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The main reason text is hanging on is that it’s still too hard to make other media random-access and serially skimmable at the same time. Things like TikTok attempt to hit that balance of affordances with video but are forced to give up determinism to make it work.
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In the last year I think I stopped thinking of myself as a writer (always a very uncomfortable fit for me... it’s always been mostly an instrumental behavior for thinking and self-entertainment for me). I think I sometimes write well, but am not primarily a Writer.
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Hmm. Hyperlinked webs of short videos might work. Not Bandersnatch type long-form choose your own adventures or YouTube reco trails. More like ultrashort episodic tv with high-resolution skip patterns. Smart fast-forward/rewind basically. Partial order narrative.
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Imo it's also an encoding/compression/transmission accuracy class of problem. Video always slower to consume, less nuanced and more easily misunderstood for me. The hyperlinked-short-videos thing helps, but still nowhere close to text for me.
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Actually, this seems like how some ppl I’m interacting w/ on construction sites in China watch TV (via services like aiqiyi). The shows are long and have narrative (but suck) - everyone watches only the best ~1-5min clips