0:00:00 - 0:00:29 I want to make, excuse me a quick observation about technology, um social media in particular, but our connectivity as a society, it's very interesting to think of how accessible we perceive each other to be given that we all have cell phones and we have all of these products, these social messaging 0:00:28 - 0:01:02 apps, we have email and um the information glut of not just 24 hour news channels but but channels of news online that anybody can look at um anything they want practically any time they want and um not just news either, you can, obviously you can Google things, but I want to talk about how it's sort 0:01:02 - 0:01:23 of an illusion and, and what I mean by that or maybe it'd be better to say that this is constraining over time. It's reducing, it's uh constricting, it's constricting. So there was a ballooning out and now there's a constriction. So um the specific time frames for that transition differ across these 0:01:23 - 0:01:46 channels. But if you want an example, you could look at um you know, I spend a lot of my time on computers for work. Um and I have to look for a lot of information. And so I'm, I'm well practiced at this, but I also get exposed to it frequently. And I, I notice when uh Google or some other product, they 0:01:46 - 0:02:05 , they do a roll out of a change, I notice it right away. Uh could you get used to the tools that are available and also the types of responses that come through. And so I noticed a while back when Google took away, the there used to be at the bottom of the first page, there was a set of numbers and 0:02:05 - 0:02:24 it went really high and you could um skip through uh pages of results. And so if you, for example, if you were looking for a contrarian opinion, which is very important when you're trying to think critically and look at all sides of an issue and decide for yourself, you could guarantee that that wasn't 0:02:24 - 0:02:48 going to be on the first few results. But if you switch to a 2nd, 3rd or subsequent page, you could jump right to um minority opinions, we'll say, um and these are very valid and, and there you need to know what other people think because uh the majority is not always correct and on the harder issues 0:02:47 - 0:03:09 , it's actually more likely that the majority will be wrong because by definition, most people lack wisdom that that doesn't mean the minority position is most likely to be correct. But the point is you just, you need to be aware of all sides of an issue before you can have an informed position. So that 0:03:09 - 0:03:40 has gone away. And now uh you have to scroll through and eventually at least, and, and the, the thing is, is these, these changes are fluid typically. But at some point, um at least you would scroll to a uh message that said um try refining your search. So it would stop showing you things. Um Google's 0:03:39 - 0:04:00 algorithm has changed a lot as well. It used to use it. It was founded around this uh page rank algorithm. That's what Google, that was the, the nexus of it. It the whole, the whole product, it's what made it different and set it apart from other search engines that, that quickly died thereafter because 0:04:00 - 0:04:25 they weren't as good, they weren't as effective at helping people find answers to questions, they had help them find what they're searching for. So the same pattern, the same pattern is in play everywhere. So um I'm not an Instagram person. Um But if you go onto Instagram, you'll notice that your ability 0:04:25 - 0:04:50 to access information is based on who you're connected to who you follow and who follows you and based on what you watch. And so that is a reductive algorithm, meaning it's looking to show you things that you already like, it's not going to push content to you that differs from what you already believe 0:04:49 - 0:05:20 or like. Um And that, that's the hallmark of this, one of the hallmarks of this pattern that I'm trying to explain. So, um sorry, the lighting is not good here. Um So one, Hallmark is um they push you, this is what I was describing with the Google thing. They push you to what they want you to think um 0:05:19 - 0:05:46 or less insidiously what the majority thinks. Um And that, that is a Hallmark of A I in general is that it's going to tend towards what fits the present and past, not what fits the future because by definition that's unknown. Um And I've, I've touched on that one and some of the A I content I've talked 0:05:46 - 0:06:14 about anyway. Um So with these social media algorithms like Instagram or Facebook, your, your network, and I should say the more modern, the the platform, the less the less outside information is pushed to you. So with Facebook, which I stopped using a long time ago, but while I was on there, um you 0:06:14 - 0:06:34 would connect with people you already knew and then it would suggest people you might want to know now that's reductive because it's using the people you already know to suggest ones you might want to know. However, um you'd get some people in there that skirted the boundary of what you already are like 0:06:33 - 0:06:58 what you do, like what, you know what you believe you'd skirt the boundary and get a little new stuff. And um with Instagram, it's not like that at all. So they, it's a combination of the Google approach to tell you what to believe or what to like. Because there are um Instagram has an algorithm to predict 0:06:57 - 0:07:19 virality and they will push to you things that they expect are going to be popular and also things that are becoming popular. And also they push to you, things that get paid for paid content gets pushed. So um if you just started up an Instagram account and you didn't follow anyone and you produced all 0:07:19 - 0:07:36 sorts of content, no one would ever follow you. You'd have zero followers because it's never going to get anywhere. If, if you don't sit there and scroll through things, you're not feeding that algorithm and then if you don't connect to people, it, it doesn't have anything to kick start this process 0:07:36 - 0:08:01 . Now combine that or compare that to youtube, youtube's older technology and it will absolutely push things to you that are um not just skirting the outskirts of what you care about already. Um or what. Yeah. Um But it'll actually push new things to you. And this is wonderful. I've learned so much off 0:08:00 - 0:08:22 of the suggested uh videos on youtube. I just, I just really kind of and, and, and it is mostly garbage, but one in 1000 or one in 200 videos are suggested are amazing. You know, you, you see some video on how light works or the history of donuts or something, you know, and, and it's this informative 0:08:22 - 0:08:41 thing that you never would have thought of or a perspective from some uh person that you've never heard of. Right. And, and then that's really useful. Well, I, like I said, changes are coming and they're here and they'll keep coming. And, and uh there have been for years, there have been complaints about 0:08:41 - 0:09:05 the youtube algorithm because it does get stagnant and it will keep showing you the same suggestions over and over again. Or um also your recommendations can go haywire if you watch like one video on. Um I don't know, like, let's say that you're looking for exercises um for chest or something and you're 0:09:05 - 0:09:25 , you're just like, hey, is there some other workout thing I should be doing maybe and you watch one video. Now, all of your suggestions are workout things and you're like, you know, II I, I'm moderately interested in this, but this is robbing all of my other topics that I'm interested of in and I don't 0:09:25 - 0:09:40 really care to watch more workout videos. They have a not interested or don't recommend this channel, but it doesn't listen, it will keep pushing stuff, it just does whatever the heck it wants. It's terrible and everyone knows that they've complained about it. There are lots of complaints about this 0:09:40 - 0:10:03 . So as a workaround to this, many people including myself had turned off their youtube history in order to get recommendations of videos that you're not uh that the algorithm does not expect you to be interested in because I want to see things that are new that, that aren't just reductive. I want to 0:10:03 - 0:10:20 see different perspectives, different ideas and I've benefited so much from that. Well, I noticed yesterday that, oh, and, and final note on that the other tool you can use is this new to you button which added some time ago and on the home page, if you scroll all the way to the right in that ribbon 0:10:19 - 0:10:43 at the top of the buttons, the topical buttons, you'll get this new to you. And, you know, I've clicked that 10 times in a row or something to see if there's anything here that might be interesting to me. And so, um, uh, that's been useful most of the time, but it will also keep showing you the same 0:10:42 - 0:11:08 things, which is annoying. And so, um, recently, oh, they, they've piloted, um, they've piloted turning that off like it's come and gone and that's been really annoying too because if that button didn't exist, I really wouldn't even go on youtube. And, um, because it's just the same stuff all the time 0:11:08 - 0:11:29 , um, that I have either watched or I'm not interested in watching. So yesterday I noticed that, um, when you go to the home page about half the time, which means they were doing a B testing if you're in the field, you know what that is? It's when they pilot a change and and they're collecting data on 0:11:29 - 0:11:49 what people do. So they'll randomly send them one way or the other. That's, that's a web development um tactic. So I noticed that they were a B testing a new feature where if your history is turned off, you don't get anything on your home page except this big message that says turn your history on so 0:11:48 - 0:12:08 we can customize your content. Well, I don't want to, I don't want you sending me the same stuff over and over again or I want the ability to actually clear my, my history so that I can get new stuff again. I don't want like you go down this rabbit hole of content where pretty soon it thinks all you 0:12:08 - 0:12:25 care about is framing roofs or something because you happen to be doing some research on that or you want to look into nutrition, value of homegrown vegetables versus farm produced or something. And then that's like all you'll ever get. And then you get like weird stuff that you have no idea how it got 0:12:25 - 0:12:48 onto your recommendations and now it's just there forever and it has nothing to do with you. So, um anyway, um if, if that continues to be the case, then I'm done with, with watching videos on youtube. So um I guess I subscribe to a couple of channels, but my youtube use is gonna plummet if that's the 0:12:48 - 0:13:11 case because I, I really don't have a reason to expect to find anything new there. So um we talked about Instagram, we talked about Facebook, we talked about um I guess you get the point, right? So it's this reductive thing where um in spite of the volume of connectivity that we presume to have today 0:13:11 - 0:13:42 , that seems we have the truth is you're getting exposed to far fewer perspectives just going with the flow of these programs or the internet in general. Then you did 20 years ago when everything was primarily face to face, this is very, very, very bad. So um the the primary use of of of all internet 0:13:41 - 0:14:05 technology has been four bad things. That's been the driver of the development of the technology. We could go into details, but everything from online credit card processing to video to obviously images to all of these things have been driven from one industry in particular, uh which is a uh a vice industry 0:14:05 - 0:14:36 . So um there have been ways to use all of this for good. And um that ranges from just plain old utility to actually facilitating the transmission of very valuable information that may not have had a channel for that otherwise, like like this. However, um those roads are being closed down with rapidity 0:14:35 - 0:14:58 . So make use of what you have now because it's not gonna be around in the future. I'm not just advising you to do this in terms of consuming, finding and consuming the things that are out there now. Although that's really important um as, as part of that and perhaps a more important part of that. In 0:14:57 - 0:15:19 this particular case, you really need to make use of your ability to share ideas with others. So, pushing content producing content, um not just consuming it because these channels are being closed. And if you want to use them for the best that they can be used for uh given the current constraints and 0:15:19 - 0:15:38 the constraints that are coming, you have to operate within the parameters of the platforms. And so this means that you have to post things on social media because the only way the people you're connected to are going to see these things is if you do that, these things, I don't mean my stuff alone, I 0:15:38 - 0:15:59 mean, anything that's beneficial. However, you define that, the only way you can fully facilitate that is by pushing it out to other people. Uh as time goes on, you're gonna find more and more of these roads closed. And the only way people are going to hear information from you is if you push it out 0:15:58 - 0:16:23 to them and you're going to find that it's harder and harder to find the good stuff in spite of increased, seemingly increased connectivity and we're already there and it's gonna get a lot worse. So one hallmark of technology is what happens is it seems to get a lot better really quickly. But what's 0:16:22 - 0:16:42 not noticed is that it displaces a whole lot of things that have greater long term benefit. And once they're gone, they can't be replaced very easily. So, so very simple example of this is Walmart. So when Walmart came out, it was like, oh, wow, this is so convenient. Like I don't have to go to the mall 0:16:41 - 0:17:01 . Everything's right here. I don't have to go to downtown to 10 different stores to get what I need. It's right here and then they added grocery stores to Walmart and uh there have been clones to this sort of thing, but Walmart was the first big one. And uh all the mom and pop stores went out of business 0:17:00 - 0:17:20 and they're gone. So what happens when the Walmart model breaks down? Which is happening right now for a variety of reasons, including shoplifting, rampant shop, you can't just call it shoplifting. It's something more than that um or supply chain issues because all this stuff is coming out of the same 0:17:19 - 0:17:45 ports, the same factories in China. And that's a, that's a, that's an issue and everything's just in time. It's not stored in warehouses. Um locally, it's all dependent on massively complicated systems of logistics uh remaining exactly functional as they are today. And if any tiny piece of that breaks 0:17:44 - 0:18:08 down or slows down or changes in any way, the whole thing just shuts down as we saw during COVID and as we will see again uh with other things. So that's the way technology goes, it seems to get a lot better really quickly but secretly, not. So obviously it's actually replacing things that can't come 0:18:08 - 0:18:30 back easily. Another example of this, just a strange example is, uh, vegetables of all things. So the number of varieties of vegetables, it used to be, uh, orders of magnitude more then what's available today. And so if you go to a seed catalog, um, what you'll find is that the number of varieties of 0:18:30 - 0:18:55 any particular plant, it's maybe 10 times fewer than what it was 100 or 100 and 50 years ago. Why is that? It's because vegetable production has optimized to the current situation, uh which in short form is that um something like 90% of commercial produce that's grown in the United States is grown in 0:18:55 - 0:19:17 California. And so anything that's not best suited to one commercial production, which means it's, it's relatively shelf stable. It lasts for a long time. It can be shipped and without falling apart, um picked early and shipped. Uh And two particularly suited to the climate of California. If it doesn't 0:19:17 - 0:19:39 fit into that category, people haven't grown it for the most part. And so things that are well adjusted to say, um semi desert climates of the rocky mountains. Well, there aren't too many of those plants anymore. And so, um you know, you could get into a lot of detail with this, but people want short 0:19:38 - 0:20:00 seasons with optimal weather under optimal weather. Not. Well, I can't really grow anything here. So, what's the best you've got, um, prairie plants, for example, have seriously long root systems because the moisture in the beginning of spring is at the surface level. But it, it, uh, dries out as you 0:20:00 - 0:20:25 go down through the season. Anyway, not to, not to get super detailed with that. But the point is that technology reduces it, it seems to increase, but it actually reduces in the long run. It's not long term optimal. So, um yeah, make the most of the social network capability that we have today and push 0:20:24 - 0:00:00 that content out, make your own content or share with others the things that you find valuable because we're given a window here and it's limited in time and it's closing in real time. So hopefully they reverse out that feature on youtube. But whatever the case may be with that particular situation, 0:00:00 - 0:21:01 I'm telling you this pattern is just gonna keep happening. And I I I've told you about this before. I'm going in a little bit more detail with some more specific examples, more contemporary examples. But this is definitely something that's happening and it's going to make a big difference. And the worst 0:21:01 - 0:21:26 thing about that perhaps um beyond the the difference it makes is that it's one of these hard to see differences, it has a huge impact, but it's not commensurately visible. It's not something people are going to notice unless you're a weirdo like me. Um So, but the effects are, are serious and, and they 0:21:26 - 0:21:53 are um widespread. So, um for example, today's youth believe they're the most informed generation, but actually they're the least aware of all the living generations, they're the least aware because uh while they've been exposed to a much greater volume of information, it has been of a more narrow perspective 0:21:52 - 0:22:13 than anyone who, who is living that's older than them. Uh Books have been written about this. So Charles Murray wrote a book, uh what was it called? It wasn't too long ago. Um But he wrote a book and you can Google him and find him talking about this. You don't necessarily need to read the book. But 0:22:12 - 0:22:42 um where he just gives a list of, of reflections on uh how, how non diverse our interactions have become, which is ironic, right? Because people are allegedly pushing diversity more than ever, but it's not diversity of thought and it's not even diversity of demographics actually because um one of the 0:22:42 - 0:23:02 examples he uses is a presidential cabinet today is more monolithic in life experience than it's ever been before. And significantly. So, so there are no farmers in any presidential cabinets like like no one has ever done that. In fact, even in Congress. So I'm I live in Montana, one of our state senators 0:23:01 - 0:23:26 . His claim to fame is that he's the only working farmer in Congress. Um because he actually has a ranch that he actually works. Um, and, uh, you know, for whatever that's worth, but that's a strange thing to have. Basically no one in the upper echelons of government who's, who's ever farmed before for 0:23:25 - 0:23:50 a living. That's crazy. Um, I wonder how many people have, have been plumbers. 11 popular thing has become, uh, military service and there are an increasing number of vets in congress but, um, for whatever that's worth. But the point is is that the diversity of experience is constricting. And so, um 0:23:50 - 0:24:13 , this is, this is happening all over the place and it's, it's all to the effect of narrowing the access we have to the full set of ideas and that's very, very, very bad, right? Because unless the best ideas are the ones you're exposed to, you're not gonna have the best ideas. Anyway, we could go on 0:24:13 - 0:24:41 and on about this, including the false concept that, um, basically anyone is equally likely to come up with the best ideas that they're easy to come across or, uh, that they're easy to conceive and they're not, they're not at all. Um, good ideas are exceedingly rare and the better, the idea, the, the 0:24:40 - 0:25:03 less likely it is to come along. And so, um, well, it's not exactly true that the, the quality of ideas you have access to are the quality of ideas that you have access to. Um, meaning that, that you're never gonna come up with a better idea yourself. Um, it's pretty dang close. It's, it's the next nearest 0:25:03 - 0:25:07 truth for sure. Anyway, I hope this is helpful.