Matt Birchler on the 99% of people lie:

People have a terrible habit of assuming “everyone” does something, when that’s simply not the case.

Everyone thinks that their perception of the world is correct. It’s only when you begin to realise that the way you look at things is nothing more than your perspective that it becomes infinitely more valuable.

The best thinkers can see things from other angles and come to open conclusions with the confidence to both defend their position and be open to new ideas.

Ben Werdmuller writing about Threads trading trust for growth:

If X has fake news, Threads is assumed to have fake views: engagement by any means necessary.

I did not know that Meta were incentivising engagement bait, but it now seems obvious. Despite my initial thoughts on liking Threads as a social network, I absolutely cannot stand to use it now. I had to write a post yesterday due to a few missed replies to my cross posted blog posts, stating as much.

Don’t get me wrong, the thirsty posts have always been there and from the very start people were insistent that you had to “train the algorithm”. Swipe away what you didn’t like and make sure you made a clear indication of what you didn’t like. Well, I am here to tell you, my friends, it makes absolutely no difference. Meta have turned the clout chasing idiots up to 422 instead of 10, and I can’t take it any more.

Turns out the constant stream of easily searchable questions, or incorrect hot takes in which the original poster never replies are funded by Meta themselves. That’s right, in an attempt to boost the platform, they are paying select accounts up to £5000 to post this crap.

Should users just choose to log out for a bit because of the constant barrage of open-ended questions with 500 replies, you can’t even get away from it on Instagram. I am inundated with “someone started a Thread” or I get red bubbles encouraging me to log in and read all the replies. Only to be treated by these useless things.

What am I supposed to do with that information exactly? Jump up and down with glee? Try harder for that hit of dopamine? No thanks, I am out.

Habib writing about their version of social media brain

Instead of scanning my surroundings for something relatable to turn into a social media post, I pay attention to blog posts and articles I read on the web. I’m constantly looking for anything of relevance that triggers and sparks my thinking into jotting down whatever thoughts I may have to add to the conversation.

I know exactly what Habib is writing about here. I no longer break my world down into 280 characters sized bites as I did when I used Twitter — but I do often squeeze it into blog posts.

The great thing is, blog posts can be anything from a few words to thousands of them. Which gives me much of freedom to think about the things I want to say rather than attempting to paint a vivid picture of the complex work in a bite side chunk.

Thinking is one of my very favourite things to do, and if it is accompanied by a notebook or a blank Apple Note, then I enjoy it even more. What you see on my blog is the output of thinking and as Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living”. Having a blog and thinking about the world in which to publish to it is something everyone should have.

Manuel Moreale thinking about the differences between hobbies and side projects:

A hobby is something one does for themselves. This blog is a hobby. I write on it because I find it enjoyable and the primary user is myself. And since it’s a hobby, money is not taken into consideration because I’m expected to pay for my hobbies.

Agree with this completely, I don’t expect to get anything back from writing, and I do it for myself much more than I do it for other people. Sure, I love people reading and responding to the things I publish, but it’s my hobby, so I’m not focused on it. Like running or cycling is to some people, they may progress into races and competitions, it’s still something you enjoy doing for free.

Where most people start to worry is when it creeps towards the territory of marking money. They start to worry about losing that money, and the pressure of publishing starts to build. Been there, done that, and it almost ruined my hobby.

A side project is a bit different. The way I see it, the users of a side project don’t necessarily overlap with the creator. That’s for example the case of People and Blogs. P&B is not a hobby but a side project. The goal is to make something not for myself, but for others.

I tend to pick up and put down side projects, most of which revolve around my blog. Due to not achieving what I set my goals to be, and this is often the difference between the two things for me.

For instance, I view my podcast, YouTube, and the now folded newsletter very much as side projects. They didn’t achieve the traction I wanted, so I have no problem stopping doing them (although my podcast will return soon).