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Ultimately I ended up being convinced by Sam Harris' argument: that advertising convoluted our relationship with reality and we started expecting everything for free.

I run some services that are paid for by advertising and I see this myself: the second I start trying to charge money, I'm now the one service that people see as costing them money when all my competitors are "free." And the associated entitlement is toxic.

To answer your first question, imagine a world where advertising doesn't exist and we simply pay for those things.

I was reluctant to admit this since ads paid my way through university. But as ads make less and less money, it's harder and harder to ignore the truth. And while ads are viable, they impede the necessary cultural transformation we'll need to form a healthier relationship with the goods and services we want.




I decry this a lot. Ad blocker use is rampant. People don't want to pay for subscriptions. Etc.

It actually boils down to an expectation of slave labor for a lot of things, which people don't want to hear.




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