I’m intrigued by the tit-for-tat game theory. It is this concept that has brought so much misery to the universe. The four or five major conflicts raging in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East are all driven by tit-for-tat. Could Ted share the simple KARMA idea with all these very angry foes to learn to be human again?
An important detail was left out: the actual most-effective-game-theory-strategy is tit-for-tat with *random forgiveness* that prevents these sorts of cycles from spiraling out of control. Therein lies the difficulty, convincing one or both sides of the conflict to have mercy on the other in the hopes that it ends the cycle. But decision-makers are often risk-averse, especially in high-stakes cases, and it can be political suicide to look a fool forgiving the other side only to have it backfire.
...big fan of bill hicks take on advertising and marketing...a bit sardonic but heroically honest about the value...not sure if you read the mr. beastifesto this week but another great example of how and why we should avoid working for anyone but ourselves...the algorithm has no respect for our creative self...
…no one really like him imo but a friend rec’d Pat Burtscher…if you squint really hard maybe Bill Burr (which if you haven’t watched him and Job Lovitz roast eachother on his pod I give a hearty rec to)…
"The influence is a side effect of operating at a high level with the right values. There are no shortcuts. If you conduct yourself well and wisely, you will have influence—and if you don’t, the less influence you have, the better off we all will be." realy well put together. this is reassuring and I'll make sure I keep those words always close when I feel unsure.
Perhaps, as part of the terms and conditions for joining a new social media platform, users should be required to write 'Karma is built into the universe' 100 times on a chalkboard.
It's interesting how we seem to forget that these platforms are *supposed* to be mostly for humans, and use them as some sort of video game to get the most points. Sometimes all you need to do is state the obvious. Fascinating article as always Ted, thanks!
Of course people choose to do it, but the platforms are built in a way which rewards (at least on the short term) this sort of behavior. Choosing differently is, at least in relation to how these platforms steer us to behave within them, a resistance of sorts.
That dark pressure has been paralyzing me so much that it's been impacting my writing. I'm so terrified of getting trapped with a "persona" I hate that I'm afraid to commit to a certain writing style. It's nice to hear it's okay (and lucrative!) to be yourself.
You can post one phrase and a photo as your readers engage in thoughtful discussion. I know because I’ve seen it time and time again on your Twitter feed. That’s special.
Great advice: “if they enjoyed it, others might too”. I’m enjoying this style of sharing with others for my musings and music online. I joined Twitter in 2022 during its identity crisis. I used to call Twitter “Twatter” and Facebook “Fakebook”, but I’ve mellowed out some. I don’t like what Meta stands for as a whole, but that’s my opinion.
I have found a lovely little pocket of songwriters like me—family and career first but still want to carve that space for making music. “Art washing off the dust of everyday life” kind of vibes. The dream is what keeps us going…the dream that one song may touch another. I’ve always been a wanderer though. I choose to get lost to try to find my own way back. One doesn’t need ayahuasca (speaking of those bitcoin boyz in Elon’s comment section 😂) to kill the ego if you surrender to life’s unknowns. It will chew you up and spit you out into goo enough times you realize that is the point! Goo inside the chrysalis.
I’m struggling with knowing this and getting into the political fervor for what I think is right, but using my too sharp wit and pen sometimes.
From metrics standpoint I’ll say a few things:
1) The blue check either amplified my by a factor of 7-10x or non blue checks are throttled by that factor.
2) I bought the blue check for the remainder of this election season and have reached over 11O0 realish followers (meticulously weed the bots, bikinis, bitcoins and webcam profiles - they are easily 40% of new followers if you don’t weed them.)
3) In three months of the blue check, I’ve reached the monetezation threshold. I haven’t submitted my info because who wants to give bank info to Elon?
4) The most viral posts involved critique of racist remarks by Vance and a rather accurate summation of the debate.
5) With a relatively snag following my originaln posts get the least engagement, retweets second least, comments of posts from accounts with large fillings get better engagement. And better comments connect better and yield newv follows.
6) I’ve transgressed into not being nice and often deleted those. I’ve reported dozens of threats, racial slurs, the R word, etc and only once has Elon’s minions deemed it worthy of action. So yeah it’s a cesspool.
7) I don’t feel the least bit safe revealing much about myself on TwitterX. Both duec to Elon’s vindictive nature and the reserve of large armies of bad actors.
Thanks again for the insight and the KARMA acronym. I’ll be more intentional about that and see how
Good points, Ted! I would also be happy to hear about your “social media hygiene” - how do you manage them, avoid dopamine hijack, keep distance to them and get your job done ;-)
Great post. It seems to me there's two types of karma—instant karma and long-term karma. We're all pretty good at instant karma. If you hit someone, and they hit you back, you might think twice about doing that again. But long-term karma is harder for people to see. It can take years for the boomerang to return, and in the meantime, you've been rewarded for your initial action. Take, for example, AI. In the short term, you may be rewarded for substituting AI for real work. But over time, your contribution (and those of millions of others) will likely make the world a less human, less livable place. Instead of win-win-win, you end up with win-lose-lose. It takes a knack for systems thinking to avoid these sorts of traps. You not only have to connect the dots, you have to predict them too. "As you sow, so shall ye reap" is a sturdy aphorism, but the Ten Commandments are woefully inadequate to guide us through newer complexities such as social media, AI, and ongoing environmental collapse. To save ourselves from ourselves, what needs to happen?
I’ve been off social media for a year. As a musician, this is considered lunacy. I have gained so much of my joy, my heart and my focus back in one year without it, but know I must go back in, as albums and projects generally require social media for promotion. This advice is the single best rubric I have seen. I think I can get on board with it as long as I keep my time boundaries in place:) thanks, Ted!
A post packed to the seams with good advice. Thank you Ted.
I’m intrigued by the tit-for-tat game theory. It is this concept that has brought so much misery to the universe. The four or five major conflicts raging in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East are all driven by tit-for-tat. Could Ted share the simple KARMA idea with all these very angry foes to learn to be human again?
Most often, the simple is the most difficult.
An important detail was left out: the actual most-effective-game-theory-strategy is tit-for-tat with *random forgiveness* that prevents these sorts of cycles from spiraling out of control. Therein lies the difficulty, convincing one or both sides of the conflict to have mercy on the other in the hopes that it ends the cycle. But decision-makers are often risk-averse, especially in high-stakes cases, and it can be political suicide to look a fool forgiving the other side only to have it backfire.
It's difficult to overcome centuries of being taught to hate.
...big fan of bill hicks take on advertising and marketing...a bit sardonic but heroically honest about the value...not sure if you read the mr. beastifesto this week but another great example of how and why we should avoid working for anyone but ourselves...the algorithm has no respect for our creative self...
I was listening to Bill Hicks just the other night. Are there any modern-day comedians with his dark sharp wit that you can think of?
…no one really like him imo but a friend rec’d Pat Burtscher…if you squint really hard maybe Bill Burr (which if you haven’t watched him and Job Lovitz roast eachother on his pod I give a hearty rec to)…
No, sadly there is only one Bill
Love this piece, thanks for sharing!!
"The influence is a side effect of operating at a high level with the right values. There are no shortcuts. If you conduct yourself well and wisely, you will have influence—and if you don’t, the less influence you have, the better off we all will be." realy well put together. this is reassuring and I'll make sure I keep those words always close when I feel unsure.
Perhaps, as part of the terms and conditions for joining a new social media platform, users should be required to write 'Karma is built into the universe' 100 times on a chalkboard.
It's interesting how we seem to forget that these platforms are *supposed* to be mostly for humans, and use them as some sort of video game to get the most points. Sometimes all you need to do is state the obvious. Fascinating article as always Ted, thanks!
People choose to use them this way, there is not an actual obligation to do it. There are many prompts though, lol.
Of course people choose to do it, but the platforms are built in a way which rewards (at least on the short term) this sort of behavior. Choosing differently is, at least in relation to how these platforms steer us to behave within them, a resistance of sorts.
I love this post! Your kindness, your humanity. You remove the creepy dark pressure of creating an online presence! Thank you.
That dark pressure has been paralyzing me so much that it's been impacting my writing. I'm so terrified of getting trapped with a "persona" I hate that I'm afraid to commit to a certain writing style. It's nice to hear it's okay (and lucrative!) to be yourself.
You can post one phrase and a photo as your readers engage in thoughtful discussion. I know because I’ve seen it time and time again on your Twitter feed. That’s special.
Great advice: “if they enjoyed it, others might too”. I’m enjoying this style of sharing with others for my musings and music online. I joined Twitter in 2022 during its identity crisis. I used to call Twitter “Twatter” and Facebook “Fakebook”, but I’ve mellowed out some. I don’t like what Meta stands for as a whole, but that’s my opinion.
I have found a lovely little pocket of songwriters like me—family and career first but still want to carve that space for making music. “Art washing off the dust of everyday life” kind of vibes. The dream is what keeps us going…the dream that one song may touch another. I’ve always been a wanderer though. I choose to get lost to try to find my own way back. One doesn’t need ayahuasca (speaking of those bitcoin boyz in Elon’s comment section 😂) to kill the ego if you surrender to life’s unknowns. It will chew you up and spit you out into goo enough times you realize that is the point! Goo inside the chrysalis.
🦋🦋🦋
I’m struggling with knowing this and getting into the political fervor for what I think is right, but using my too sharp wit and pen sometimes.
From metrics standpoint I’ll say a few things:
1) The blue check either amplified my by a factor of 7-10x or non blue checks are throttled by that factor.
2) I bought the blue check for the remainder of this election season and have reached over 11O0 realish followers (meticulously weed the bots, bikinis, bitcoins and webcam profiles - they are easily 40% of new followers if you don’t weed them.)
3) In three months of the blue check, I’ve reached the monetezation threshold. I haven’t submitted my info because who wants to give bank info to Elon?
4) The most viral posts involved critique of racist remarks by Vance and a rather accurate summation of the debate.
5) With a relatively snag following my originaln posts get the least engagement, retweets second least, comments of posts from accounts with large fillings get better engagement. And better comments connect better and yield newv follows.
6) I’ve transgressed into not being nice and often deleted those. I’ve reported dozens of threats, racial slurs, the R word, etc and only once has Elon’s minions deemed it worthy of action. So yeah it’s a cesspool.
7) I don’t feel the least bit safe revealing much about myself on TwitterX. Both duec to Elon’s vindictive nature and the reserve of large armies of bad actors.
Thanks again for the insight and the KARMA acronym. I’ll be more intentional about that and see how
Love the KARMA guidelines. Works in real life too!
I don't call it X either. Xitter works for me.
Perhaps I should # it!
Good points, Ted! I would also be happy to hear about your “social media hygiene” - how do you manage them, avoid dopamine hijack, keep distance to them and get your job done ;-)
I always appreciate your articles. Thank you again for sharing your wisdom.
What good will it be for someone to gain the whole Twitter, yet forfeit their soul? Matthew 16:26 (revised 2024 version)
Great post. It seems to me there's two types of karma—instant karma and long-term karma. We're all pretty good at instant karma. If you hit someone, and they hit you back, you might think twice about doing that again. But long-term karma is harder for people to see. It can take years for the boomerang to return, and in the meantime, you've been rewarded for your initial action. Take, for example, AI. In the short term, you may be rewarded for substituting AI for real work. But over time, your contribution (and those of millions of others) will likely make the world a less human, less livable place. Instead of win-win-win, you end up with win-lose-lose. It takes a knack for systems thinking to avoid these sorts of traps. You not only have to connect the dots, you have to predict them too. "As you sow, so shall ye reap" is a sturdy aphorism, but the Ten Commandments are woefully inadequate to guide us through newer complexities such as social media, AI, and ongoing environmental collapse. To save ourselves from ourselves, what needs to happen?
I’ve been off social media for a year. As a musician, this is considered lunacy. I have gained so much of my joy, my heart and my focus back in one year without it, but know I must go back in, as albums and projects generally require social media for promotion. This advice is the single best rubric I have seen. I think I can get on board with it as long as I keep my time boundaries in place:) thanks, Ted!
Yeah, don’t spend a lot of time there building a fan base you can’t reach!
A lot of wisdom here, Ted. Thanks so much for this post!