Algorithms and the attention economy

Last week FiveThirtyEight published Where The Algorithms Can't Find You, an article about how the modern internet's cookies and web analytics funnel everyone toward the same content with "algorithms that think you only want to watch beauty tutorials, Avengers outtakes or product unboxings."

Presumably in response to this state of affairs, a few people have started websites that specifically serve up videos that other people aren't watching. Here's one of the author's favorites from Default Filename TV, a website that finds and plays random YouTube videos with names like DSC 3307:

The algorithms will never recommend a video like this because it doesn't look like anything people in general or the current viewer in particular already watch, and I think that's a problem.

"Bobos in Paradise"

Bobos = Bourgeois bohemians

I've been reading David Brooks's op-eds in the New York Times for years. He typically writes about society and politics and I find that his columns are sometimes insightful, sometimes scathing, sometimes on-point, and often thought-provoking. A couple of his books have been on my reading list for a while, and "Bobos in Paradise" is both the first he wrote and the first I finished.

The central premise of "Bobos" is that today's ruling elite consists of bourgeois bohemians who have synthesized the corporate culture of the 80s with the rebellious counter-culture of the 60s. Brooks walks us through some of the strange and amusing contradictions this has caused, and argues that many of today's mainstream values, such as the meritocratic ideal and self-expression, arose from this synthesis.

Some flavor quotes and my take below.

"Rashomon"

Several years back, I watched Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" and it made such an impression on me that I immediately looked up his entire filmography. Though I saw that his work is nearly universally acclaimed, I somehow didn't get around to watching anything else he's directed until last week.

I decided to start with "Rashomon" because its synopsis had stuck in my head and sounded very relevant for this moment in history.

Minor spoilers below.

Opiod crisis, health care, false certainty

The New York Times published a thought-provoking article today about the opioid crisis and the healthcare industry's evolving response to it, but also about second chances and human nature.

Injecting Drugs Can Ruin a Heart. How Many Second Chances Should a User Get?

By Abby Goodnough, April 29, 2018

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — Jerika Whitefield's memories of the infection that almost killed her are muddled, except for a few. Her young children peering at her in the hospital bed. Her stepfather wrapping her limp arms around the baby. Her whispered appeal to a skeptical nurse: "Please don't let me die. I promise, I won't ever do it again."

Ms. Whitefield, 28, had developed endocarditis, an infection of the heart valves caused by bacteria that entered her blood when she injected methamphetamine one morning in 2016. Doctors saved her life with open-heart surgery, but before operating, they gave her a jolting warning: If she continued shooting up and got reinfected, they would not operate again.

With meth resurgent and the opioid crisis showing no sign of abating, a growing number of people are getting endocarditis from injecting the drugs — sometimes repeatedly if they continue shooting up. Many are uninsured, and the care they need is expensive, intensive and often lasts months. All of this has doctors grappling with an ethically fraught question: Is a heart ever not worth fixing?

I highly recommend reading the full article. A few thoughts below.

"Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore"

A book about our relationship with books

If Robin Sloan had asked me to write a person-quoted-on-cover blurb for "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore" I'd probably have sent in something like:

"A highly enjoyable typesetting mystery romp!" —Paul Hively

No hard feelings for going with George Saunders's blurb instead.

Upon reflection, I think what the novel suggests about our relationship with books and technology is every bit as interesting as its plot. A bookstore that stays in business without customers; secret codes; missing artifacts; strange cultists; these may be fun, but anxiety over technology's role in transforming society is timely.

"Devil Take the Hindmost"

"This time is different!"

Edward Chancellor's "Devil Take the Hindmost" is an in-depth study of financial speculation and panics over the last 500 years. The book's 400-plus pages really drive home two messages:

1. In the long run, greed is not good.
2. This time may be different, but probably not in the ways we hope.