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> Is there a word for this new world where we find ourselves without the ability to appeal our problems to human rationality How about a term like "millennial
by robomartin 5y ago
> Is there a word for this new world where we find ourselves without the ability to appeal our problems to human rationality
How about a term like "millennial business ethics"?
Seriously.
I know some will take this as an insult. I don't offer it in that way. Hear me out for a minute.
The generation that grew up without the internet was just as sophisticated --if not more in some areas-- than millennials. I have news for you, we were doing pretty amazing things with computers and hardware in the 80's an 90's and very little of it was about tricking people to click on ads. Go back and look at AI books from that era and you will find pretty much everything being done today...we just didn't have the hardware and the speed.
Excuse the digression. Growing up without the internet and with conventional brick-and-mortar, in-person businesses meant that person-to-person relationships were important. Nobody --nobody-- from my generation would seriously consider running a business where you absolutely ghost your customers and users. That's just unthinkable. That is not the way human beings related to each other in any pursuit.
However, for a generation who's reality has been looking at a screen and clicking buttons far more so than engaging with other humans in person, the idea of not bothering with real person-to-person problem solving might just be perfectly logical and sensible. Why bother? You can do everything with buttons on a touchscreen. Except, you can't.
To me this is a cultural problem. I have often imagine that some of the people who built these companies had the social skills and maturity of a brick. I know this isn't entirely accurate. Yet, how else does one explicitly make these choices? I can excuse social ineptitude as a sign of the time. The alternative would be to make such a choice while knowing just how harmful it could be. That is pure evil.
They have built mechanisms where destroying someone's business overnight, with no path to having a proper person-to-person business discussion, is deemed normal and acceptable. Talk to people who's lives were turned upside-down by the likes of Amazon, Facebook and Google and you'll learn just how horrific this kind of thing can be on the receiving end of the algorithms.
On this planet, today, if these three companies ban your from using their services, you do not exist. Period. Try running a business without using these channels (and their associated properties) for marketing and delivery and see how well you can do.
I am not a big government guy at all, quite to the contrary. However, I have, for some time, felt that this particular issue is one that needs truly intrusive government intervention. Companies of this scale and importance should not be able to kill your business on any given Monday and just ghost you forever. That is just plain wrong. And evil.
- remram 5y agoIf anything I blame it on the previous generation failing to understand anything about this new world. It should really come as no surprise that a Congress with a 60+ average age can't deal with any technology-related problem. Don't forget that Content ID was created because of legislation, YouTube didn't invent DMCAs.
- robomartin 5y agoYou are talking about a different problem. Congress did not make these companies adopt zero customer service and ghosting as their preferred method of engaging with users. I have friends who invested their life savings in starting businesses on Amazon, only to be shut down without warning and losing it all as a result. Another one had their product cloned by Amazon once he achieved success, they shut down his account and absolutely ghosted him. No way to talk to anyone about any of it. He lost his home as a result. I know people who had their Google accounts suspended with no reason given and no way to contact anyone to resolve the matter, some suffering serious business consequences. Similarly with Facebook and FB advertising. Such decisions are not made by people with the benefit of healthy human engagement in their lives. This behavior is evil, brutally so.