If I Only Had a Brain
What good is experience if we avoid using it? I'm going to search for the remote control and a functioning mute button.
No Regrets
During my short experiment so far on Substack with writing, I tried to stay focused on the why, where, and how. The where was easy as the more time I spent on Substack, the more I was glad I landed here. I am going to step away for a while and begin to pursue a backup option. I hope to discover a way to peacefully coexist on the platform. I also know hope is not a plan. I was homing in on 200 posts and thought that was just over the horizon. When I started writing I never imagined I had 200 posts in me. At more than 2000 words per post that’s closing in on half a million words — who knew!
The Journey
I started the adventure in Oct 2021. In between then and now I took a three-month break. The break was valuable as I think it is always worthwhile to purposefully examine our plan and change it if necessary. I have frequently flirted in my writing with the paradigm of humanity having two brains. Oh, joy! The joy and value of a brain were captured in the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz.
My Fears
It is fashionable to fret and argue over what is going on with Artificial Intelligence. Will there be a place for us? I am not too concerned about it. I worry much more about the vast number of people who polish their view of the world on Social Media. I believe both silicon and old-fashioned brain tissue learn by reinforcement. The type of reinforcement governs the steady state of what becomes of individual intelligence. My sense is we have little to fear and much to celebrate for any AI that sources its learning from front brain stuff. I figure our primitive lizard brain, best built for impulse, fear and the like is much more dangerous than a slab of silicon reinforced with facts and insight. The world does not need more lizards, at least the ones walking upright. I would imagine most human misery starts in the back of our heads.
The Path I Fear
The journey on Substack was a blast. It was a reader and writer interchange. Largely a front-brain affair. Most social media is lizard brain stuff — the impulse to please you, scare you, divert you, and keep you clicking. The path is rapid to turning you into a trans activist or a Trump flag wielder. Having developed a belief about either of these two things is no crime or tragedy — it is more about the road to your destination. Arriving as an absolutist is the danger. No one starts out this way. Once they arrive in their dark well, the way out is treacherous. The fast track is fear, anger, and grievance. I know we never make it to adulthood without our lizard brains. It is a fast twitch and keeps us safe. I most assuredly know I am not smarter or more insightful than anyone else. However, what my journey beyond Facebook and Twitter has informed me is I have been lucky enough to get a bit of reinforcement learning that CAN inform my future if I block out my impulse.
Reinforcement Is Neutral
Here is where I differ from some. Google Search is a weird reinforcer, unlike places like Facebook. If the questions you are asking originate in the front, its reinforcement will stay there. I believe the algorithm on Google provides options for positive reinforcement. You can easily end up firing your primitive lizard on Google/YouTube JUST AS EASILY — the difference is you have a choice and it starts with you AND the questions you ask — what do you seek? My sense and experience are FB/IG/Twitter operate in the realm of the lizard. The Newsfeed regardless of your reason for visiting is rarely positive. It is no accident or coincidence that Meta and many other platforms purpose-built for Social Media don’t have products like Books, Scholar, Patents, Arts & Culture, Earth, and myriad others— they are fighting for your lizard’s attention 24/7. They are exclusively selling something, and the product is likely you.
Substack 1.0 Exits
I am CONFIDENT, ala Netflix that if Substack recommended writing based on what I already read, we could remain in the realm of the front brain (joyful for me). What I think they have chosen is the easier, addictive path of unrelated dross with Substack Notes. The tractor-beam effect of Facebook and Twitter was difficult to break for me. That is the nature of our impulsive selves hardwired in. This is not a place I willingly go to anymore. It is too negative and detrimental to me. I want to stress that many have seemed to adapt just fine — hooray for some human beings.
I May Be Mistaken
The joy of Substack was the writing I discovered. I will not leave without contemplation. I think, for now, two to four weeks is enough time to observe the direction the Substack environment moves toward. A bit of background in the mathematics of hierarchies and hop networks makes me confident the algorithm will be well on its way toward its destination. I am sure there will remain lots of optimists exclaiming what Notes becomes “is up to us”! Alas, this is the nature of reinforcement learning. Just like the real thing in our heads, once a path is blazed, it becomes inordinately difficult to blaze a new and different path. The volume and tenor are the destiny of reinforcement learning. It is why ideas developed early in our lives are nearly impossible to leave behind despite new evidence. The decisions of the Substack founders and the behavior of the users and most importantly the CONSCIOUS CHANGES leadership enforces in the algorithm will dictate what sort of place Substack will become. I am rooting for the front brain. I fear Substack is choosing to emulate the Social Media of the past. I even noted a running change wherein you can send your comments on a Newsletter to two separate places, echoing your comment to the SM analog in Notes. I would imagine some would call this refining the behavior of Notes. For me, it seems undue amplification and replication. Who can resist the little checkbox — my guess is most will not. Presumably, the convenience is getting comments and likes in a regime where people didn’t even read the post — that seems viral not thoughtful.
What’s Right For Me
This will be my last post for a while. I am going to experiment with removing my subscriptions. My hope is I can see if it is POSSIBLE to restart my experience on Substack. What is the pivotal subscription, if any, that turns my experience into garbage? Can I tolerate it? Can I be cool with doing this to others whose only sin was to make a Substack account perhaps to make reading my stuff easier? My subscriptions were governed by what made me smile and think. This experiment will hopefully guide which of the subscriptions now come loaded with nonsense I want to live without. If the algorithm, as described by the Founders, is as transparent as they have described it, perhaps it truly is JUST ABOUT who I subscribe to. If that is the case, it follows that zero subscriptions will mean ZERO NOISE and that seems easy to test. I hope that is the case. I have already seen pictures of food, cats, dogs, and firm statements to stop what I’m doing and read some random nonsense on Notes. This period is all about finding out if the management has included a volume control. I hope I can find the dial.
Thank You
The list below is incomplete. I have read and enjoyed lots more than these but these were the consistent highlights. Take a peek at one or more during my interlude. I will at last briefly UnSubscribe from each of these so do your part to keep their numbers in the stratosphere. While incomplete, this journey will be a drag to leave because of:
| Alex Dobrenko — Both Are True |
| Michael Estrin — Situation Normal |
| Gayla Gray — So Novelicious |
| Stephanie Losi — Risk Musings |
Most of all I want to thank those who subscribed, occasionally squatted and otherwise supported the new hobby of writing for me. To the small group of you who consistently read and share your impressions, it was a great help to me. I will continue to write but for now only for me for a while. I hope to experiment with writing occasionally for a Newsletter and maybe even for a newfound passion called CommonEarth.com if they will have me.
To those I subscribe to, don’t take the UnSubscribe personally. I am just seeking to find out where the noise of Substack 2.0 comes from. If I can turn it off or at least throttle it, that will be nice. Substack Notes, even at its most innocuous certainly splits the one thing I bring when I check in — the gift of time. It seems inevitable, by virtue of another shiny object, it will make cultivating the writer-reader relationship just a little harder. It seems natural it will conversely amplify the popular destinations. That is not surprising as we all know what the rise of influencers is on all Social Media. I do not take it personally, hierarchy structured hop-based networks do this. It is just math and is not personal. It is likely Substack 2.0 may not be a place for me.
No poll tonight as this is just figuring out something for myself.
One Last Song
Take me home Jim Morrison
Replying to Sea who posted to Notes. Consistent with my POV that Notes is dilution, here is Sea's comment which I thought to be great and thoughtful:
I agree. It is a “red flag.” With the introduction of “notes,“ I feel I’m treading a well worn path. I’ve had to turn off my notifications just to think. I said I would post 52 original songs over the same amount of weeks, so I will keep my promise. But, in the short time I’ve been with Substack, they’ve added “chat,” and now “notes.” These changes are worrying, as it pushes more and more writers towards “paid subscriptions only” to silence the beast, which, I feel, is the intent of the founders.
In a perfect world they might veer back towards more personal interactions, but going back…?
Once again, I feel like an old timer, in wish of a pencil, paper, and the taste of a stamp. I need a walk to my mailbox; it is there I’ll raise the only “red flag” I KNOW someone will notice.
Of course, I hope you’ll stay, but I completely understand your decision. I’m still sorting out how I feel about Notes.