[HN Gopher] You are falling behind because you haven't fed the i...
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You are falling behind because you haven't fed the insincerity
machine
Author : speckx
Score : 119 points
Date : 2026-03-30 17:09 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (christianheilmann.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (christianheilmann.com)
| skywal_l wrote:
| "Sincerity is the key to success. If you can fake it, you've got
| it made"
|
| -- Groucho Marx (probably)
| crooked-v wrote:
| Now I'm wondering what a 'The Tao of Groucho' book would look
| like.
| captainbland wrote:
| It's got to be said that rewarding people who make content on a
| regular, frequent schedule seems to A: be a way of coercing a
| fairly high minimum level of labour out of platformed accounts
| and B: a good way of flooding feeds with content which is largely
| devoid of novelty as a handful of prolific accounts dominate what
| people end up seeing.
| everdrive wrote:
| You can see this happen in real time if you closely follow some
| youtube channels. You take someone who is genuinely talented
| and has some interesting, novel insights. And, maybe a couple
| of their videos makes it big. And they rightly think they
| should keep making videos because they have other insights. And
| they're not wrong.
|
| But over time, something happens. No one has a novel, brilliant
| insight 1-2 times a week. So once they really turn in and
| decide to make a serious effort with their channel, the quality
| of their content suffers. Maybe it's not quite click-bait, but
| it's less genuine and more formulaic than their original work.
| A bit more sensational. Videos are reaching for reasons to
| exist, since the author needs to keep pumping them out.
|
| I wouldn't quite call it corruption, but it's a clear
| degradation. In principle it's not a novel problem, since
| people have been writing weekly editorials for a long time.
| But, there seems to be something about the Youtube format that
| makes it such that the big channels must always play the game
| and pump out sub-par content.
| tsumnia wrote:
| Another issue I've seen from some of the more prolific
| YouTube channels is they slowly become another mouthpiece for
| "news coverage". The algorithm very much expects you to
| continue uploading, because everyone is always looking for
| the newest content; at least before YouTube removed the
| Trending section. I admit that I only really check my
| Subscription page at this point, and after going through a
| subscription purge I only see maybe a half a dozen to a dozen
| new videos. Its actually been very useful since it encourages
| me to not get sucked in to watching hours of videos.
|
| However, given my experience during Digg's v4 attempt this
| past year, I will say being willing to put yourself out there
| has served as a pseudo-networking activity and I've gotten
| the chance to speak with several people and now I'm giving
| talks "out there".
| dghlsakjg wrote:
| It's just people responding to incentives.
|
| If you want to be profitable, or widely watched, you have to
| play to the algorithm.
|
| YouTube seems to strongly boost channels that post regular
| videos in the 10-20 minute range, and actively incentivizes
| clickbait through AB Testing tools for titles and thumbnails.
|
| There are channels that post irregularly, with long form
| videos, but they get buried.
| ytoawwhra92 wrote:
| > YouTube seems to
|
| It seems to do a lot of things, but most of what people
| think it does is pareidolia.
|
| > There are channels that post irregularly, with long form
| videos, but they get buried.
|
| And there are channels that post irregularly, with long
| form videos, that consistently get millions of views.
| chairmansteve wrote:
| Every youtuber eventually becomes a parody of themselves.
| Aurornis wrote:
| > Maybe it's not quite click-bait, but it's less genuine and
| more formulaic than their original work. A bit more
| sensational. Videos are reaching for reasons to exist, since
| the author needs to keep pumping them out.
|
| I've come to accept that this is what many viewers want.
| They're more interesting in seeing their familiar
| personalities talk on camera than in the details of what
| they're doing.
|
| At the risk of downvotes given the audience, this is how I
| feel whenever I've tried to watch Linus Tech Tips videos. I
| have some friends who watch every LTT video when it comes out
| and love the brand, but I can't make it through a single LTT
| video because there's so little subject matter. The few
| videos I watched also had some glaring oversights and
| borderline misinfo. I think the audience for those videos is
| people who like seeing the LTT crew have fun, do some
| activities, and talk. The subject matter of the video is
| secondary for them.
|
| I see a lot of YouTube channels going the same direction:
| They realize the content they're discussing is secondary to
| the fact that they're in front of the camera doing something.
| The cooking channels know that most viewers aren't going to
| be cooking the dish. The DIY channels know that most viewers
| don't care about the code or engineering as much as seeing
| personalities goof around on screen.
|
| I don't think there is anything wrong with this type of
| content, though. One of my friends says he handles his work
| better with a constant stream of YouTube videos in the
| background, so he semi-watches more YouTube than anyone I
| know. I do appreciate the channels that focus on the content
| and subject matter instead of becoming content factories,
| though.
| zem wrote:
| this is why the only youtube channels I really watch
| regularly are the ones where the formula is the point, e.g.
| https://youtube.com/@crackingthecryptic
| smackeyacky wrote:
| I'm old, but this pattern is old too. You'd see it in car
| magazines where the regular columnists would rehash their
| tired old opinions but you'd read it anyway because they had
| a particular sense of humour or an otherwise engaging style.
|
| It's hard to create novel content regularly once a month, let
| alone weekly or daily like some of these YouTube guys are
| doing
| genericacct wrote:
| Strongly agree, frequency may be the enemy of quality
| bethekidyouwant wrote:
| Who are these influencers that are getting ahead by dolling out
| AI slop in their likeness?
| sidrag22 wrote:
| unclear how much its getting them ahead, but its certainly
| works at making their followers or whatever go up, just quickly
| going to my linkedin feed and looking for the first two
| painfully obvious auto generated posts, both of those people
| had 400+ connections.
|
| I looked through the comments and the vast majority are also
| painfully obvious AI.
|
| I know for me personally it would do the opposite, and if i saw
| someone i was following make a post similar, I would unfollow.
| Not like it matters on a site like linkedin though where they
| will just attempt to feed people the garbage regardless if they
| follow or not.
| sillyfluke wrote:
| Not sure, but by Bradley Cooper's admission even his mom is
| hooked.
| botacode wrote:
| The advice here is good, and I'm a big believer that the cream
| (e.g., sincerity and real opinions) rises to the top for writing.
| Still, think folks dunk on these types of writing automation
| tools too much when, for many, they can be a gateway drug to
| consistent posting and finding your online voice.
|
| That is to say, the whole post is a bit of an internet old-head
| complaint. Reminds me of baby boomers complaining about a
| "decline" in homeownership and having children without
| acknowledging the massive shifts in the economic accessibility
| that support these milestones.
|
| It's easy to write a post like this when you've already built a
| following because you started when social media was a greenfield
| experience. It's much harder when you have to compete for signal
| while being pressured to build a brand and perform at your day
| job.
| RGamma wrote:
| The obsession with constant content production combined with
| algorithmic, feed driven consumption frontends with terrible
| discoverability and intense bubblification lead to today's
| screaming contest that ruins our sanity. On average I find it
| much worse than the old infosphere (TV+print+radio) used to be,
| for producers and consumers. It's quite tragic, really.
|
| Though I also notice awareness around this issue is rising
| (e.g. smartphone bans in school, initiatives like bluesky),
| which is good, I guess. All of this is still a society-wide
| experiment without control group.
| botacode wrote:
| Agreed. Discussions like these always remind me of some great
| research on how the destruction of the old, more averaged,
| and less targeted infosphere used to support significantly
| more political cohesion.
|
| https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/postbroadcast-
| democracy... - absolute banger
| wincy wrote:
| If you want to lose all hope, just read the top selling romance
| novels on the Kindle app. These people are raking in millions a
| year and it's just absolutely awful.
| CrzyLngPwd wrote:
| I amsure it was Jaron Lanier, in his book Who Owns The Future,
| who predicted the inevitable outcome of bots talking to bots on
| social media.
|
| He said that in 2013, and now we're in 2026, not only is it
| possible, but it's very likely.
|
| I am glad about it. I think social media, in its current ad-
| infested, addiction-fueled data-harvesting form, is pure poison.
| georgeecollins wrote:
| I really strongly recommend his book You Are Not A Gadget. He
| wrote it like fifteen years ago and it feels like he is
| describing last year. Like he's telling you about a lot of the
| problems of social media today, writing before Facebook had
| ads.
|
| Why it is worth reading is his thinking about the causes and
| outcomes is so clear. Its still useful today.
| anonymars wrote:
| Tangentially related, but while we're talking about eerily
| prescient writings, I nominate "The MADCOM [Machine-Driven
| Communication] Future: How Artificial Intelligence Will
| Enhance Computational Propaganda, Reprogram Human Culture,
| And Threaten Democracy... And What Can Be Done About It
| (2017)"
|
| From Part II: The Implications Of A MADCOM World--Three
| Scenarios For The Future:
| https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep03728.5?seq=2
|
| "Heterogeneous democracies like the United States devolve
| into perpetual conflict as adversaries use MADCOMs to
| manipulate the population, by exacerbating cultural
| differences and undermining narratives that unify the
| country. The social consensus disintegrates, and political
| opponents are labeled traitors and enemies...
|
| "The US public believes that MADCOM activities are just a
| more sophisticated form of advertising, and reflexively
| relies on appeals to free speech. In fact, there are active
| manipulation campaigns pushing these narratives to convince
| the public it isn't being manipulated at all. Any time people
| interact with an electronic device--whether a smartphone,
| augmented-reality device, or social media--their data is
| captured, their behavior is tested and recorded, and
| algorithms adapt to make devices more addictive,
| advertisements more persuasive, and propaganda more
| manipulative...
|
| "Some individuals flee to private social spaces online, but
| this reinforces their filter bubbles, exacerbating political
| polarization. A small number of people flee online social
| spaces entirely, creating a minor resurgence in offline,
| mass-market media. These information-savvy individuals are
| the least likely to be susceptible to disinformation in the
| first place, so their absence simply removes rational voices
| from the conversation. The affluent pay for the luxury of
| privacy, as brands emerge specifically targeting those who
| wish to protect their data and their cognition...
|
| "Agreed-upon facts become a relic of the past. No one knows
| what is true anymore, because expertise has been subsumed to
| the tyranny of MADCOM-manipulated public opinion. AI video-
| and speech-manipulation tools invent and revise reality on
| the fly. The only truth is what you can convince people to
| believe. The new definition of a fact is "information that
| aligns with preconceived opinions," and any contrary evidence
| is discarded as likely disinformation. The story is all that
| matters. The three-hundred- year-old Age of Enlightenment,
| based on reason and a quest for truth, ends."
|
| (Full piece: https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep03728?searchT
| ext=&searchU...)
| CrzyLngPwd wrote:
| Thank you, that looks like essential reading.
| CrzyLngPwd wrote:
| > Why it is worth reading is his thinking about the causes
| and outcomes is so clear. Its still useful today.
|
| Thank you, ordered :-)
| bluefirebrand wrote:
| > I think social media, in its current ad-infested, addiction-
| fueled data-harvesting form, is pure poison.
|
| I'm in complete agreement, but I will say that this attitude
| has left me pretty isolated as I'm getting older. For better or
| worse, most people use Social Media to stay connected so I have
| wound up pretty connectionless over time.
|
| I've been thinking about making a new Facebook account just to
| try and connect with local people playing TTRPGs, because
| that's apparently still where most of the organizing is.
| Unfortunately Facebook wants a fucking government ID now so I'm
| probably not going to do that
| chasd00 wrote:
| > connect with local people playing TTRPG
|
| even in late March '26, the bookstores and game stores
| selling TTRPG stuff in my area still have flyers for meetups
| and I live in ultra unhip/retro Dallas TX. Just go to a place
| that sells TTRPGs and look around or ask someone.
|
| now that i've posted my flippant remark. Yes, I agree
| Facebook Groups is a hub for stuff like this and most other
| hobbies. That is just a fact unfortunately.
| bluefirebrand wrote:
| I appreciate the advice, but I've done this a bunch in the
| game stores near me and there's just not very much in my
| city
| d--b wrote:
| The title is completely opposite to the content of the article.
|
| Who's falling behind? What does falling behind even mean if the
| OP doesn't care about numbers and really doesn't want to play the
| social media game?
|
| Social media as it existed is gone, because people got tired of
| it, just as they got tired of geocities and myspace before that.
|
| The new iteration is really bad, and there's a good chance people
| will get tired of it just as quickly as they got over the older
| ones.
|
| Meanwhile, let's try to ignore stupid people doing stupid things
| with AI as much as we can.
| layer8 wrote:
| The title is sarcasm.
| musha68k wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpassivity
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(page generated 2026-03-30 23:01 UTC)