2020
Facebook and Twitter Have Lost Control
From recent actions I think that we must conclude that Facebook and Twitter have now explicitly acknowledged that their platforms are being used in ways they do not understand, are not able to manage, and without a doubt have an impact in elections. To most people this has been obvious for years, but they have hid behind many excuses to try and avoid any accountability. These two headlines are two days apart.
Oct 7: Facebook Widens Ban on Political Ads as Alarm Rises Over Election
Oct 9: Twitter Will Turn Off Some Features to Fight Election Misinformation
Both of these companies are finally admitting that they are not able to fix the problem here. They have built platforms that others have weaponized, and they are unable to fix it. I think it is important to highlight here that I think Kara Swisher has it right when she emphasizes that people are not abusing these platforms, they are using them exactly as they were intended to be used. Nobody has been hacked. These systems were built to surveil their users, catalog their interests, and then alter your intentions in the direction of an advertiser. The part nobody seems to have considered is that while some people want to sell you toothpaste, others may want to sell you a destabilized government or some deep state conspiracy theory.
The real question here is can they be fixed? If the flaw isn’t an abuse, but is instead an intended use, what is there to fix?
I am happy to see that we’ve finally left the realm of these for profit companies cloaking themselves in First Amendment rights and disavowing that they have any impact in something like an election. (Funny isn’t it that they certainly would be clear that they can get you to buy a different toothpaste though. Those T-Rex arms in full effect.)
I’m in the camp that for Facebook I don’t think there is a fix. I think there is a fatal component in their design and at the scale they are today it cannot be undone. Twitter on the hand I do think could be fixed. Make all accounts cost $5 or $10 a month. At that price bots go away. Get rid of the active users metric that makes them magically inept at finding bot accounts. Get rid of retweets without an additional comment. And clean up the dark corners filled with hate, racism and sexist garbage. Mostly Twitter is small enough that it could still be fixed, and the core user base is addicted enough that they would pay and if 90% of of the garbage accounts went away none of the core users would know anyway.
This weekend I wired up two additional platforms that I’m syndicating to. I’m now sharing to Mastadon and am @jamiethingelstad@mastodon.social. This is built into micro.blog so I decided to turn it on for those that may prefer it.
I also configured Zapier to share the Weekly Thing to Medium. If you prefer Medium you can find jthingelstad there and this is a full share, with all the content. Right now I’m only sharing the Weekly Thing to Medium.
The best way to get all of of my stuff directly is still via RSS or Email.
In Paul Jarvis Sunday Dispatch today he highlights how he disagrees with the assumption in “main-stream startup culture” that you have to “move at break-neck speed”. I started writing a reply in email and decided to make it a post instead. 🙂
I think Jarvis is largely right on this. I strongly dislike the growing use of the word “hustle” in startups. It feel cheap and underhanded (to pressure or coerce). Hustle and pivot are now widely accepted terms, and both describe what are likely failure modes.
Also bringing in physics, fast isn’t enough. Speed in a direction is needed. Velocity. A lot of speed at all costs ignores the fundamental question of “where are we going?”
Maybe ignoring where you are going is why pivot and hustle are so prominent in the language?
Family movie night, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets. Fun movie. Very similar to the first one. 🍿
Mazie took this hilarious photo of Lucky today. Love it. 🤣
We found another use for the leaf blower today! 🛹💨
We had delicious pizza from Pizzeria 201 at their pop up spot by 10,000 Drops in Faribault tonight. 🍕🍹🤤
It was great to see the current ACE Leadership class present at todays MnTech Board meeting. They formed multiple teams and engaged with Genesys Works, Lunar Startups, Reve Academy, PCs for People, and Technovation[MN]. These teams worked with their non-profit partners to do analysis on recommendations, new programs and other ways to continue to drive their mission forward. This was a great way to learn more about these groups and what they are doing, further develop technology talent with real world experience, and give back to organizations that are doing good in our community! 👏
Mississippi River Lowered
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has lowered the Mississippi River by 12 feet to inspect locks and dams. We went tonight to see what it looked like with the water so much lower. Much of the Stone Arch Bridge is completely out of water. There were a lot of people mingling around.
The view from above showed a lot of riverbed in the main part of the river, and you could see a bunch of people out in the dry areas.
We went down to the water following some paths on the North end of the Stone Arch Bridge.
We were there as the sun set. It was a pretty fun sight to see.
I upgraded the video conferencing setup in my home office. Setup a studio light that I’ve had for photography. Got an Audio-Technica AT2005USB microphone on a mini-boom. The audio is incredibly better. The light is a big help early in the morning.
