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20 guys walking down a street in new york: all wearing doc martens and jorts, wafting vanilla down the block, a book in one hand and a matcha in the other. what the fuck? is this really them? am i really me? or are we just molded this way?
naturally, the desire to be liked by others can overpower us â whether itâs subtle code-switching or even picking up new hobbies. especially now, weâre more exposed to trends than ever. and when you see millions of people liking a video about a certain shoe, what else can your weird, molded brain think except, âif i had these shoes, people would think iâm coolâ?
but while iâm sifting through microtrends, the same little brain worm burrows into my noggin and asks me: âwhat would i have been like, if i wasnât exposed to any social media? to any outside opinions?â
this question scares me. i really love writing â but would i have started if i hadnât been shown videos about it? where, and who, would i be without the influence of these algorithms? but i think thatâs unrealistic to imagine. weâre well into the age of technology, and itâs hard to avoid.
so what can we do?
what if we just put the phone down for a few months?
get shoes that actually feel good. smell everything and find a scent you like â even if you look like a weirdo sniffing objects. find what you love and love to be. learn how to live outside the grasp of an algorithm and in the wet, wrinkly arms of your brain. iâll be doing it too.
naturally, the desire to be liked by others can overpower us â whether itâs subtle code-switching or even picking up new hobbies. especially now, weâre more exposed to trends than ever. and when you see millions of people liking a video about a certain shoe, what else can your weird, molded brain think except, âif i had these shoes, people would think iâm coolâ?
but while iâm sifting through microtrends, the same little brain worm burrows into my noggin and asks me: âwhat would i have been like, if i wasnât exposed to any social media? to any outside opinions?â
this question scares me. i really love writing â but would i have started if i hadnât been shown videos about it? where, and who, would i be without the influence of these algorithms? but i think thatâs unrealistic to imagine. weâre well into the age of technology, and itâs hard to avoid.
so what can we do?
what if we just put the phone down for a few months?
get shoes that actually feel good. smell everything and find a scent you like â even if you look like a weirdo sniffing objects. find what you love and love to be. learn how to live outside the grasp of an algorithm and in the wet, wrinkly arms of your brain. iâll be doing it too.
Jun 23, 2025
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i'm always getting too bleak about technology and AI, about the brain rot and disassociation and spiraling out and general cognitive decline we're all experiencing, that will only continue to worsen with time. but this essay gave me some hope
âDo you see a way out?â âYeah, I mean .â.â. Iâm not in the business of saving the world, but it would definitely be a better and more interesting place if more people were involved in making these things. Thatâs the fundamental thing: that if more software, more buildings, more social spaces, and more everything were designed by more people, of course it would produce a more interesting and better world! ...One of Stafford Beerâs more famous and brilliant phrases was âPOSIWID,â which stands for âthe purpose of the system is what it does.â Itâs a kind of maxim of cybernetics. And itâs very good for diagnosing systems. Instead of saying, Oh, we have a democratic system, we have an education system, you say, The purpose of the system is what it does. And what our society produces is people who are undereducated, or just educated enough to perform specific tasksâthe way to get a good education is to study something that has this high economic value. Apart from that, you are pretty fucked. The purpose of the system is to reproduce the existing power dynamics of that system again and again. That is what it does. Society has no interest in educating you in how technology works. Because then you make your own technology, and you make different technology, and you upset the economic power balance and so forth. But it is doable, and people are doing it all the time. You can do it yourself.â
âDo you see a way out?â âYeah, I mean .â.â. Iâm not in the business of saving the world, but it would definitely be a better and more interesting place if more people were involved in making these things. Thatâs the fundamental thing: that if more software, more buildings, more social spaces, and more everything were designed by more people, of course it would produce a more interesting and better world! ...One of Stafford Beerâs more famous and brilliant phrases was âPOSIWID,â which stands for âthe purpose of the system is what it does.â Itâs a kind of maxim of cybernetics. And itâs very good for diagnosing systems. Instead of saying, Oh, we have a democratic system, we have an education system, you say, The purpose of the system is what it does. And what our society produces is people who are undereducated, or just educated enough to perform specific tasksâthe way to get a good education is to study something that has this high economic value. Apart from that, you are pretty fucked. The purpose of the system is to reproduce the existing power dynamics of that system again and again. That is what it does. Society has no interest in educating you in how technology works. Because then you make your own technology, and you make different technology, and you upset the economic power balance and so forth. But it is doable, and people are doing it all the time. You can do it yourself.â
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đŻI have some subscriptions expiring soon that I canât financially justify anymore so Iâm on that article grind and for I suppose sadomasochistic reason many of these articles have been about ai and I simply canât get behind these overeducated assholes proposing it has any humane, beneficial qualities at all. (It is quite literally inhuman.) the main argument always seems to be efficiency or offloading the emotional labor of navigating your own life and an argument that essentially boils down to âfuck the elderly and disabled leave them alone isolated in their homes or institutions with their screens and an algorithm fed on bigoted rhetoric that hates themâ. You have to keep the whimsy to remember the time ai saves you is worth nothing if it keeps you from your friends and family and passions and general Ă©lan vital. (Also that nothing is worth the environmental racism, air pollution, and quickening towards the water wars necessitated by data processing centers.) in the scope of universal relativity, the laws of physics, space and time, string theory probably, it is a miracle that any of our consciousnesses have been realized as a tangible collection of cells cloaked in flesh moving around on the single life sustaining planet we know of among one another, each individual their own fantastical miracle at the crosshairs of time and space. That you are ever anywhere with another person has cosmic implications. Whimsy and recognizing the secular miracle of existing is what makes it all mean anything. They want us to forget our miracle of being and sign our time and eyesight over to the ai that further resigns you to the hustle culture normalizing three jobs to afford food and shelter. Mortality makes your life mean something but death in itself is meaningless. It is cruel and random. Itâs the life that matters, not the moment it ceases.Take that hammer for your brothers and sisters, remember however gooey you feel inside is the same solubility everyone always feels shifting inside, and it is that persistent threat of dissolution and navigating the slick tumbleweed in each of us that makes us human, that keeps the poets employed. The confusion of being alive is paramount to the human condition, and the clinical precision of ai obfuscates the beauty of being alive with other people. If you prick us we bleed! Heaven is each other, etc. Reject binary codes and techno-fascist yes-men. Iâll show you my ooz and you might see yourself in the leaking I canât contain. Maybe we can ooze together in a Francis Bacon, Queer (2024) sort of way.
4d ago
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đ°anyone on pi.fyi will likely feel seen and heard when reading this. it basically accentuates all the redundancies and senseless aspects of social media and how itâs disrupted every industry and how we are all dominated by the algorithm and have to be our own hype person. i always feel like an idiot after i finish a record or a book that i'm really excited to share with the world, but then have to think about âcontentâ to promote the art itself. obviously pi.fyi feels likes a refreshing beacon of hope because artists can share their work here in a far more simple and wholesome manner. the article also addresses non-creative jobs like accountants and other professions that are all being forced to become an âinfluencerâ of some sort or build a brand. itâs spooky, yet weâre all feeling the fatigue so hopefully we can see a less algorithmic future soonâŠ
Feb 8, 2024
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im a freak when it comes to planning stuff out, and basically my entire day/week is written down, so a hobonichi weekly planner is like number one on my wishlist.
theyâre very fun to journal with, and decorate with stickers, highlights, and whatnot, along with being super handy for scheduling.
(not my picture!)
theyâre very fun to journal with, and decorate with stickers, highlights, and whatnot, along with being super handy for scheduling.
(not my picture!)
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đ§this may seem silly but itâs very important. my knees and joints are wrecked cuz i didnât do any of these things, so donât be like me.
first off, whether youâre sitting in a chair or on a bed the most important thing is posture! check you arenât slouching regularly, and if your seating arrangement doesnât have back support, use pillows!!! especially for lumbar support, pillows are the best.
second, be aware of your legs! if youâre in a chair, the best way to sit is with your feet planted flat on the ground (or a foot rest if you donât reach). if sitting on a bed, extend your legs forward and put a pillow under your knees. criss cross is fine too, but not for extended periods!
and finally, just some general advice, stretch everyday!!!!!! even if just for 5 minutes a day, it will make a monumental difference.
i hope this helped :D
first off, whether youâre sitting in a chair or on a bed the most important thing is posture! check you arenât slouching regularly, and if your seating arrangement doesnât have back support, use pillows!!! especially for lumbar support, pillows are the best.
second, be aware of your legs! if youâre in a chair, the best way to sit is with your feet planted flat on the ground (or a foot rest if you donât reach). if sitting on a bed, extend your legs forward and put a pillow under your knees. criss cross is fine too, but not for extended periods!
and finally, just some general advice, stretch everyday!!!!!! even if just for 5 minutes a day, it will make a monumental difference.
i hope this helped :D