The Algorithm's Obsession with Tawdry Crap is Destroying America
It is one thing to dislike Elon Musk. It is another for a lazy take to be Google's top recommendation.
There is no news1 again this week.
We were going to run “corrections and apologies”, but have decided to wait until the final edition of the week’s news for that. Instead, it appears the theme for the week is emptiness2.
The likely change for the Newsletter: Year 2 will be to run the tisatsar‘s news. every 19 days. perhaps at that frequency we will not have to skip issues.
In lieu of the week’s news, a rant about Google, Business Insider, and how the algorithm’s love for tawdry crap is destroying America.
I have an Android phone, and the Chrome web browser shows “recommended links” when I open a new tab.
Last night, the top recommended link was from Business Insider: Recruiters at major companies like Amazon are going after Tesla employees angered by Elon Musk's return-to-office demand: 'If the Emperor of Mars doesn't want you, I'll be happy to bring you over'
Tesla workers might not have to return to the office after all — if they're willing to jump ship.
On Thursday, tech recruiters put out calls to Elon Musk's employees who might be looking to dodge his return-to-work edict.
On Thursday, {name redacted}, who identifies himself as a technical recruiting leader at Amazon Web Services on LinkedIn, issued a call for disgruntled Tesla engineers to join the tech giant.
"If the Emperor of Mars doesn't want you, I'll be happy to bring you over to #AWS," {…} wrote on LinkedIn, referencing Musk's fixation with colonizing Mars.
First: yes, that is a headline over 30 words in length. By comparison, The Office (US TV series) made a joke about the excessive length of an eighteen-word3 headline.
Second: this presents itself as a news story, but it isn’t. It is a few hundred words of churnalism, summarizing two LinkedIn posts from recruiters. One of them was deleted by the poster before this “article” was published, having presumably realized it was ineffective and in bad taste. The other was deleted in the day-or-so after the “article” was published.
Third: no, that’s really the entirety of the message. There is no there there. Just a prominent so-called “news website” posting private individuals’ social networking posts. Posts with no particular newsworthiness. Posts that those individuals have deleted.
Alas, that is what the algorithm thinks is the best link to recommend. A narrative looking for evidence. And that narrative isn’t even a narrative, it is just “noun + verb + Elon Musk bad”.
the Newslettr’s editorial standards would not allow for such crap. However, apparently Business Insider has no standards, and no decency. And for their depravity, they are rewarded by the algorithm as the top recommendation.
And since we clicked on the link, the algorithm presumably has concluded that it is working as desired, and the algorithm will continue to destroy America.
We could probably go into settings and turn Business Insider off as a source. A few months ago, we did that for Coindesk after the volume of crypto-bullshit in the “recommended” feed became intolerable.
But the Newslettr cannot turn this off for everybody. This content is bad, and Google should feel bad for promoting it. To borrow a phrase from Ralph Nader, it is unsafe at any speed. It has no redeeming value for anyone. No sane person would recommend it. But we are not dealing with a sane person, we are dealing with an insane algorithm.
Please4 make it stop.
More specifically, there is the same news this week as there was last week. Which means it isn’t new at all.
A koan: what is the difference between emptiness and nothingness?
“Scranton Area Paper Company, Dunder Mifflin, Apologizes to Valued Client; Some Companies Still Know How Business is Done”
the Newslettr would not mind if somebody posted this to *-misc.