i'm a big fan of music videos.
these are some of my favourites
man,
music videos are so good.
and a bad song can become a good music video.
and sorry for being this guy,
but music videos used to be *everything*
and this was good.
when they drove youth culture, young people were fucking passionate.
man, look at this shot -
or how quickly you become friends,
with this guy, in this clip.
websites don't do this.
in 2018, a few engineers at Google disabled sound from playing in webpages.
they argued, in an obscure mailing list that this was necessary to prevent abusive ads.
people were like wait - isn't that breaking all art, on the internet?
imagine breaking a mozart symphony!
and nobody said this,
but we all said it in our heads,
is there actually art though, on the internet?
not really.
i know, i'm sorry -
but there is not a lot that's precious on the internet.
it's actually a shit hole.
anytime we try and preserve it,
we run out of hard-drive space,
and find ourselves shoulders-deep in all the shit.
the internet has almost no value.
i was involved in a company once,
that paid tiktokers to do promotions
I grew up in the 90s and am almost 40
and the part of this that fucked me up,
is that a paid placement to half a million people
would cost about 500 bucks.
a tenth of a penny, per person.
a tenth of a penny.
this price makes me insane, and i'm not sure why -
  • is it because the young people are so underpaid?
    • ya maybe
  • is it because the viewers are worth so little?
    • ya maybe
    the darkest thought is that $500 may be the right price.
    the tiktok kids are low-effort,
    the viewers are low-effort,
    the promoters are low-effort.
    i just thought that things ... were more serious.
    you know, show-business!
    imagine a stadium full of people,
    and someone hands you the microphone.
    500k followers,
    that's 5 michigan stadiums
    you insane person
    that's 5 michigan stadiums
    you should be fucking trembling.
    you should be shaking.
    if you have 100k followers,
    your heart should be in your throat.
    you insane young people -
    creating such junk
    it's fine to have high-culture, and low-culture
    and silliness is nice,
    and I don't need to understand things.
    but it's how disposable the internet got.
    that surprised me.
    that one punched me right in the gut.
    everything we are doing on the internet will be deleted
    historians will observe a cultural-gap.
    People dedicate their lives to preserving a Rembrandt,
    and half of myspace is deleted,
    and *all* of geocities.
    and we feign outrage at this,
    but we know it's all shit.
    in my 20s I worked for someone that was profoundly-rich,
    and I always assumed rich people went to cool parties,
    but he spent many hours everyday scrolling through twitter.
    it’s really sad that the internet did not produce a new art form.
    or at least a better cultural-default.
    you know?
    the way that ambiant music succeeded at being art,
    if you're getting a massage, or preparing for a drug trip,
    or you're marking a pivotal scene in a movie,
    people reach for computer synth music
    because it's a successful medium.
    and the internet isn't.
    is it because tabs
    are too easy to close?
    imagine movies
    had little chiclet close buttons?
    why can’t the internet <be good>?
    people are nostalgic about mix-tapes, because they were good.
    there was nothing crass, or cheapening about them
    why can’t the internet be like that? precious, careful, sad
    imagine if everyone on the internet wrote a novel.
    or if the internet felt cinematic.
    is it because of comments?
    the unsolicited scrutinizing?
    maybe it's the whining,
    we can’t make art on the internet because we need heavier silence.
    It’s like a cinema where the lights never go down, and the audience never shuts up.
    the web has no holding-back, no attitude, no tension.
    webpages are so freely aquired, and quickly abandoned,
    - like an advertisement stuffed in a mailbox.
    and our smart-people are further-optimising it
    like,
    cut     it     out
    for one second.
    we’ve had enough coffee, and cheap internet shit..
    make me a website that I want to spend time on.
    make a website that makes me sad.
    a website that hurts me so much I don’t want to share it.
    because it feels too private.
    people go for popularity with a killer instinct,
    without even realizing they skipped the place where people used to dwell-
    - where people *tried* not to be commercial,
    or tried not sell out somehow,
    or cheapen things.
    there's really no way to say that webpage is great,
    but it's a little surfacey
    go deeper.
    I don't know what the best way to express yourself on the internet right now.
    i took this writing class in university, and an author came to talk to the class
    someone asked him why he chooses to publish his writing,
    instead of just writing for himself.
    he was gross, and he said that writing for yourself is like masturbating,
    and publishing is like having sex.
    and this has stuck with me for 15 years, now.
    ――――――――
    this is the thing about the internet,
    - there is no audience.
    the audience is a pointless number.
    the internet is a monologue.
    being naked on the internet
    is the same as being naked alone.
    trying to turn the internet into an audience,
    - like you get points -
    that's a perversion
    create something for yourself,
    and let people roll their fingers through it, freely.
    as robin sloan put it
    I'm not a big reader, but I will eat-up a good personal blog.
    all the best blogs are monologues,
    no comments, points, or clapping.
    I'm thinking of course of loper-os, aaronsw, and gwern
    but here are some of my favourites lately:

    John Sankey →

    He's a senior in Ottawa, and a former software engineer.
    He covers things in his life like:
    my personal favourites include documenting every chinese food place,
    or learning about every spice he eats.
    he is who I want to be.

    Maciej Cegłowski →

    I never thought I cared about good writing, but then I discovered his blog,
    and read it until my eyes bled.
    Maciej got rich in a software buyout a few decades back,
    and now spends his time writing this very charming and beautiful blog.
    I'm someone that usually has trouble sitting down to read.
    some of my favourites include his trips to the antarctic,
    and his geology-tour of midwest

    Emma Healey →

    Emma struggles with a lot of things, and writes openly about them.
    She had a brain injury a few years ago. She cries most days.
    She is an amazing writer, and writes one of my favourite blogs.

    Justin Falcone →

    Justin Falcone's a software engineer at Glitch,
    I originally met him via his (hilarious) HyperCard talk in 2017
    He does write about software, but mostly he writes about sex.
    he seems like he'd be really fun hang out with.

    Jenny Odell →

    her post how to do nothing in 2017,
    made me feel like she's an old friend, somehow.
    like we've shared comfortable afternoons.
    Her blog is higher-quality than most million-dollar publications,
    and she gets her reader appreciate the value of the small, personal,
    and intellectual -
    and with this rare modesty -
    I really wish more people in the world were like she is.
    Kurt Cobain once said:
    "for every bad rock band,
    there are 10 bad rock journalists"
    and he's right -
    Anyways, what I'm saying is that the internet is just starting.
    It is awkward right but it is just starting, and we are all dying.
    all of the wires are there,
      it's ready to go -
    we don't need anything
    people ask me why I don't start a business, or charge for software.
    I say it’s like lawyers doing pro-bono work.
    People nod.
    The internet is a public commons.
    Just make your thing and you'll figure out if it's useful.