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💡Something I learned
Backfire Effect
I have a very low threshold for bullshit. Most of all my own. I even fall on the skeptic’s trap of constant uncertainty and doubt. However, bullshit gets me going. I can’t stand it. Which makes me go down rabbit-holes of fact checking.
However social media filter-bubbles have made a large section of our society allergic to facts. This is called the ‘Backfire effect’; when presented with facts countering one’s belief, the subject double’s down and becomes more convinced of their . Over the past 2 weeks, I have encountered it more times than I care to admit. Most people around me, it seems, would rather live in fantasy than reality.
We truly live in the post truth world.
📕Something to read
- Giving a shit as a serviced: This short essay is a great summary of how caring about your clients needs can elevate your service.
- How Harmful Is Social Media?: As we discussed in the previous post, Jonathan Haidt is wrong. Well that headline was clickbait, but this is the review of Haidt’s own work that deems the harm factor of social media as inconclusive.
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🗣Some Quotes and Notes
Consumerist Hellhole
I explored the internet originally to find people interested in professional wrestling and video games. Two of the most ‘crass consumerist’ media. And even that wasn’t what online culture has become today. ‘Nerd-culture’ films are so cynical and crass that it makes enjoyment of the medium as a whole lesser.
A full-throated defense of these things is either unconscious, freelance PR, corporate ring-kissing, or invertebrate worship of a graven idol.
— Jerry Holkins,On Star Wars
Do Humans dream of Electric Sheets?
This is a book length essay by Paul Ford on what is code. I am still not through it, but this passage was accurate.
When you “batch” process a thousand images in Photoshop or sum numbers in Excel, you’re programming, at least a little. When you use computers too much—which is to say a typical amount—they start to change you. I’ve had Photoshop dreams, Visio dreams, spreadsheet dreams, and Web browser dreams. The dreamscape becomes fluid and can be sorted and restructured. I’ve had programming dreams where I move text around the screen.
— Paul Ford, What is Code?
War-Life Balance
This essay, published within the email newsletter Dense Discovery, gives insight into how Ukranians are dealing with war.
This depiction of my ‘war-life balance’ may sound strange for people who are not directly affected by Russia’s invasion. I have noticed some people online complaining about Ukrainians going shopping, going to parks in the city or pursuing some other ‘peace time activities’. Even if it may look weird, this is actually how you survive in the middle of a war. People still need to earn money to get by and we all need to support the army. The state needs taxes to stay operational.
…
This sort of ‘war-life balance’ is only possible in cities relatively far from the frontline, but even here we still need to be cautious all the time – rockets can reach anywhere.
— Irina Kostyshina, War-Life Balance
Thank you for joining me this week. If you know some who might enjoy this, please forward this email to them. See you next week.
Mudassir Chapra