Neal's Weekender 04/29/23
Links of love and amazingness: Context Collapse #206
Hey there Context Collapse buddies.
We’ve got some fine links for you today.
Enjoy.
Max Read on Buzzfeed, Gawker and 2010s media.
Related video: MSNBC on Buzzfeed News shutting down.
Evan Armstrong pointing out that there’s a whole bunch of weird stuff going on with the sale of Pornhub parent company MindGeek. Err… who is actually buying it?
PR Daily’s Allison Carter on how PR agencies and in-house comms are using ChatGPT.
Speaking of that, The Economist has a smart article on how ChatGPT, Bard and AI Bing are transforming search and upending the consumer internet economy.
RIP Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons. (And RIP Bed, Bath & Beyond)
Smart podcast with Disney CEO Bob Iger & a16z’s Chris Dixon on creators and technology.
Shawn Boburg at the Washington Post with a long piece on the reputation management internet content churn ecosystem. Insiders know about the fake content sites, the weird scraping of existing sites and the search engine gaming but I’m pretty sure a lot of normies don’t. His piece is about just one company, but it’s a very, very widespread practice.
Sasha Chapin on Twitter: “When I spend more time on Twitter, I find it more difficult to write interesting things. I become better at communicating in fragments, but my imagination gets fucked up by the barrage of mental pollution. I am not thrilled about this tradeoff.”
Peter Thiel speaking at the Oxford Union. Thiel has had a very influential hand in the trajectory of tech, politics and even mass culture over the past 15 years or so. Well worth the listen, regardless of your personal opinions.
Freddie deBoer on the bitter end of content: “The internet is like a person you know who you think can’t possibly stoop any lower, and then manages to pull it off, over and over again.”
Longtime Batman editor Jordan B. Gorfinkel’s podcast interview with Rabbi Ari Lamm about DC Comics and the Bible.
How Bari Weiss became Bari Weiss and broke the media in the process. Smart take by Harry Lambert at the New Statesman.
The evolution of word frequency from 1970-2022 in the New York Times via David Rozado. Interesting!
Last but not least, Pat Flynn’s advice on starting a YouTube channel in 2023.
Share these links with someone who will find them interesting: