 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:30,080 Speaker 2: only show an image and video thumbnails when viewing a 148 00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:32,200 Speaker 2: folder and a grid layout? Why when you attempt to 149 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:34,440 Speaker 2: move a file to a folder are the suggested folders 150 00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:38,239 Speaker 2: literally the first window you say, always wrong without fail. 151 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:42,240 Speaker 2: I know these things sound like I'm just complaining, goddamn 152 00:07:42,280 --> 00:07:44,800 Speaker 2: am I, but this is what it is today. This 153 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:48,040 Speaker 2: is Google, a company with well it's like three trillion 154 00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:50,520 Speaker 2: dollar market cap, and they can't fucking make their cloud 155 00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:56,000 Speaker 2: storage product work. Jesus Christ. Look, the proliferation of software 156 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:58,160 Speaker 2: throughout society has been led by the stewards of the 157 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:02,240 Speaker 2: raw economy, as software, along with its associated managed services, 158 00:08:02,360 --> 00:08:05,560 Speaker 2: can effectively proliferate infinitely and can take advantage of how 159 00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:08,440 Speaker 2: many corporations are run by management consultants and of course 160 00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:11,160 Speaker 2: filled with middle managers. And they are the enemy as well. 161 00:08:11,520 --> 00:08:13,720 Speaker 2: And these people don't do any real work or have 162 00:08:13,760 --> 00:08:16,800 Speaker 2: any true connections to the problems they're solving. When your 163 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:19,600 Speaker 2: goal is winning the market or dominating the market. You're 164 00:08:19,640 --> 00:08:22,360 Speaker 2: not necessarily optimizing for having a great product or even 165 00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:25,960 Speaker 2: really happy customers. Selling software to a big company doesn't 166 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:28,000 Speaker 2: require you to speak to everybody who might use it. 167 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:31,000 Speaker 2: You're selling hundreds or thousands of seats users who might 168 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:32,800 Speaker 2: access the product. That's what that means. By the way, 169 00:08:33,040 --> 00:08:36,360 Speaker 2: to management, in kind of the dished out just this 170 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:38,360 Speaker 2: idea of we're selling to a blob of people, and 171 00:08:38,400 --> 00:08:40,400 Speaker 2: what would the person at the top who wouldn't necessarily 172 00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:42,720 Speaker 2: touch this, what would make them feel horny, what would 173 00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:44,960 Speaker 2: make them feel happy, what's going to make them feel 174 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:48,640 Speaker 2: warm and fuzzy inside? Because let's be honest, your manager 175 00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:50,880 Speaker 2: or their manager isn't really using any of this shit. 176 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:52,840 Speaker 2: They just want to see what it looks like and 177 00:08:52,880 --> 00:08:55,920 Speaker 2: it feels good to buy, and it fits within the budget, 178 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:57,840 Speaker 2: and they get taken out to a nice dinner, or 179 00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:01,320 Speaker 2: perhaps the person mentions they watch the same baseball team 180 00:09:01,520 --> 00:09:14,240 Speaker 2: some bullshit like that. You see the people leading the 181 00:09:14,320 --> 00:09:16,760 Speaker 2: charge in the tech industry. And Andrews and the Horowitz, 182 00:09:16,760 --> 00:09:18,000 Speaker 2: by the way, they've been one of the biggest and 183 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:20,520 Speaker 2: most influential players in Silicon About the history and now, 184 00:09:20,559 --> 00:09:22,400 Speaker 2: Andres and has something to do with the Trump administration. 185 00:09:22,480 --> 00:09:25,760 Speaker 2: I'm just trying not to think about it. They've never 186 00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:28,960 Speaker 2: really seen their primary purpose as the creation of value 187 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:33,320 Speaker 2: for anybody other than the people's selling software. And this 188 00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:35,679 Speaker 2: manifests in the rest of your daily lives in far 189 00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:38,840 Speaker 2: simpler ways. Pop ups some shopping apps you downloaded to 190 00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:42,360 Speaker 2: make just one purchase, or misleading notifications from Instagram shouting 191 00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:45,000 Speaker 2: about how you have new views that don't actually lead anywhere, 192 00:09:45,200 --> 00:09:48,600 Speaker 2: or auto playing adverts that proliferate on every single news 193 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:53,000 Speaker 2: and reviews website. It's having to relog into websites and 194 00:09:53,120 --> 00:09:56,320 Speaker 2: use websites in particular every day because everyone must pay 195 00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:59,240 Speaker 2: and nothing could possibly get through. They could not possibly 196 00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:01,040 Speaker 2: have you read a New York Times article or a 197 00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:04,280 Speaker 2: Forbes article for free anymore. And it's emails from online 198 00:10:04,320 --> 00:10:07,600 Speaker 2: retailers you swore you unsubscribed from, and perhaps you did, 199 00:10:07,960 --> 00:10:09,800 Speaker 2: but you have no way of tracking for sure, and 200 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:12,000 Speaker 2: there's not really a government body that gives a shit 201 00:10:12,040 --> 00:10:15,000 Speaker 2: about that anymore, maybe in the future. And it's all 202 00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:17,400 Speaker 2: the times you've had to create new passwords because of 203 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:20,120 Speaker 2: another data breach that happened, and the company didn't even 204 00:10:20,160 --> 00:10:23,400 Speaker 2: bother to meet the basic security standards, because again, who 205 00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:26,959 Speaker 2: would stop them. All of these annoying little examples are 206 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:30,920 Speaker 2: inherently hostile towards you, the user, and they're a direct 207 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:34,200 Speaker 2: result of a tech industry oriented around growth, driven by 208 00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:37,840 Speaker 2: the pernicious and aggressive poison of growth focused software. The 209 00:10:37,920 --> 00:10:41,040 Speaker 2: rot economy has changed the incentives of everything you see 210 00:10:41,080 --> 00:10:43,720 Speaker 2: and do on the computer. The websites you read that 211 00:10:43,800 --> 00:10:48,319 Speaker 2: inexplicably recommend laptops that are actively painful to use because 212 00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:51,160 Speaker 2: of the affiliate revenue they drive to the website's owners, 213 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:53,600 Speaker 2: with the intent being driven by the way, not by 214 00:10:53,640 --> 00:10:56,760 Speaker 2: the rights, but by managers who don't really look at 215 00:10:56,760 --> 00:10:58,679 Speaker 2: the product or care about the laptop. They just care 216 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:02,760 Speaker 2: about number going up. It's when Instagram swaps the location 217 00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:06,040 Speaker 2: of your notification and message buttons, discounts on stores that 218 00:11:06,080 --> 00:11:08,600 Speaker 2: require both your email and your phone number, social networks 219 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:10,520 Speaker 2: that put things in the way of you trying to 220 00:11:10,559 --> 00:11:12,600 Speaker 2: find the people and the things you actually logged on 221 00:11:12,679 --> 00:11:15,800 Speaker 2: to see. All ways in which software can be used 222 00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:19,040 Speaker 2: to extract from you, trick you, and mislead you, and 223 00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:22,240 Speaker 2: control you. And when I say control, I don't mean 224 00:11:22,240 --> 00:11:25,040 Speaker 2: that these companies have the ability to subconsciously manipulate you 225 00:11:25,080 --> 00:11:28,640 Speaker 2: and your desires. It's more that they have spent decades 226 00:11:28,640 --> 00:11:30,840 Speaker 2: finding new ways to gaslight you and bully you into 227 00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:34,280 Speaker 2: doing things they'd like you to. Everybody knows that Instagram sucks, 228 00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:36,400 Speaker 2: and it sucks because there's things that you actually want 229 00:11:36,400 --> 00:11:39,160 Speaker 2: to do on Instagram that matter is hidden behind hundreds 230 00:11:39,200 --> 00:11:43,439 Speaker 2: of little user interface quirks optimize to create increase your 231 00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:45,520 Speaker 2: time on the app and thus the amount of money 232 00:11:45,559 --> 00:11:48,080 Speaker 2: you make them by being on there. What so as 233 00:11:48,120 --> 00:11:49,960 Speaker 2: On the side, have you ever tried to search for 234 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:52,840 Speaker 2: something on Instagram? You can't just type in words and 235 00:11:53,200 --> 00:11:56,040 Speaker 2: see what you want to see and like it allows 236 00:11:56,080 --> 00:11:58,120 Speaker 2: you to search for certain phrases, and it's not really 237 00:11:58,240 --> 00:12:01,120 Speaker 2: clear what makes a phrase acceptable. On not or work, 238 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:03,520 Speaker 2: you can have two queries, each with the same words 239 00:12:03,520 --> 00:12:05,679 Speaker 2: but arranged in a slightly different order, and Instagram will 240 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:07,840 Speaker 2: let you search for one and not the other. It's 241 00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:11,160 Speaker 2: just so weird, and the post you'll see will contain 242 00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:13,800 Speaker 2: only some of the keywords, which in the end makes 243 00:12:13,800 --> 00:12:16,439 Speaker 2: search irrelevant. The other day, I search for the name 244 00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:18,640 Speaker 2: of an event with the word live in it, hoping 245 00:12:18,679 --> 00:12:20,800 Speaker 2: to see whether someone had live streamed it. Instead I 246 00:12:20,800 --> 00:12:22,720 Speaker 2: got hundreds of posts that just had the word live. 247 00:12:23,920 --> 00:12:26,120 Speaker 2: I love the future, I love living in the future, 248 00:12:26,320 --> 00:12:29,120 Speaker 2: I love the Facebook and Meta. They just make like 249 00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:32,560 Speaker 2: twenty billion dollars a quarter and their product just fucking sucks. 250 00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:35,520 Speaker 2: And even if you get semi relevant results, they won't 251 00:12:35,520 --> 00:12:38,480 Speaker 2: even be organized in any particularly coherent fashion. You'll see 252 00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:40,880 Speaker 2: content from recent weeks mixed in with stuff from over 253 00:12:40,920 --> 00:12:43,760 Speaker 2: a decade ago. You can't even search recent posts using 254 00:12:43,760 --> 00:12:47,000 Speaker 2: a hashtag. Instagram removed that feature a couple of years ago, 255 00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:49,600 Speaker 2: and no amount of cater walling from users has persuaded 256 00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:51,760 Speaker 2: them to put it back, because they don't really give 257 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:54,920 Speaker 2: a shit, and it's not like Instagram's alone in doing this. 258 00:12:55,320 --> 00:12:58,040 Speaker 2: Everybody knows that Google Search sucks because it's optimized to 259 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:00,920 Speaker 2: provide results that make the company more money by showing 260 00:13:00,960 --> 00:13:03,640 Speaker 2: you more ads. But we use it because, well, the 261 00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:06,480 Speaker 2: Internet's a very big place, and Search, while broken, provides 262 00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:08,520 Speaker 2: enough of a service that it's useful to the point 263 00:13:08,520 --> 00:13:10,160 Speaker 2: that we'll push through the bullshit to get to the 264 00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:13,439 Speaker 2: things we kind of want. And now, to quote the 265 00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:18,880 Speaker 2: comedian Connor O'Malley, fucking computer's bullshit. It's fucking sick. It's 266 00:13:18,920 --> 00:13:21,040 Speaker 2: not cooling where it's not fun. It's not fun to 267 00:13:21,120 --> 00:13:24,360 Speaker 2: me on the fucking computer. They changed everything about it used. 268 00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:25,440 Speaker 1: To be so pol. 269 00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:34,080 Speaker 2: Google search was at one point extremely cool, something that 270 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:35,640 Speaker 2: used to give us as a sense of peace and 271 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:37,960 Speaker 2: then control over an internet they'd grown so vast it 272 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:40,480 Speaker 2: was kind of hard to grasp and even once felt 273 00:13:40,520 --> 00:13:42,640 Speaker 2: like a place you'd go to find like a crazy 274 00:13:42,679 --> 00:13:47,280 Speaker 2: idea with Google a quality search result. Facebook was instrumental 275 00:13:47,320 --> 00:13:49,440 Speaker 2: in me building my life here in America when I 276 00:13:49,480 --> 00:13:51,480 Speaker 2: moved in two thousand and eight, both in connecting with 277 00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:53,120 Speaker 2: the people who went to college with at Penn Stay 278 00:13:53,240 --> 00:13:55,400 Speaker 2: and operating is a kind of digital address book where 279 00:13:55,400 --> 00:13:58,480 Speaker 2: people and this is an insane concept, I know, used 280 00:13:58,520 --> 00:14:01,680 Speaker 2: to post updates about their life and pictures of things 281 00:14:01,679 --> 00:14:04,000 Speaker 2: that they were doing on Facebook. I know that this 282 00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:07,480 Speaker 2: is a strange concept to some of you, but there 283 00:14:07,559 --> 00:14:10,080 Speaker 2: was a time when people did that on Facebook. In 284 00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:12,480 Speaker 2: a way it might someone might describe it as like 285 00:14:12,559 --> 00:14:17,360 Speaker 2: social networking. Crazy right, anyway, Once upon a time, Apple's 286 00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:20,360 Speaker 2: app store had actual quality standards, both in the apps 287 00:14:20,400 --> 00:14:23,160 Speaker 2: themselves and the services they sold, which made downloading a 288 00:14:23,200 --> 00:14:25,240 Speaker 2: new app feel kind of exciting because your first pop 289 00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:28,440 Speaker 2: up wasn't for some sort of monthly subscription products solved 290 00:14:28,800 --> 00:14:30,640 Speaker 2: sold in a weird way where it's like, oh, it's 291 00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:33,080 Speaker 2: actually a weekly one, and with the X to get 292 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:35,320 Speaker 2: away from it hidden on a white background with a 293 00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:39,400 Speaker 2: white X. I know, I know, I'm romantics. I think 294 00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:42,280 Speaker 2: things a little bit. Capitalism is capitalism. These companies were 295 00:14:42,280 --> 00:14:45,240 Speaker 2: still worth hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, and 296 00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:50,320 Speaker 2: evil incentives still exists, and I realized that Microsoft and 297 00:14:50,360 --> 00:14:52,800 Speaker 2: its monopoly over operating system is a really good example 298 00:14:52,800 --> 00:14:55,200 Speaker 2: of how wrong this might be. But nevertheless, the experience 299 00:14:55,200 --> 00:14:57,800 Speaker 2: of using hardware and software felt like it was fucking 300 00:14:57,800 --> 00:15:01,440 Speaker 2: you less, it was less exploitative. The stuff we used 301 00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:05,200 Speaker 2: felt like it worked. And for the absolute avoidance of doubt, 302 00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:06,760 Speaker 2: none of this is to say that these companies were 303 00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:09,520 Speaker 2: ever perfect, or even good, or even had good intentions, 304 00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:11,960 Speaker 2: Nor is any of this an attempt to cheerlead for them. 305 00:15:12,320 --> 00:15:15,360 Speaker 2: This is not a shift to me becoming more fair either, 306 00:15:15,800 --> 00:15:18,240 Speaker 2: which is usually, by the way, euphemism for waving away 307 00:15:18,280 --> 00:15:21,200 Speaker 2: the actual wrongs of a company. I don't get free share, 308 00:15:21,280 --> 00:15:23,200 Speaker 2: and even if I did, I'd tell you. I would 309 00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:24,760 Speaker 2: tell you if someone wants to send me a free 310 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:28,040 Speaker 2: laptop brilliant, It won't change my mind about shit anyway. 311 00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:30,560 Speaker 2: As much as I may like any given product, these 312 00:15:30,560 --> 00:15:33,320 Speaker 2: companies are providing a service as a means of making money. 313 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:36,160 Speaker 2: I am as you are a customer. And the fact 314 00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:38,280 Speaker 2: that so many of these companies are making so much 315 00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:41,120 Speaker 2: more money as they make these products so much worse. 316 00:15:41,320 --> 00:15:43,680 Speaker 2: It feels me full of fucking poison. It makes me 317 00:15:43,840 --> 00:15:47,120 Speaker 2: very angry. And the reason I'm so onerously explaining this 318 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:49,280 Speaker 2: is that I do not believe that the majority of 319 00:15:49,320 --> 00:15:52,720 Speaker 2: people actually hate technology. They hate what the technology industry 320 00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:56,080 Speaker 2: has become in search of growth. In fact, I'd argue 321 00:15:56,080 --> 00:15:58,680 Speaker 2: that deep down many people love technology. We love that 322 00:15:58,720 --> 00:16:01,560 Speaker 2: we can instantly connect to friends using little computers in 323 00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:04,440 Speaker 2: our pockets, or that we can share photos or videos 324 00:16:04,440 --> 00:16:08,280 Speaker 2: with effectively anyone with an Internet connection. And I quote 325 00:16:08,280 --> 00:16:10,640 Speaker 2: someone talking about me here by the way, as one 326 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:13,600 Speaker 2: of big Tech's angriest critics, I must confess that I 327 00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:16,120 Speaker 2: absolutely love what I can do with the computer. As 328 00:16:16,120 --> 00:16:18,400 Speaker 2: deep down, I'm kind of a broken hearted romantic that 329 00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:20,320 Speaker 2: can see beneath all the slop on the shit and 330 00:16:20,360 --> 00:16:22,800 Speaker 2: the growth and the bullshit, there are many different things 331 00:16:22,840 --> 00:16:25,880 Speaker 2: I truly, deeply love. I love that I can write 332 00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:27,720 Speaker 2: a script or a newsletter and I can share it 333 00:16:27,760 --> 00:16:29,800 Speaker 2: with my head of the thousands of miles away, that 334 00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:31,840 Speaker 2: we can work on an idea or a sentence in 335 00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:34,160 Speaker 2: real time, despite being an entire land mass and a 336 00:16:34,240 --> 00:16:36,880 Speaker 2: nocean apart. I love that I can be in New 337 00:16:36,960 --> 00:16:38,880 Speaker 2: York or Los Angeles or Las Vegas and make a 338 00:16:38,880 --> 00:16:41,280 Speaker 2: podcast that gets beamed around the world through fiber optic 339 00:16:41,320 --> 00:16:44,080 Speaker 2: cables and satellite connections. I love that I can run 340 00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:46,800 Speaker 2: a business online from anywhere with a stable Internet connection. 341 00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:48,920 Speaker 2: And I love that during work I can also quickly 342 00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:51,280 Speaker 2: and easily catch up with my friends wherever they are. 343 00:16:51,640 --> 00:16:53,360 Speaker 2: I can be there for people and people have been 344 00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:56,280 Speaker 2: there for me, and it's wonderful. Beneath the bullshit of 345 00:16:56,320 --> 00:16:59,080 Speaker 2: Google Search lies the ability to research decades of journalism 346 00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:01,800 Speaker 2: in academia, and my fury and discuss comes from seeing 347 00:17:01,840 --> 00:17:04,720 Speaker 2: such a great product get mangled by fucking Prodagar Ragavan 348 00:17:04,800 --> 00:17:07,639 Speaker 2: and sun Darpischei so they can make more fucking money. 349 00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:10,680 Speaker 2: And the problem is that we as a society still 350 00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:13,359 Speaker 2: act like technology is some distinct things separate from our 351 00:17:13,359 --> 00:17:15,840 Speaker 2: real lives and that, in turn, technology is some sort 352 00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:19,680 Speaker 2: of hobbyist pursuit. Mainstream media outlets have a technology section 353 00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:21,879 Speaker 2: with technology reporters that are hired to cover, and I 354 00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:25,399 Speaker 2: could the tech industry optimizing not for any understanding or 355 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:29,200 Speaker 2: experience in using technology, but some thirty thousand foot view 356 00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:32,760 Speaker 2: of what the computer people are doing this week. This 357 00:17:32,880 --> 00:17:35,600 Speaker 2: may have made more sense twenty years ago, though I'd 358 00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:37,439 Speaker 2: add that back in two thousand and eight you have 359 00:17:37,560 --> 00:17:41,119 Speaker 2: multiple national newspapers with multiple tech columnists, and computers were 360 00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:43,960 Speaker 2: already an integral part of our work and personal lives. 361 00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:46,679 Speaker 2: But in the year twenty twenty five, it's fundamentally fucking 362 00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:51,240 Speaker 2: stupid and a failure of modern media. Every single person 363 00:17:51,280 --> 00:17:54,240 Speaker 2: you meet in every single part of your life likely 364 00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:57,040 Speaker 2: interfaces with technology as much as, if not more, than 365 00:17:57,040 --> 00:17:59,159 Speaker 2: they do with other people in the real world, and 366 00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:02,120 Speaker 2: the tech coverage they read in the newspaper online does 367 00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:06,200 Speaker 2: not represent that experience. It's why a relatively modest software 368 00:18:06,280 --> 00:18:09,680 Speaker 2: update for Android or Windows earns vastly more column inches 369 00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:11,920 Speaker 2: than the fact that Google, a product that we all use, 370 00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:14,679 Speaker 2: does not work anymore. And you could argue, well a 371 00:18:14,720 --> 00:18:17,840 Speaker 2: software update for Android that it's a lot of people, Wow, cool, right, 372 00:18:18,800 --> 00:18:22,200 Speaker 2: it's frankly, it's not like they cover that much anymore either. 373 00:18:22,440 --> 00:18:24,440 Speaker 2: It used to be that new android lord should actually 374 00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:26,320 Speaker 2: have some stuff and people talk about it. It's fun, 375 00:18:26,359 --> 00:18:43,600 Speaker 2: but it isn't fun anymore. As a result, it's worth 376 00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:46,400 Speaker 2: considering that billions of people actually really like what tech 377 00:18:46,480 --> 00:18:49,479 Speaker 2: does for them, and in turn, they're extremely pissed off 378 00:18:49,520 --> 00:18:52,719 Speaker 2: and frustrated with what technology does to them. The problem 379 00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:55,879 Speaker 2: is that modern tech media has become oriented around companies 380 00:18:56,160 --> 00:18:58,880 Speaker 2: and trends rather than the actual experience of a real 381 00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:02,760 Speaker 2: person living in reality. Generative AI would never have been 382 00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:06,240 Speaker 2: any kind of movement or industry if the media had 383 00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:09,800 Speaker 2: approached it from the perspective of a customer and said, okay, right, 384 00:19:10,520 --> 00:19:13,159 Speaker 2: what does this do exactly? And by the way, the 385 00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:15,800 Speaker 2: same goes for metaverse and crypto no real products there, 386 00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:18,560 Speaker 2: but fuck it right, it's what the market's like. And 387 00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:21,280 Speaker 2: rather than fold their arms and demand the takeover lord's 388 00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:24,320 Speaker 2: actually proved themselves, the media decided that they would be 389 00:19:24,359 --> 00:19:26,600 Speaker 2: the ones that would prove it for them, describing chat 390 00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:30,160 Speaker 2: GPT as a revolution without ever really expressing why, parroting 391 00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:34,560 Speaker 2: narratives driven by massive corporations or associated interests, of course, 392 00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:37,240 Speaker 2: and tutting at those who would disagree. Thank you, KC. 393 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:41,800 Speaker 2: There were multiple other companies doing exactly what GPT three 394 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:45,400 Speaker 2: did months before chat GPT launched. It only caught fire 395 00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:48,160 Speaker 2: because the media insisted it did so. To this day, 396 00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:50,720 Speaker 2: I still can't find a single journalist who has a 397 00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:53,720 Speaker 2: cogent explanation as to why chat GPT is big, other 398 00:19:53,840 --> 00:19:55,600 Speaker 2: than the fact that lots of people use it and 399 00:19:55,640 --> 00:19:57,480 Speaker 2: a lot of rich people want it to be big. 400 00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:00,320 Speaker 2: The problem, I believe, is that the technique he has 401 00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:03,199 Speaker 2: been poisoned by a mixture of ignorance and cynical optimism, 402 00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:06,000 Speaker 2: where the narratives are driven not by any particular interest 403 00:20:06,040 --> 00:20:08,879 Speaker 2: or domain expertise, but by whatever they believe the market 404 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:11,080 Speaker 2: or the powerful people they admire would like it to be. 405 00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:13,119 Speaker 2: And if you hear this and you're getting offended in 406 00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:16,639 Speaker 2: the media, I shouldn't be talking about you. If you 407 00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:19,879 Speaker 2: think I'm talking about you, that's your fucking problem. You 408 00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:22,199 Speaker 2: need to wipe your own ass. Don't come shit at 409 00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:25,280 Speaker 2: me anyway. I know for the fact that senior editorial 410 00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:28,439 Speaker 2: staff are the problem too, because they're handling technology at 411 00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:31,879 Speaker 2: multiple major mainstream publications and don't really care about it, 412 00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:34,080 Speaker 2: or understand it, or have any real interest in tech 413 00:20:34,119 --> 00:20:36,040 Speaker 2: other than a vague attachment to the idea that maybe 414 00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:39,840 Speaker 2: it's important somehow. As a result, mainstream tech coverage is 415 00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:42,760 Speaker 2: focused on market effects like AI or where whatever the 416 00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:45,639 Speaker 2: other thing everybody wants to read about, and by everybody, 417 00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:48,400 Speaker 2: I mean rich people and editors that don't fucking read, 418 00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:52,159 Speaker 2: And it's never really directing that coverage towards what is 419 00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:55,160 Speaker 2: happening to real people as a result of or from 420 00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:59,520 Speaker 2: being affected by technology or using technology. And I also 421 00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:01,959 Speaker 2: think that the tech media has been infiltrated and controlled 422 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:04,359 Speaker 2: by people that want to be famous or associate with 423 00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:07,199 Speaker 2: famous people. I think they want them to win. They 424 00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:10,040 Speaker 2: want a benevolent dictator. They want their products to do 425 00:21:10,119 --> 00:21:11,840 Speaker 2: so well so they can get the interview with the 426 00:21:11,840 --> 00:21:14,200 Speaker 2: big name founder or CEO on stage at a conference 427 00:21:14,320 --> 00:21:17,560 Speaker 2: and have Siam Moltman say some bullshit that gets quoted everywhere. 428 00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:20,320 Speaker 2: They want access for big interviews, and they want to 429 00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:21,919 Speaker 2: make sure that they get the first look at the 430 00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:24,440 Speaker 2: next product release, even if eleven other people are doing 431 00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:27,280 Speaker 2: so too well. One might argue that people want to 432 00:21:27,280 --> 00:21:29,560 Speaker 2: hear about AI. What people want to hear about is 433 00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:32,399 Speaker 2: largely driven by the media narratives that the media creates 434 00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:34,959 Speaker 2: and agrees upon. You realize that if you just all 435 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:37,960 Speaker 2: talked about turnips, it would be the fucking turnip news, right. 436 00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:42,560 Speaker 2: You could cover whatever you want. But the people parroting 437 00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:45,159 Speaker 2: these narratives, much like the executives they admire, do not 438 00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:47,520 Speaker 2: find any joy in tech at all, nor do they 439 00:21:47,520 --> 00:21:50,159 Speaker 2: experience or care about the problems that tech might solve 440 00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:53,320 Speaker 2: or create. For a real person, well, I don't care 441 00:21:53,359 --> 00:21:56,840 Speaker 2: whether a regular person has enthusiasm or domain expertise in tech. 442 00:21:56,960 --> 00:21:59,200 Speaker 2: I believe that anyone working in the tech media should 443 00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:04,320 Speaker 2: have genuine in in the tech itself, actual real domain expertise. Actually, 444 00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:07,160 Speaker 2: I want you to actually fucking use the products you're 445 00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:09,439 Speaker 2: working on. If you want to talk about agents to me, 446 00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:11,520 Speaker 2: I want you to come out and fucking use one. 447 00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:13,040 Speaker 2: I want you to talk about it because you'll know 448 00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:16,480 Speaker 2: it's bullshit. And I want you in the tech media, 449 00:22:16,520 --> 00:22:18,280 Speaker 2: if you're listening to this and you're not already someone 450 00:22:18,320 --> 00:22:20,000 Speaker 2: that's talked to me and agrees with me or whatever, 451 00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:22,840 Speaker 2: I want to have the ability to say, Okay, for 452 00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:25,840 Speaker 2: a regular person, does any of this shit actually fucking matter. 453 00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:28,240 Speaker 2: And I don't want you to extrapolate from there and say, well, 454 00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:30,280 Speaker 2: in the future maybe no no no no no, no, 455 00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:33,280 Speaker 2: no no no. If you turned over a theoretical draft, 456 00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:36,920 Speaker 2: would your editor fucking run it? Now? The tech media 457 00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:39,960 Speaker 2: continually acts without context or conscience with any kind of 458 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:42,960 Speaker 2: appreciation of how much worse things have got. Well, I 459 00:22:43,040 --> 00:22:45,600 Speaker 2: understand that it's hard to break editorial direction at a 460 00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:49,560 Speaker 2: major newspaper. Any and all coverage of Facebook should, by rights, 461 00:22:49,600 --> 00:22:52,360 Speaker 2: cover the fact that Facebook is fucking broken and has 462 00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:54,880 Speaker 2: been for years and has never made more money than 463 00:22:54,880 --> 00:22:57,159 Speaker 2: it does today, because that in and of itself is 464 00:22:57,200 --> 00:23:02,359 Speaker 2: completely horrifying. Any discs of chat GPT should add that 465 00:23:02,440 --> 00:23:04,840 Speaker 2: it lacks any real killer app and that the company 466 00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:07,560 Speaker 2: that runs at open ai burns billions of dollars a year. 467 00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:09,479 Speaker 2: And I don't know, discuss how this thing doesn't really 468 00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:11,439 Speaker 2: have any real fucking use cases and never did, And 469 00:23:11,480 --> 00:23:13,280 Speaker 2: how do we hide? Why do we hype this? What's 470 00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:16,040 Speaker 2: going on? What are we doing here? What are we doing? Really? 471 00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:17,840 Speaker 2: If you're in the tech media, what are we fucking doing? 472 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:21,480 Speaker 2: Why do you cover AI? Why are you covering generative AI? 473 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:24,080 Speaker 2: What does this do? Why? Do you care? Other than 474 00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:26,040 Speaker 2: it's big? Why do you care? Why do you care? 475 00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:28,000 Speaker 2: Why do you care? Email me at my website, easy 476 00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:30,520 Speaker 2: better offline dot com. You have my phone number more 477 00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:34,439 Speaker 2: than likely I don't know, contact me, tell me and 478 00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:36,960 Speaker 2: I if I swear to God, if you say to me, 479 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:39,640 Speaker 2: it's because there's a lot of money. I don't care. 480 00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:41,320 Speaker 2: I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I 481 00:23:41,359 --> 00:23:43,640 Speaker 2: feel crazy. I don't care. I feel like I'm going 482 00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:47,359 Speaker 2: insane when I have these conversations because the actual AI 483 00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:51,760 Speaker 2: products they just fucking they fucking suck. They fucking suck. 484 00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:55,320 Speaker 2: There are some use cases, sure, the AI companions whatever, 485 00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:59,240 Speaker 2: the AI journals fine, is that a trillion dollar industry? 486 00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:04,800 Speaker 2: Not my not my ass fucking them? By the way, 487 00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:08,560 Speaker 2: those what's going on? Why is this important? Questions? These 488 00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:10,399 Speaker 2: are the things I get from my readers and my 489 00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:12,960 Speaker 2: listeners every single day, and I love hearing from all 490 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,919 Speaker 2: of you. By the way, keep getting in touch regular people, 491 00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:20,720 Speaker 2: people that work outside of the tech industry. Teachers right as, artists, authors, academics, 492 00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:23,680 Speaker 2: criminals and someone have been asking what the fuck any 493 00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:25,760 Speaker 2: of this was since the beginning, and the fact they're 494 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:28,399 Speaker 2: still asking is a damning indictment of the tech media 495 00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:34,320 Speaker 2: writ large, We're still regular people. Regular people are also 496 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:37,000 Speaker 2: furious that the state of software and fully aware that 497 00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:40,520 Speaker 2: they're being conned. Yet the tech media continually frames the 498 00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:43,439 Speaker 2: growing distrust of the tech industry as some results of 499 00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:47,560 Speaker 2: political or social change or accumulation of scandals, rather than 500 00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:51,080 Speaker 2: the big unspoken scandal called how the tech industry made 501 00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:53,359 Speaker 2: things worse than the pursuit of growth and the greater 502 00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:56,920 Speaker 2: scandal of exactly how much contempt tech regularly treats their 503 00:24:56,960 --> 00:25:01,280 Speaker 2: customers with. And more importantly, people feel like they're being 504 00:25:01,400 --> 00:25:04,520 Speaker 2: gas lit by the tech media. I'm regularly told by 505 00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:06,640 Speaker 2: the people that listen and read me that they're glad 506 00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:08,879 Speaker 2: to have someone say simple things like hey, the apps 507 00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:12,399 Speaker 2: we use that, do you ever feel like they're fucking 508 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:15,760 Speaker 2: with you? Or like, hey, yeah, that ain't that's true, 509 00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:18,800 Speaker 2: that's not you being crazy. That actually happens. And here's how, 510 00:25:19,119 --> 00:25:21,320 Speaker 2: and doing that regularly helps people. If you're in the 511 00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:23,800 Speaker 2: tech media listening to this, this is where you actually 512 00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:25,680 Speaker 2: need to be doing things. I don't give a rap 513 00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:30,080 Speaker 2: fuck about generative AI anymore. It's really frustrating, and I 514 00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:32,439 Speaker 2: know I'm going on and on and on. But the 515 00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:34,720 Speaker 2: feedback I regularly receive is that there are too many 516 00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:38,840 Speaker 2: articles about technology that seem fundamentally disconnected from reality, or 517 00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:42,359 Speaker 2: at least disconnected from the people at the receiving end 518 00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:45,400 Speaker 2: of the product. You talk about how much money open 519 00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:48,399 Speaker 2: ai has, You talk about the three hundred million weekly users, 520 00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:50,440 Speaker 2: and that numbers kind of bollocks. By the way, I'm 521 00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:52,800 Speaker 2: going to get into that later pod. Why don't you 522 00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:56,960 Speaker 2: talk about what happens next? Why don't you talk about 523 00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:00,880 Speaker 2: how regular people actually use it? To shear a Vedo 524 00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:03,480 Speaker 2: at the Washington Post. She's been on this with chat 525 00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:06,600 Speaker 2: GPT since twenty twenty three. There are good members of 526 00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:09,159 Speaker 2: the tech media. It's just all of this is just 527 00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:13,720 Speaker 2: very frustrating. But at the risk of sounding like a cliche, 528 00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:16,280 Speaker 2: that's all the time we have today. But we're not done. 529 00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:18,639 Speaker 2: There's another episode coming up. Next episode, we're going to 530 00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:21,639 Speaker 2: talk about the people responsible for this mess and the 531 00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:25,600 Speaker 2: kind of marass of filth that our digital lives has become, 532 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:28,040 Speaker 2: and I want to talk about their motivations behind it, 533 00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:29,760 Speaker 2: and I want to talk to you about how we 534 00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:32,520 Speaker 2: can fight back, because this is a fight and it's 535 00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:35,240 Speaker 2: one we need to win, and it's one I believe 536 00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:38,960 Speaker 2: we can win. I'll hear you in the next episode. Well, 537 00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:41,200 Speaker 2: I guess you'll hear me, but I'm not re recording that. 538 00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:51,600 Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to Better Offline. 539 00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,160 Speaker 1: The editor and composer of the Better Offline theme song 540 00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:56,879 Speaker 1: is Metasowski. You can check out more of his music 541 00:26:56,880 --> 00:27:01,119 Speaker 1: and audio projects at Matasowski dot com a T O 542 00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:05,480 Speaker 1: s O W s ki dot com. You can email 543 00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:07,960 Speaker 1: me at easy at Better offline dot com or visit 544 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:10,359 Speaker 1: better Offline dot com to find more podcast links and 545 00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,520 Speaker 1: of course, my newsletter. I also really recommend you go 546 00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:16,160 Speaker 1: to chat dot where's youreaed dot at to visit the discord, 547 00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:17,720 Speaker 1: and go to our slash. 548 00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:20,560 Speaker 2: Better Offline to check out our reddit. Thank you so 549 00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:24,080 Speaker 2: much for listening. Better Offline is a production of cool 550 00:27:24,160 --> 00:27:26,959 Speaker 2: Zone Media. For more from cool Zone Media, visit our 551 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:30,000 Speaker 2: website cool Zonemedia dot com, or check us out on 552 00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:33,879 Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.