The algorithm
«The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.»
— Jeff Hammerbacher, one of Facebook's first engineers
We are at the mercy of the algorithm, and we need to carve out spaces to defend our right to choose the ideas that govern what we do.
The smartphone promised to give that right back to us. Instead of a handful of TV and press magnates setting the agenda —what gets argued about in bars and public squares, what winds us up, what entertains us and feeds our most tabloid gossip—, we were going to own our feed. Anyone who wanted to confirm their biases with their favourite outlet could carry on doing so; anyone who wanted to dig and cross-check could do that too. Each of us free to choose how to be entertained and what information to consume.
What are we actually after when we spend our time consuming content?
The algorithm's goal is to hook you. To rack up hours inside its app so it can serve you more ads and make more money. Not to inform you, or move you, or make you wiser or fairer: to make you an addict, for its own benefit.
«The smartphone really revolutionized the waiting room. Oh, I get 20 minutes to look at my phone? Don't mind if I do. The only problem is sometimes when I'm looking at my phone at home, my home starts to feel like a waiting room, and I realize it is, and I'm just waiting to die.»
— @octopuscaveman
el índice
But everything has its flip side, and this is no exception. That same hook that alienates us is what gives us an unmatched power: connecting with like-minded people regardless of their age, where they were born, their language (!) or the cultural barriers that used to shrink debate down to our tribe or our village.
Used well, social networks are doors onto infinite knowledge. Artists you would never have seen, blogs you would never have read, poems that would never have moved you if these nodes connecting all of humanity didn't exist.
Against the alienating reels I never chose to see on my screen, we have to rebel against the people running this rubbish that steals — how much? — two, three, four, five hours of our day. That's why I want to share this list of works that shape my head and govern my thoughts: ideas and concepts that are curated, well argued, deep and, with luck, told masterfully. To make us dream, and to hand back the reins of what enters our brain and therefore of our life.
«With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux.»
— Bertrand Russell, Autobiography
Who I am
I'm Pepe Compagni, a 30-year-old Andalusian. I studied Journalism and International Relations. I like reading, history, popular science, entrepreneurs, dark humour, philosophy, parties that last more than one day, chess, good music, politics, trekking, free tours, commentating on rugby matches, when power fragments and won't fit into a few hands, sales, CrossFit, beach volleyball, waking up late and eating with two spoons.
I work at Docensas, a family business project that aims to improve vocational training through smart use of technological advances.