Capitalism-based health care is the worst. I hate that it's only gotten worse and worse as time goes on, with more and more of the work of health care being put on to the individual and systems that you literally pay for becoming less and less helpful or useful.
For a lot of reasons I hate all ways to find doctors are gradually devolving to Yelp, which not only puts the work on you to find a good doctor but also inevitably undercuts your confidence in any doc you find b/c the wisdom of the crowds is a terrible gateway into medical care.
I do not blame ProPublica for this and am glad for this reporting, but everything has been magnified since I read this - propublica.org/article/top-do… & now search certifications I see in doc offices and the minute I see a bullshit "top doc" plaque I seriously doubt my provider choice
I never really paid attention to them before, but now they have the inverse of the intended effect, the more of these "top doctor" framed certificates I see in an office, the more I doubt my own choice of doctor.
I try to temper that thinking to some degree, b/c I also have an ego and if someone was like 'here's a plaque and a press release you can buy about how great you are and also free marketing as a result' I might also be inclined to do it, especially now w/docs worried about SEO...
But yeah, not great.
It really sucks b/c as the process of *finding* medical care is increasingly commercialized w/Urgent Care, ZocDoc and apps it means the market incentivizes services to find more arbitrary ways to shake down doctors & differentiate ratings that have nothing to do w/quality of care
Having a "marketplace" for doctors that runs on Yelp-like rules just further divorces quality of service from a system for finding a provider. And I know it sucks for doctors too, who now all poll me on "how did you find us" aggressively b/c they have to be marketers now too.
I'm sure I can't be the only person frustrated by the fact that all medical care now comes with brand recognition / lift measurement surveys.
I don't even know what to say about aggressively marketed medical services like Capsule or Forward, where they employ the shallow marketing tactics of growth hacking & I am aware enough of what's going on to see it as *instantly* discrediting. But also, what choice do they have?
Like the problem is that marketing does not sell me on medical care. Years of looking at sketchy doctor's ads on the subway have made me instantly distrust medical marketing... but then how do good doctors break through these terrible recommendation systems? I dunno.

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More from @Chronotope

18 May
Has any ad tech company ever had any consequences for any of their major public fkups? Even where it's a major failure of their core product? They just keep chugging along not doing anything properly, don't they?
Like, if I'm a brand, what do I even do as a reaction to stop this from happening again?
No one did anything from this other than shake a finger and say naughty as far as I can tell? digiday.com/media/ad-techs…
Read 7 tweets
17 May
So the NYC subway was locked out by... a badly deployed software patch? Yeah that tracks.
Before adding internet: turnstiles open 24/7

After adding internet: turnstiles go into random lockdown

Hmmmmm...

I'm going to blame Javascript for this one.
This is your periodic reminder to keep using your Metro Card. Unlike with using a credit card or app, when you use a Metro Card no turnstile knows if you're a dog...

Well they know you're definitely not a dog, because dogs don't pay for the subway, but they don't know much else.
Read 5 tweets
29 Mar
Count me among those who consider this "a false distinction." I think there's a flaw in this argument. Eric does a brief steel man that he steps past, but I think has weight: Engagement is required to create scale. Scale is required to make FB successful...
I think this is a good post and his other good posts link to good arguments, so it's worth doing the same thing he did, and trying to understand his argument first:

1. FB doesn't do surveillance marketing t/f surveillance marketing is a myth.
Ok. So let's set aside the first part of the claim and hit the 2nd part. Is only Facebook doing the behavior that is commonly associated with surveillance marketing? ...
Read 72 tweets
17 Feb
I have never ever wanted my browser to send me notifications from a website. Not even once.
Now that GPC is out there I sort of want to apply the same logic to other stuff... here's a browser signal that says NEVER ask me if I want notifications. Here's a browser signal that says I accept your cookie policy. Here's a browser signal that says no to your newsletter signup
I don't understand how there could be a human who would want a browser notification from a website I visited just once, but here, you can keep the functionality if you respect the rest of us saying we don't want it from the moment the HTTP request goes through.
Read 4 tweets
12 Feb
I know an advertiser-ready device graph, complete with user-confirmed 2nd party data-join fields when I see one.
Told ya Clubhouse is in a 100% traditional investor storytime mode.
Anyone who paid an ounce of attention in the last decade knows customers don't like their their contact lists being used to build out targeting data this way, but Clubhouse did it anyway b/c their's only one mode in SV: turning user data into investment.
Read 9 tweets
12 Feb
I am having a hard time taking the 'can you report on surveillance effectively without using the surveillance data' debate seriously because you literally can't do anything without being caught up in surveillance, which is the point.
It's why I still often think of @kashhill 's attempt to unplug from big tech. It's in the metaphorical air. nytimes.com/2020/07/31/tec…
I think this is a place where "the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house" is a nice sentiment, but when there are no other tools, it's better to use the tools against themselves than to do nothing.
Read 4 tweets

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