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backus's profile
John Backus
John Backus
John Backus
@backus

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John Backus

@backus

Seeking alternative compression. Hopefully wrong on average. Shameless. Started @getcognito and @bloom

San Francisco, CA
Joined August 2012

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    1. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 17

      It's hard to model motivations of many internet archetypes: open source, reddit mods, warez scene Theory: We're trending towards more people defining their in-groups (values, beliefs, interests) via the internet. How avg person views personal growth will become less predictable.

      2 replies 2 retweets 17 likes
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      John Backus‏ @backus Jul 17

      Consequence is we'll be baffled by trends built on uniform assumptions about individual incentives. Ex: why are young men not looking for work? This is prob the biggest demographic where in-groups are varying more b/c of internet. The way they're differentiating is illegible

      4:11 PM - 17 Jul 2018
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      3 replies 0 retweets 7 likes
        1. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 17

          You could independently explore and expand your values, beliefs, and interests before the internet of course (books, magazines, radio) but this is more centrally organized (restricting depth and breadth) and mainly 1-way (meaning it is lonelier than internet communities)

          0 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
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        2. Sam λ‏ @smarky7CD Jul 17
          Replying to @backus

          Is is correct to extrapolate that you are implying the internet is making people far less individualistic and more focused on a group identity?

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 17
          Replying to @smarky7CD

          I'm saying personal identity is based around a set of values, beliefs, and interests (which can be individualistic or group-oriented). The internet allows people to explore arbitrarily deep, so the average person can diverge much more from the people they know IRL

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        4. Sam λ‏ @smarky7CD Jul 17
          Replying to @backus

          Do you think this divergence will have a net negative social effect?

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        5. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 17
          Replying to @smarky7CD

          I think it is good, but I don’t have strong conviction. Assuming that expanding into more niches individually will result in more intellectual diversity in general

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
        6. End of conversation
        1. New conversation
        2. swyx  🇸🇬‏ @swyx Jul 17
          Replying to @backus

          what are the stats on “young men not looking for work”? i keep hearing this but find it hard to believe. sure some get addicted to gaming or whatever but sheer economic imperative should still apply to vast majority?

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 17
          Replying to @swyx

          I can't remember where I originally read it, I just know that @tylercowen brings it up a lot. Links: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2016/07/what-are-young-men-doing.html …https://youtu.be/WWrwCiM4rUM 

          1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
        4. swyx  🇸🇬‏ @swyx Jul 17
          Replying to @backus @tylercowen

          thanks for that. i admit i am running mainly on intuition on this and tyler probably has far better facts. giving this a watch

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
        5. End of conversation

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