Isn’t a big part of the issue that social media is free and funded via ad revenue. So the business incentives push towards addictive engagement and increasing viewing time to see more ads. Not so different from traditional TV, but 1000x more potent since it’s a personalized algorithm.

What if instead of banning these addictive services we require companies to charge for them and disallow advertising revenue. That changes the entire business model, and there is no longer a strong incentive to have users spend as much time on the platform as possible. In fact, the best customer would be one that subscribes but barely uses the platform.

For me this all comes back to the perverse incentives that arrive when advertising is the primary source of revenue for the largest companies in the world. Social media allows advertising at scale never seen before and it’s no surprise that it’s been weaponized in ways that are actively harming people.

Probably not much other than scale. Facebook is large enough that they can hire behavioral researchers to make this stuff more addicting while looking the other way and raking in the money. I think Roblox is just as bad (maybe worse) regarding addiction for kids. I’ve played hundreds of hours with my sister’s kids and the way all these low quality slop games handle grinding, progression, and pay gating is honestly disgusting.

But then again, I manage to get myself addicted to a video game usually once a winter for a few weeks, and don’t play games for the rest of the year. There’s really no solution to this, but I don’t want to live in a world where everyone is hopelessly addicted to shallow digital experiences.

I suspect the issue was Sora likely had a very low ratio of consumers to creators which makes a route to monetization unlikely. There was no incentives for doom scrolling consumers to migrate to Sora when they were already getting plenty of short form videos on FB, IG, and TikTok.

The network effects of the other two platforms are too strong, and a value prop of “watch similar videos but they’re all AI” is not strong for consumers.

Also, say what you want about AI slop, but I was on sora a lot for a few weeks and there was a real explosion of creativity on there. It felt new and exciting and creators were engaging with each other and sharing feedback and tips. I generated a ton of videos and surprised myself with a flury of creative ideas.

Completely agree. It’s very telling that the majority of write ups on effect agentic coding are essentially summaries of software engineering best practices.

This is one of the best descriptions of using AI effectively I’ve read. It becomes clear that using AI effectively is about planning, architecture, and directing another intelligent agent. It’s essential to get things right at each high level step before drilling in deeper as you clearly outlined.

I suspect you either already were or would’ve been great at leading real human developers not just AI agents. Directing an AI towards good results is shockingly similar to directing people. I think that’s a big thing separating those getting great results with AI from those claiming it simply does not work. Not everyone is good at doing high level panning, architecture, and directing others. But those that already had those skills basically just hit the ground running with AI.

There are many people working as software engineers who are just really great at writing code, but may be lacking in the other skills needed to effectively use AI. They’re the angry ones lamenting the loss of craft, and rightfully so, but their experience with AI doesn’t change the shift that’s happening.

Actually acupuncture has some studied physiological effects. One is nervous system mediated via the release of endorphins and then a later regulatory rebound which can have an anti inflammatory effect. I think low dose naltrexone has a somewhat similar method of action. I might have the details a bit off but the studies definitely exist if you want to research it. There are even some compounds in coffee (some of the bitter compounds not the caffeine) that have a very mild effect that works in a similar way.

Personally I’m not a fan of acupuncture and I suspect any nervous system benefits from acupuncture would be far outweighed from those of regular exercise. But maybe for people with chronic pain or other issues it could be useful.

I think there’s just a lot of people who would love to push lower quality code for a variety of legitimate and illegitimate reasons (time pressure, cost, laziness, skill issues, bad management, etc). AI becomes a perfect scapegoat for lowered code quality.

And you’re completely right, humans are still the ones in control here. It’s entirely possible to use AI without lowering your standards.

Also the body will increase metabolic rate in the cold to maintain body temperate which is an externality they aren’t measuring. The user of the worse clothing is very likely burning more calories and still not as warm. This would mean increased fatigue and greater food weight on expeditions.

Or they can move faster or carry more weight. You can warm yourself by moving or by metabolism.

"We aren't carrying the best gear, so we'll just hurry a bit climbing Everest... and carry heavier packs of food, too."

It's mostly from metabolism, friction is negligible (<1%).

You can become a building architect without first becoming a brick mason. Working effectively with AI is a lot more about planning, architecture, directing, etc. the education system will need to adapt, but things are moving so fast I suspect we’re in for a massive shock as the mismatch between education and job role is soon going to be massive.

Exactly. Why are people so repulsed by the idea a college degree may give you some kind of employable skill. Like, “Ew gross, they taught git in CS 101, how dare they degrade the purity of our scientific education.