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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

Conversational account. For work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian. IKEA builder.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 7 May 2019
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      It's a recurrent theme in tech criticism, and I think driven by desire to create an enemy compelling enough to motivate true believers. It is much harder to simply treat them as just regular people running regular businesses, trying to make $. Bond villains are more fun.

      2 replies 1 retweet 18 likes
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    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 7 May 2019
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      Designers are as subject to emergent dynamics as users. But let's also talk about how any particular notion of "humanistic" values is highly specific and driven by a typically bad-faith assumed consensus. I am NOT likely to agree with you about what "humanistic values" are.

      2 replies 2 retweets 14 likes
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    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 7 May 2019
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      There are going to be a 1000 different ideas of "humanistic values" that platforms "should" conform to. How do we sort them out? Maybe we need *gasp* a systemic interaction model where all actors can contend? Sure, some have more agency than others. Welcome to humanity.

      1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
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    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 7 May 2019
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      I'd rather trust my ability to surf the emergent behavior created by algorithms whose effects are only partly within the design-intention authority of owners, and figure out how to harmonize with it.

      1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
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    5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 7 May 2019
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      Don't forget: things like employment and ownership status matter far less than actual agency. A special interest group that uses shaming and pressure tactics to enforce a UI or data rights feature is just another group of engineers pushing their algorithms onto the rest of us.

      1 reply 0 retweets 9 likes
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    6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 7 May 2019
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      The fact that they are on paper "solving" for something other than money or engagement does NOT mean they are morally superior, better at designing emergent effects, or actually capable of acting in the emergent best interests of everybody.

      1 reply 3 retweets 12 likes
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    7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 7 May 2019
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      If the solution to "bad" algorithms is "good" algorithms by people who set themselves up as the arbiters of good and bad, we're right back where we started, having to decide whether or not we trust makers of algorithms. Checks and balances are nice, but there are no saints here.

      2 replies 2 retweets 12 likes
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    8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 7 May 2019
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      This is what increasingly pisses me off: the presumptive, holier-than-thou patronizing assumption that "we know better than you who is good and evil, and let us, the good guys, play policeman and rein in the capitalists, the bad guys, who only want your $ and engagement"

      5 replies 0 retweets 17 likes
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    9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 7 May 2019
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      Not all the people who do this are bad-faith grifters running protection rackets using shaming and pressure. But enough are, and they are often worse than platform execs who are at least transparently in it for market cap/stock price. They don't pretend to be messiahs saving us.

      5 replies 1 retweet 6 likes
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    10. Diane Foley‏ @Tantele 7 May 2019
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      Replying to @vgr

      Maybe your comment applies to various save the planet initiatives too?

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 7 May 2019
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      Replying to @Tantele

      Yes. I’ve been doing quite a bit of sustainability type work from the corporate side and am underwhelmed by the green grifting protection racketeering on the nonprofit side. When they’re not idiots, they’re gangsters. Maybe 1 in 10 is a worthy, effective activist.

      4:18 PM - 7 May 2019
      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
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        2. Diane Foley‏ @Tantele 8 May 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          Surprising all the emphasis on STEM education totally ignores biology or any serious study of complex living systems.

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 8 May 2019
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          Replying to @Tantele

          I think it’s just too hard and there’s not many jobs in it if you exclude healthcare

          2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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