something that is cringe in one status economy can be extremely based in another status economy
part of the big shakeup of the world since smartphones, twitter, whatsapp, youtube, etc is the ability for people in one status economy to directly observe the people in another, and to dunk on them for ingroup points, which kinda creates a Neo-Hobbesean "war of all against all"
we know from history – relatively recent history, even – that each new advancement in media technology catalyzes a corresponding culture war, as people discover exciting new opportunities to be dicks to each other
"the ideas of limited government and religious tolerance, very hard won from history"
it seems obvious to me that with each new piece of media tech we also need renewed effort to establish healthy norms
I remain convinced that human decency cannot be outsourced, automated, subcontracted, sublet, leased, timeshared...
it's staggering to begin to try to perceive, but the sum of human utterances is technically finite on a universal scale. effectively all humans are part of a connected network, covid demonstrates this quite viscerally. our utterances & vibes can be contagious just like viruses
even without talking about morality and dignity and so on – language *itself* is fundamentally a massive multiplayer game. we pick up each others' words and turns of phrases. it's extraordinary. 😜
it's interesting to me how individual writers have been credited with disproportionate influence shaping language itself. consider "Chaucer's English", "Shakespeare's English", "Cervantes' Spanish", "Molière's French"...
we can make this part of twitter the most exciting part of twitter. if we do it well, we can make it the most exciting part of the internet. if we do it *truly* well, we can make it the most exciting part of the world
I’m noticing a lot of parallels with Game of Sultans, there’s a kind of design language embedded in the interface. A lot of things on the screen but I’m learning to click on the next step the way we learn to ignore ads
I saw this game in an Instagram ad and I am now 150 levels in 😭 I’m not sure if I regret it. Does it go on forever?
it’s one of those things where I fell for it because the lady in the ad was fucking up the most simple level 1 stage with two strings and now here I am
I am pretty good at this. It has zero positive impact on my life.
I think some people are kind of wary of being too happy... in part because they intuit, (correctly I think), that being happy makes you a target for the miserable
my experience of of social/cultural as I progress on my journey has led me to revise some beliefs – I’m increasingly convinced that anybody who achieves “success” past a certain threshold *has* to have some sort of inner psychological sanctum, be religious almost
interesting thing here is that... I think- if you are moderately/averagely unhappy, this actually does work as a sort of defence against being exposed to the *most* miserable/angry/grumpy people
U really wanna know? Ok so I was born a weird kid, a chess piece on a checkers board. I was a misfit in my family & my society. I found true kinship in books, then in music, and the internet. So I spend my life finding other misfits & building a home for them. Pretty str8forward
home isn’t a place but a project, it’s anywhere you add meaning to. home is relationships, home is history. home is in the shared understanding between you and me. home is a story we tell ourselves and each other and anybody else who belongs here