I paid for my internet and used it all day long.

The money paid was to access the internet not run it, that's a world of difference.

In the 1990s, there were plenty of closets running websites, BBSs and other internet available resources. As a percentage of total internet users, it was higher than those doing so today. So, money was paid to run portions of the internet at home by ISP subscribers.

> what problems are they solving

programmatic text manipulation

the eternal september 2: it's eternaler this time

We're on Eternal September 3 now.

The iPhone brought us Eternal September 2.

same things as drugs and alcohol, I imagine the side effects are different but still negative!

ok, but what if my friends have terrible taste.

Go to events more your taste and find new people to invite you to things.

Eventually, some of these companies will realize that a well-managed customer service org is a profit center and they will get an enormous amount of business. Unfortunately, they'll all keep fucking over customers until they realize that accepting life in the crab bucket is a negative-sum game.

I'm considering going back to school to write a "Google Fi 2016-2023: A Case Study in Enshittification" thesis but I'm not sure what academic discipline it fits under.

(I'll say it again for those in the back, if you're looking for ideas, there's arbitrage in service.)

Unfortunately ebay has a lock on large parts of the market and only a small number of people have been called frauds by them. I personally can't buy from you because they have decided my account is compromised, but I'm just one person and so that is a tiny number of potential customers.

Try philosophy, you would need good logic to get the necessary peer reviewed publications ;-)

I do not know the future, every line of code is a plausible-looking liability.

"Advertising is a cancer" is the moderate position, in that it assumes the patient can be saved. My personal view is that art that has been infected by advertising should be taken out back and shot.

I'm glad you enjoyed the show! Again, my personal opinion is that we gather more enjoyment out of these things if we spend a modicum of effort to curate our experiences rather than being spoon-fed the slop with the largest marketing budget.

As for "we're smart adults": The research on cognitive biases wrt advertising is settled. No, we're really really really not smrt.

Edit: I realized I am criticizing without offering a solution to my 2nd para. Think about the art (music / games / movies / comics) you like. Find those artists on the internet and see what art they recommend, and then consume that.

There is nothing remotely moderate about saying “advertising is a cancer”. It removes a massive industry from relevance, and condemns a whole lot of performance artists to unemployment. Advertising creates space for artists and sponsored performance spaces are the only performance spaces in many cities.

This reads like elitism. There is amazing art being made with a zero dollar ad budgets and amazing art being made with massive budgets. Those of us in small cities only get to see art because of advertising.

Nightmares on Wax doesn't have a huge marketing budget, but okay.

I've been using these for about... 20 years or so.. https://www.reisnerscorekeeping.com/

Modell's was the go-to if your team won last night.