"The short head will be human, the fat middle social and the long tail algorithmic"
The recent LLM-generated feeds reminded me of this. Said in a different context, but it can be interpreted through a totally different lens today.
The post is no longer available, but here's the WayBackMachine link.
Connecting with people on a social wallet is even less interesting than connecting with people on a professional network.
The "long tail" is a beautiful concept.
Chris Anderson coined it to describe how businesses like Amazon and Netflix to sell a large volume of niche products, but for me it's everything not captured by the spotlight, the mainstream, the "most users".
The long tail is beautiful and diverse and niche and weird. I like it more than the fat head.
Early rain.
In Greek we have a special word (πρωτοβρόχια) for the early autumn rains, that come after a long, dry summer.
Web3 is focused on L1s, L2s, etc, but often ignores L0: people. But censorship resistance, and resilience in general, does not only come from tech specs. The actual relationships, sometimes mapped using tech, sometimes not, are equally important.
Our personal, social, professional, etc networks are not defined by an app or a protocol, in the same way that our friendships are not defined by the bar where we usually hang out with our friends.
Technology has become an important component of many of our relationships. I've met interesting people on Farcaster, that I wouldn't know how to contact or interact with if Farcaster went away. A good part of my L0 depends too much on an L1. From a purely technical pov, that's wrong.
I'll try to fix it. Follow me on https://x.com/vrypan and https://bsky.app/profile/vrypan.bsky.social, and I'll try to post more there too.
In April 2012, Google announced Google Glass.
The device allowed users to take photos, record videos, send messages, and receive navigation and calendar updates via its heads-up display.
Despite the innovative technology, the device faced significant criticism regarding privacy, driven by the camera's ability to record unnoticed. Social stigma also played a role, as wearing the device was perceived as unusual or intrusive. 🤔
https://x.company/projects/glass/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Glass
Here is a walk-through of WDIM.
Keep in mind: WDIM is focused on what your follows share and cast. If you follow 10 accounts, you will probably see nothing. If you follow accounts that cast things you are not interested in, they may be part of what WDIM shows you (though, it does take into account if you interact with a user's casts often).
It has become my favorite way of keeping up with Farcaster.