I want to add an actual thought on top of this tweet. Ross is right from a practical perspective today. But I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of abundance, and what it looks like to create a society based around that. Like, what if it *was* sustainable?
Managing static assets (like music files) and making them available has gotten pretty cheap. There are other things companies try to do that ends up making things expensive again. But what if we stayed laser-focused on “easy access to all recorded music for relatively cheap”?
I think we would design software systems entirely differently if the actual goal was abundance. Today we design them largely for *access control*. Because the engine of capitalism is the ability to manage scarce resources. (Whether actually scarce or artificially so)
Yes you would. People spent way more than that before streaming services. Yes even people who wouldn’t call themselves big music listeners. Music is life. We pay a lot for it.
It’s really okay if you’re one of the people who didn’t wanna pay for music before streaming. I still see you and you are worthy. I’m not trying to take away your streaming app. These are just tweets.
This is sort of important to my point though. I wanna talk about a world of abundance. In that world, you don’t have to try to see yourself in every scenario. You can decide whether you want to participate or not, and that decision doesn’t have to be based on economics.
I’ve been trying to think of some examples to explain how abundance changes your thinking. But when I examine them, they all end up sounding obnoxious. It’s hard to talk about abundance without making people think of their acute lack of it. I’m trying to be mindful.
I was talking to @operaqueenie today about twitter. We have both been doing some thinking about whether we’re still getting what we want out of coming here. I think for me that is also coupled with asking myself if what I’m putting into it is net positive.
I want to share a few of the things that have led to me grappling with these questions.
First and foremost, I don’t think I recognize a community that I’m part of on here anymore. The communities I used to be a part of have been fractured to the point of being unrecognizable.
Tech twitter has changed a lot. It’s much more diverse, which is what we set out to do. I think it’s mostly a good change. But the result is I can’t really find my people anymore.
Except this isn't what's happening. People are already paying taxes on this stuff. And that's gonna get worse.
The problem as I see it is that crypto is attracting the tech talent that still wants this fairly tale of disrupting power when that's not what this is.
We're not ready to talk about this yet. I feel like the last generation of idealist technologists are still grappling with the power they helped create and the damage it has done.
Nah. We gotta remember the quote about idealists and sociopaths. And it's not just a binary. There are people all along the spectrum of how genuinely naive they are about what they're building.
I’m disappointed but I’m not judging this person. We all need to understand that the majority of jobs still work this way. And the majority of people are still conditioned to think this way. We are still teaching each other that we can all do better and we can all have better.
I seem to be the only one who has sympathy for this person. Y’all love to tell me I’m the mean one. Y’all say you’re mad at employers, but you’re actually not. You will destroy a Worker way faster than you’ll actually come for Owners. It’s wild.
I can’t start the fight I wanna start today. But let me say this. Having sympathy for someone doesn’t mean they didn’t do anything wrong. Being thoughtful about how you wanna approach telling someone they did something wrong. That’s on you. It has nothing to do with them.
I think the thing that bothers me about the free speech debate is how simplistic it is. The idea that we aren't allowed to examine anything about the context in which things exist.
The ACLU is a body that tries to protect speech through legal action. There is a reason the ACLU isn't trying to help people get their Twitter accounts back. Because it's not the same fucking thing.
The ACLU also tries to actually stop bigoted discrimination. Because they know that's also bad. But then you talk to people like @siberianmi and he's like "the ACLU did a thing one time which means we can't censor anything ever even if it means people are getting hurt".
They're not on Twitter because you're not posting them on Twitter. They should be on Twitter. We should know about them from people who are actually trying to protect others from harm. But that's my point. It's not fucking happening.
Then where the fuck is it? Why can't I see it? Why would a thing that is supposed to be so valuable be so good at hiding?
I'm sitting on one of the biggest info distribution machines ever created. And you're telling me it's not on here. It's sucking up billions of dollars from people and it's not on here. And you think that's good? You think that soothes concerns and fills people with trust?