What I'm Into - May Edition
Recently I had the idea to start chronicling what I’ve been taking in my media diet. Partially, it’s fun to share stuff that might be useful for others, but mainly I’m aiming for this to be a monthly post just for myself to look back on in the future to help remember where my head is at.
Think of it like a food journal for nutrition, but for all the garbage I’m trying to stay away from online.
This last month (April) I was mainly reading and listening to a lot of content revolving around the web as a whole, and thinking about how we all can be part of something that isn’t just a social media site, walled-off app ecosystem, or smothered in AI search engine optimized garbage.
Enjoy!
Articles
The Internet Is About to Get Weird Again, by Anil Dash
Read the Article on Rolling Stone
Not too long ago, I wrote about people getting back to physical things instead of focusing their entire lives online. While I didn’t touch on people also trying to be more DIY, Anil Dash does make a good argument that people are increasingly doing this, with some good examples.
We can have a different web, by Molly White
Read the Article on Citation Needed
Molly White is really well-known for her coverage on NTFs, Crypto, and the wider Web3 dumpster fire that has been the last few years on Web3 Is Going Just Great. This article on her Citation Needed newsletter touches on the why and how we can go back to the old days of the web, we’ve just sort of forgotten it’s even there.
Elon Musk goes ‘absolutely hard core’ in another round of Tesla layoffs, by Jess Weatherbed
It wouldn’t be a month of article links without some kind of Elon Musk news. Interestingly, this particular section caught my eye:
“In the email sent to executives last night, Musk said he wants Tesla to be “absolutely hard core” about the cuts, and that staffers working under executives who “don’t obviously pass the excellent, necessary and trustworthy test” would also be out of a job.”
Emphasis mine.
I remembered that I recently saw people mentioning this old reddit post about Musk’s employees needing to “fake” things for him to keep him in line. I really wouldn’t put it past him to actually have a Trumpian-style loyalty test so that he could further surround himself with “Yes” men.
Books
Dune Messiah, by Frank Herbert
There are a few books and series that I continuously go back to every few years, including the Gaunt’s Ghosts novels by Dan Abbnet, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Nueromancer by William Gibson. and Dune the first book in the series.
Even though I’ve read Dune for about 30 years on and off, I never delved further into the series. Last holiday season, I was gifted the whole series and decided it’s a great time to get the nerd bingo spot for “read all the Dune books” complete. So far, I’m enjoying it, though I’m only a few chapters in.
While I don’t have much to say about it yet, and I’m definitely not proficient enough to do a full review of any book, I’ve found that getting back into reading fiction has been a boon for my mental health and my sleep cycle.
Watch
Do Bad Reviews Kill Companies, by Marques Brownlee
If you don’t know who Marques Brownlee is, I envy your ability to be as unconnected from the web as I am. He’s an amazing commentator and reviewer of tech and he and his NJ-based team (much love for my NJ people) create amazing content on their main channel and side channel, The Studio.
Recently, his review of the Humane AI Pin was so thoroughly embarrassing for the company, that many said that he single-handedly nuked the company. I guess Twitter was so heavily discussing it, that he made a follow-up that is worth watching.
Last Week Tonight, Season 1 (Playlist), by Last Week Tonight
It seems like Last Week Tonight, the snarky late-night show hosted by British owl-impersonator and comedian John Oliver, has released their shows on YouTube from season 1.
I’m not sure if I can say I’m “enjoying” watching them, but it’s been amazing to see what was going on back a decade ago and how so many of the stories and things they discuss are nearly the same problems we continue to struggle with today.
I’m not sure if this hit my nostalgia drive or absolutely depresses me.
Did TikTok Ruin YouTube, by Zackary Smigel
Really interesting take by Zackary Smigel about how hard it is to monetize short-form video and how, by focusing on it to maintain relevance with TikTok, YouTube is doing a huge amount of harm to their audience.
Call it enshitification of their platform or just shit-tech being shit-tech, it’s an interesting video that goes pretty well in-depth to the short-form video problems.
JT Chapman’s YouTube Channel
Visit JT Chapman's YouTube Channel
JT Chapman is really well known for his channel Second Thought, which is one of the main voices on YouTube on criticism of capitalism, thinking on socialist ideas, and quality in political thinking and argeuments in general.
A few months ago, he started a channel under his own name that tackles more thousand-foot-view ideas. I highly recommend giving his channel a follow, as his essays have been really interesting to watch.
