🌞Context Collapse: The Weekstarter 02/05/24

The internet is weird so let's make some money from it: CC #281

In This Issue: How To Comment On Social Media / A Fully Fabricated Interview Between Kelly Clarkson and Hoda Kotb / The Reckoning Of The Cringe Lunatic Economy / Musk’s X Pledges 100-Person Office In Texas To Police Content / How To Write A High-Value Newsletter For Silicon Valley’s Finest

Photo by Christopher Alvarenga on Unsplash

Welcome to Context Collapse, the world’s best comms newsletter. I’m Neal Ungerleider. I run Ungerleider Works and used to work as a reporter for Fast Company, write op-eds for the LA Times, and work as a senior copywriter for R/GA. This newsletter helps readers navigate the weird new world of media and gleefully ignores all the conventional wisdom about journalism, public relations, marketing, and advertising.

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Each Monday I publish a collection of links and stray ideas I think my readers should know about. They aren’t necessarily the best-known pieces of industry news but they’re the things you should be thinking about. Especially if you want to make more money or have more impact on the culture.

May you have an amazing week. May the internet gods smile upon you.

Now on to the links.

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How To Comment On Social Media: “The person who said, or rather typed, offhandedly “people should bike more” really means all people need to bike everywhere under all circumstances and is callously indifferent to people who: live in Siberia and can’t bike through -40 blizzards; are physically unable to cycle; can’t afford bikes; and let us not forget those who have bicycle-related trauma. Which is why anyone who could say “people should bike more” is a fascist who needs crushing.”

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A Fully Fabricated Interview Between Kelly Clarkson and Hoda Kotb:

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The Reckoning Of The Cringe Lunatic Economy: “On LinkedIn, everyone pretends that they’re killing it. That’s nothing new, but there is a subgroup that has professionalized that skill. They teach you how to master the most difficult thing in business:

How to gain the most followers efficiently.”

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Musk’s X Pledges 100-Person Office In Texas To Police Content: ”Elon Musk’s X, the company formerly known as Twitter, is planning to build a new “Trust and Safety center of excellence” in Austin, Texas, to help enforce its content and safety rules.

The company aims to hire 100 full-time content moderators at the new location, according to Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X. The group will focus on fighting material related to child sexual exploitation, but will help enforce the social media platform’s other rules, which include restrictions on hate speech and violent posts, he added. The company did not specify when this new center will be operational.”

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How To Write A High-Value Newsletter For Silicon Valley’s Finest: Byrne Hobart has a Substack following of over 50,000 subscribers, consisting of some of the smartest people in Silicon Valley — startup founders, venture capitalists, hedge fund managers, you name it. Come learn how he produces high-density, high-insight ideas so consistently.

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