This is slightly off-track, but I felt compelled to share this opinion piece. The NYT published an opinion video featuring Jack Conte, musician and CEO of Patreon. The message is simple: algorithms should serve people instead of people serving algorithms.
The piece reminded me of the times when you could reliably follow someone. These days, I see all kinds of content that I didn’t sign up for, and I miss the content from the people I thought I followed. I don’t even see the updates from my connections.
As a workaround, LinkedIn wants you to “double follow” if you want to really follow someone. You need to visit a person’s profile and click on the unlabeled, literally hidden bell in the upper right to get notified when that person shares something.
Isn’t that a little preposterous?
The opinion piece suggests that we must:
- Prioritize long-term relationships
- Fund art, not ads
- Put humans in control
As a technologist, I agree. This may sound like a rant, but it really is not. I think Jack is doing an excellent job making people question the existing design (and offering an alternative?).
I’ve created a gift link so you can access the content without a NYT membership, see here.