r/TrueReddit • u/LeoKhomenko • 6d ago
Technology The Internet Is Broken
https://commonstragedy.substack.com/p/the-internet-is-broken29
u/LeoKhomenko 6d ago edited 6d ago
Submission statement: Relevant here because it’s a systems-level analysis tying Big Tech’s incentives (ads, lock-in, bundling, platform taxes) to concrete user harms. Then asks whether the AI wave actually flips those incentives or entrenches them. Insightful because it names specific mechanisms and sets testable predictions, inviting evidence-based debate on the levers that matter.
(I'm the author of the post and the link goes to my Substack)
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u/BoxNemo 6d ago
Would also be polite to mention that it's your own substack you're linking to and you wrote the article.
I appreciate you trying to dodge the "We prefer you not post your own content" rule, though.
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u/LeoKhomenko 6d ago
My bad, I didn't intend to hide it, I just didn't realize I needed to explicitly state it in the submission statement
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u/10yearbang 5d ago
Not that it matters, but I'm a guy who has been one of the many 'silent readers' on TrueReddit for a long, long time. Probably since the start and I barely, if ever, comment.
I legitimately hate when someone posts their own content. It's very against the spirit of this subreddit. And they never, ever post anything interesting.
Who describes their own work as 'insightful'? What kind of scientific author writes 'inviting evidence-based debate on the levers that matter'?
Evidence-based debate? Individuals who take themselves seriously only ever engage in evidence-based debate. Anything else is conjecture, fancy, imagination and fantasy. All very fun, all very useful to the human experience but they have no place in serious conversation.
Correct. I didn't make a single effort to read your nonsense because the summary is so vapid and lacking in content I decided to write this emotional response instead.
I don't want more slop written by AI with these fucking buzzwords, Mods. I'm not an important member and I don't contribute but I am not the only user on TrueReddit who is SICK AND TIRED OF THESE NAVEL GAZING SELF POSTS ON SUBSTACK.
Ban this bullshit.
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u/LeoKhomenko 5d ago
I agree it's a kinda bad summary, I'll try to do better next time. I just don't understand why posting smth you wrote is not welcomed here.
What is the difference between an article by journalist vs a standalone blog? Like I'm not selling you anything or promoting some company. I'm just looking for people who want to read my thoughts and discuss my ideas. What's wrong with that?
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u/10yearbang 5d ago edited 5d ago
It is insane I am participating in this tired old argument with yet one more internet stranger who seems to have misunderstood how the entire catalogue of scientific information we call 'knowledge' was put together. I am certain that nothing you have written is unique, interesting or consequential in any way, to any one, ever. I mean every word that that sentence.
Now you're going to make me prove that your ideas are not worthy of consideration, don't say a brother didn't warn you;
Here's how I know that
Title: The Internet Is Broken
My Thoughts: Ah, just like Kim Kardashian and Nikki Benz and everyone else broke the internet, one more fool on Substack thinks this is catchy and cool. The person who wrote this document understands that their title might be the most important thing to their relevancy. In a world awash with inane bullshit, you gotta be catchy and 'The Internet Is Broken' was their best shot? They obviously didn't think long or hard about that and they certainly didn't do any googling to figure out how their Signal is going to get lost in all the Noise surrounding The Internet is Broken.
Summary: Relevant here because it’s a systems-level analysis tying Big Tech’s incentives (ads, lock-in, bundling, platform taxes) to concrete user harms. Then asks whether the AI wave actually flips those incentives or entrenches them. Insightful because it names specific mechanisms and sets testable predictions, inviting evidence-based debate on the levers that matter.
My Thoughts: I don't really know what you're saying. I think it's 'big tech sucks. Will AI fix it?'. I have seen zero evidence that AI is fixing anything. It shows some promise, but one more masturbatory article regarding the titanic battle of Evil Google and MyBoyfriendisAI gets me to react as I did earlier. I've got this far so I paused respond at this exact second and I attempted to read your article.
Summary of Actual Article Reading Experience: Technology has stagnated and we haven't done anything interesting since Steve Jobs (wrong. the first iPhone is the same shape as the current gen and nothing else. What a bad take). Capital is chasing AI (boring, this is everywhere). This is where I really begin to start scrolling and ignoring you. I read your title - sucks - read your summary -don't really know what I'm about to read - reading your article - I'm bored and it's the same old trite bullshit everyone else is chatGPT'ing together. I keep scrolling - tech is evil, zooming in on specific criminals - what is the point of this article? I hope the conclusion sticks it.
Holy shit, the conclusion is the same as the rest of this junk. It ends up two questions it never really tackles. Two questions that it actually answered , embarrassingly enough
What's sustaining the old economy and Big Tech Dominance?
How exactly will the advancement of AI reshape these conditions?
I'm going to quote you:
"Two years ago, authorities from 17 states filed a lawsuit against Amazon for systematically suppressing competition"
That's how. It's right there. You (chatGPT?) wrote this fucking thing and you're asking questions at the end that the body answered. Dig into this part, let's see how deep the rot goes. that's an interesting article.
Same for #2, but you gotta work a little harder with what you've laid out.
Look at your Y Combinator graph. 66% of the money is somehow tied to AI. Do you think people who have money are interested in making more money, or donating this insanely expensive technology for the purposes of good? Didn't I just finish reading the Litany of Evil? Isn't their evidence aplenty that, at least so far, we've completely fucked up our technological process in the name of greed and watching thirst trap TikTok videos? Didn't some asshole just rent an entire historical location for a wedding? Get this a little more organized and punchy and it's an article too.
My Summary: The title was uninspired, uninteresting and unrelated to the article. Your own summary was somehow worse than the title. The article itself is confused and very obviously has been edited by no one. I don't even know how to interpret your tone. Is this a journal entry? Am I supposed to view with this any kind of academic rigour at all? Was I supposed to have fun or be horrified? I honestly don't know.
Now I get to do the Finishing Move - you wrote this entirely with AI, didn't you? It feels like AI to me and your summary was so far removed from the content of your article I am certain that's AI too.
That's why it sucks. That's why this shit can't be on here. Because I'm a busy man who has many, many other things I should be attending to and your fucking AI articles are making TrueReddit a shittier, more polluted community.
I interact with social media for ~30 mins a day and I spent my whole wad typing out this OLD SCHOOL NO AI response. Because for some reason I cannot shake the foolish notion that if I can get even one of you self obsessed assholes to fuck off and do something of consequence this will have all been worthwhile.
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u/10yearbang 4d ago
See? You pop off with your whining the second I say your outputs are nonsense with "wah wah wah why am I not being taken seriously".
So I provide a serious response.
Now you're silent, as I knew you would be when I made my first post.
People who have informed themselves enough to take a reasoned stance are prepared to defend their information. You are not and it is obvious at this point.
I'm not bring cruel or vindictive here. I am trying to illustrate to you what Real Information looks like, what the expectations surrounding discussing Real Information are and how, for those of us who take our conduct and statements seriously, you are an obvious fraud who has taken the most cursory glance at availible information and declared yourself an expert.
that's Why all of us here at TrueReddit so vehemently defend this corner of the internet.
There's enough AI bullshit everywhere else, we're trying to engage in productive conversation.
Last thing then I'm going to leave you alone - no, firing back with "ok smart guy you give us the answers" isn't going to play either. I haven't made incredible claims and so the onus of incredible evidence is on you, specifically.
See why we don't pipe up unless we are certain we can add something to the conversation? It just ends up with us being embarrassed with our conduct and shamed in the larger community.
Instead, take a few minutes and read some of the great thought provoking articles and discussion availible here. It's worth protecting.
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u/Measure76 5d ago
This is going a long way to demonstrate enshittification.
I don't know if there's a way out of what the internet has become, but it sure does suck right now... Even reddit is getting worse. Still the only social platform I use daily though.
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u/jjfs85 5d ago
This author has clearly bought into the LLM bullshit hype fest. This is all just a bubble that'll burst. LLMs will stick around as just another tool in our toolbelts in the long run. In my every day life, I'm seeing at most a 25% boost to productivity using garden variety generative AI. This doesn't really fit the bill of TrueReddit for me.
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u/NorthDakota 4d ago
What do you do that you get that kind of boost to your productivity
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u/jjfs85 4d ago
I use it to assist with complex script writing. I improve and automate collaborative development systems for a large community of software developers. On occasion it's incredibly useful, but sometimes it's a big time waster that produces useless garbage. On a good day it's a 25% boost.
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u/NorthDakota 3d ago
Wow! That sounds impressive. When I hear about people with jobs like that in software development or any other technical field I am just so jealous. I always wanted to do that sort of thing, and I'm strongly interested in writing code and things like that, but as far as I've ever gone is a year of comp sci and writing mods for various games throughout my life, and I was really into writing html to build dragonball websites in the 90s lol. I keep thinking about going back or trying to switch from what I'm doing now but I keep hearing that it's an awful time to do that.
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u/LeoKhomenko 4d ago
25% seems like a very big productivity boost.
I think it's too early to say with this level of confidence if it's a bubble or not. There is still a possibility of an agent capabilities growing, meaning some of the tasks might be automated.
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u/EggnogThot 4d ago
posts "the internet is dead" on a website that goes out of its way to cater to white supremacists and fascists doesn't let anyone know he's the one that wrote the article he posted
Yeah the internet is indeed broken
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