"Extreme opinions inspire loyalty among a minority that is ultimately more valuable than the unenthusiastic approval of the whole crowd. These are unhealthy incentives. But they are powerful incentives. Readers always, always tell me that they just want to see the academic posts, just the serious posts. What they don’t seem to realize is that if I had stuck to writing just those thoughtful essays they wouldn’t have heard of me in the first place." - Fredrik deBoer   How did the problem of misinformation and disinformation get so bad? Belonging is stronger than facts. How do we fix it?   Election Integrity Partnership report (includes six page summary and option to download full report)  - https://www.eipartnership.net/report   Article with intro quote from Renee DiResta - https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2018/11/28/the-digital-maginot-line/   Infographic on how narratives spread online (from EIP) - https://i.imgur.com/QA00Yfz.png   Article detailing the mail dumping events in Greenville, Wisconsin by Renee DiResta - https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/03/right-wing-propagandists-were-doing-something-unique/618267/   Article explaining why belonging is stronger than facts by Zeynep Tufekci - https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/08/14/240325/how-social-media-took-us-from-tahrir-square-to-donald-trump/   Article on why crowds are powerful by Renee DiResta - https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2016/09/15/crowds-and-technology/   News that Facebook is changing the way it recommends groups - https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-crack-groups-break-rules-rcna435   Timeline infographic from the EIP that shows what tech platforms did to stem misinformation leading up to the election - https://i.imgur.com/iGLGKHB.png   More information on the The Redirect Method - https://redirectmethod.org/   Article on the rise of "content cartels" and their collaboration with one another by Evelyn Douek - https://knightcolumbia.org/content/the-rise-of-content-cartels   Freddie DeBoer blog post on why censoring people isn't the answer - https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/you-cant-censor-away-extremism-or   Email me at [email protected]

Attention is one of the most precious things we have. How do we make sure that we're paying attention to the things we really want? Better yet, how do we make sure the things we pay attention to are actually conducive to our happiness and well-being? Companies like Google aren't doing us any favors in figuring this out. Take the time to decide why you want something. Don't let others make the decision for you.   Essay on advertising and happiness by Thomas Wells - https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2014/08/if-youre-so-rich-why-arent-you-happier.html   Article on "corporate speak" by Molly Young https://www.vulture.com/2020/02/spread-of-corporate-speak.html   Email me at [email protected]

The type of content that gets the most eyeballs has psychological effects and changes the conversation. Not just the tone of the conversation, the entire conversation. We read it more often because algorithms push it to the top of our feed. And we think of how best to create it in an attempt to get engagement and followers. The more we expose ourselves to this content, the more it changes what we think about, talk about, and care about. It causes us to think of different goals to reach and to rethink what's important.   The diagram/flowchart showing how the five topics mentioned in the episode are intertwined with one another and what the causes and effects are - https://i.imgur.com/25nIdMT.png   The Social Dilemma is a documentary that was released on Netflix on September 9, 2020. I recommend that everyone who is interested in this episode go watch it.   Email me at [email protected]

The problem we face with social media is not just spending too much time on our phones. We have a much bigger issue to deal with:   "The problem is essentially runaway extractive capitalism that's treating human beings as a resource and dumping out externalities in the form of a breakdown of truth, a breakdown of democracies, and an inability to work on existential threats like climate change." - Tristan Harris   Many of us have heard of machine learning chess engines that can play moves no human would think of. What if we had a machine learning algorithm that, instead of predicting what the best chess move is, it predicts what the next human move is? What if it predicts what motivates a person to spend money? And what if that algorithm has already been created in an attempt to figure out how to effectively sell as many shoes as possible?   We have algorithms that are attempting to decode the human soul. And the attempts are getting more successful every day.   Zeynep Tufekci TED Talk - https://youtu.be/iFTWM7HV2UI   3Blue1Brown helps us to understand neural networks/machine learning - https://youtu.be/aircAruvnKk   Tristan Harris in a recent conversation on persuasive technology - https://youtu.be/0TZKOuQLMfM   Email me at [email protected]

Electability has become the newest buzzword of the 2020 democratic primary. But, what exactly does it mean? It is a conglomeration of many things, but has no meaning without its constituent parts. A car is a combination of an engine, wheels, metal, etc. For a car to be a "car" it must have all of the necessary parts to get you from point A to B. For someone to be electable they must have all of the necessary parts to win votes.   Ted-Ed Video on Game Theory - https://youtu.be/MknV3t5QbUc   Maggie Koerth on Electability - https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/youll-never-know-which-candidate-is-electable/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/does-knowing-whom-others-might-vote-for-change-whom-youll-vote-for/   Email me at [email protected]

Why is mainstream media unable to get through to people why the president is bad for the country? It doesn't seem to be from a lack of trying. How can so many people trust a known liar more than a reputable news organization? Millennials are turning away from mainstream media for a multitude of reasons, but confusion still remains as to why organizations like CNN and MSNBC are powerless when exposing the truth about the president.

Let's go in depth about the radicalization of today's white nationalists. Not just "it's 4chan's fault" but how and why people get led to 4chan in the first place. What leads people from the moment they are born to the online white nationalist strongholds when they are becoming adults? Why them and not others? And, if a deprogramming of this mindset can be implemented, what is it?   I can honestly and uncomfortably say that I feel I was on an adjacent path to the white nationalist indoctrination pipeline and I'm lucky to come out unscathed. I feel like this puts me in an uncommon position to be able to explain this pipeline extensively and know the best ways to carve a way out of it.   Email me at [email protected]  

Managing our free time in a world where there seems to be less and less of it every day becomes more and more difficult to do. The less we have, the more difficult it is to spend it on the things we know we ought to. Understandable? Yes. Is managing our money any different? The less we have, the more difficult it is to spend it on the things we know we ought to. Understandable? Also yes. Let's make the connection that lack of free time causes the same mismanagement problems as the lack of cash and let's remove the stigma we have against the poor.

In this episode, I talk about just how much of the bargaining power Amazon has right now. Amazon is changing the playbook of what business expenditures look like. Rather than talking about the specifics of the broken deal in New York itself, I go into more detail about the logic of why a deal like this is not just possible, but begged for by cities across America. How do the American people fight back for a better deal?

In this episode, I talk about the quandary we are in when it comes to the right to free speech. Since most people do their talking on social media these days, can Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) or Jack Dorsey (Twitter) be trusted to allow everyone their free speech? Can we force them to allow free speech? If not, can we trust the government to allow it if they have oversight of social media giants? Is competition between private entities enough to keep free speech as a priority? Am I asking too many questions?