3 ms·
Inadequate information is better than zero information. In fact the value of most information follows an exponential curve. You tell me a movie is sci fi and I
by hiAndrewQuinn 1y ago
Inadequate information is better than zero information.
In fact the value of most information follows an exponential curve. You tell me a movie is sci fi and I immediately know I'm unlikely to be into it. You tell me it's from A24 and I get my hopes up. You tell me both of these pieces of information and I gotta wrestle with competing signals - but either way the absolute value of the expected value of me watching it flattens out and a bit, I no longer expect it to absolutely blow me away nor make me throw my TV out the window.
Hence I'm pro compression culture. Let me decide whether I want to unpack it.
- praash 1y ago> Hence I'm pro compression culture I think the problem is that this compression culture is lossy and fragmented. Summaries serve a purpose similar to thumbnails in an image gallery UI - the full picture is always available behind a click. Imagine if you could only see them as 128x128 JPEGs at 50% quality - after they've been reposted with "deep fried meme" filters a few times. No links to the source, and the next bite-sized truncation pushed right after. Later someone reposts them upscaled to 8K. This is exactly what I feel is happening with the written word.
- hiAndrewQuinn 1y agoI don't see that as a problem. You can get much stronger compression if you allow it to be lossy. This naturally flows out of information value decreasing exponentially.