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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 Nov 16
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      Here’s why I think we’re in some sort of dark age: It’s become harder to spot stars and constellations in the zeitgeist to navigate by. I don’t mean memes like “jealous boyfriend.” I mean broad themes like sociopathy or premium mediocrity that are all over zeitgeist for a while.

      4 replies 1 retweet 26 likes
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    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 16
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      I’m getting older but I don’t think I’m losing my edge when it comes to spotting zeitgeist constellations. In fact I’ve kept up my production rate of 1 big one every year or two. But it’s getting harder. There are thicker clouds. There are vast patches of “dark memetic matter.”

      2 replies 0 retweets 16 likes
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    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 16
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      There’s a lot of stuff, but it Durant cohere into broad macro sweeps the way it used to. Instead it is dark, soupy chaos. As a personal experience what I called the Great Weirding is not do much a new pattern but a pattern void.

      1 reply 0 retweets 16 likes
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    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 16
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      There are fewer patterns and they’re harder to spot. This acts as a self-reinforcing thing because fewer people then navigate by those patterns. And the few patterns that ARE spotted tend to attract unreasonable overindexing attention.

      1 reply 0 retweets 15 likes
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    5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 16
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      My 2-3 big calls in the last few years (premium mediocre, internet of beefs, domestic cozy) have attracted imo like 3x more attention than they would have in 2012, adjusting for me being better known. When there sky is hazy or light polluted, only the clearest constellations pop.

      1 reply 0 retweets 14 likes
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    6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 16
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      This is literally true. Go into the countryside on a dark clear night. “Easy” constellations like the Big Dipper and Orion will be harder to spot than in a light polluted city because there’s so much more going on. You can even see Milky Way (many urban dwellers don’t know this)

      3 replies 0 retweets 9 likes
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    7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 16
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      I think, like the Voyager, we’re in a narrative dark patch. Most people are not consciously sensitive to this stuff since they’re not in the business of memetic constellation hunting. But they sense the macrodark and respond with stress.

      1 reply 0 retweets 19 likes
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    8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 16
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      Initially I thought I was getting old, or just not in tune with moods. Maybe I’m just better at spotting the satire-eye patterns in an optimistic age. But I don’t think so. I don’t see anybody doing it well now. There were dozens of us churning this stuff out 6-7 years ago.

      1 reply 0 retweets 11 likes
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    9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 16
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      Younger and presumably more plugged-in people are increasingly not even bothering to try at the macro scale. They’re strategically focusing on the meso and micro scales. Local weather so to speak. Or even just turning inwards. Cozy web, dark forest, whatever you choose to call it

      4 replies 0 retweets 12 likes
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    10. Rich‏ @richggall Nov 16
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      Replying to @vgr

      I don’t think this is true... from black lives matter to tech and media unionisation, young people are actively shaping large scale narratives

      2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 16
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      Replying to @richggall

      These are missions you’re talking about, not sense-making/meaning-making patterns.

      11:27 PM - 16 Nov 2020
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        2. Rich‏ @richggall Nov 16
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          Replying to @vgr

          But missions don’t just come out of the ether - they’re founded on collective sense-making and convincing interpretations of “how things are”

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 16
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          Replying to @richggall

          Subtleties here I don’t want to get into, but we’re definitely not talking about the same thing.

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
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