I enjoyed this post a lot, not least because it made me want to go back to Switzerland a lot.
I think a good addendum is to point out that DFW made Infinite Jest so long and dense, with all those hundreds of footnotes, precisely because he wanted the point of the book itself to be manifested in the time and attention it would take to finish reading. And without wanting to spoil the ending, at the last moment he pulls the rug out from under you in a very significant way, too, that drives home that point.
The book *is* the Entertainment, to an extent, but it's also the cure for it.
This gets at what I loved most about Substack in its early days and what I hate most about it now. It used to be easy for me to hop on and just check the latest from those I thoughtfully chose to follow. Now it defaults to an infinite scroll of notes, restacks, and comments intended to grab my attention. What was once a nice change of pace from the rest of the internet has started devolving into what everything else is.
I tend to simply not visit my homepage on substack. I navigate directly to the blog I want to check on a web browser.i think I turned off most notifications, so subscriptions mostly just give me paid post access. I think using websites like this is often a good way to bypass the stream or scroll or whatever.
"I hope that I provide you some value a couple of times per week, that you enjoy these posts and get something out of them." -- You certainly do provide us with something of value and that thousands of us enjoy and get something from them. Thanks, sir, for the work you do for us.
Please consider Karen Hao's "Empire of AI" for which I am theoretically in a book club and which I have had essentially no trouble getting distracted by the internet with. (The New York Magazine essay on new Jewish stories I suppose is ON the internet but could probably have existed in an all-print universe)
In an all-print universe author could have assumed that the audience had read all these writers and would point out as I did that he needed to take "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" a lot more seriously. It is literally set in the present (2007, when it was published), but in Chabon's alternate history universe.
You know, this is something that has rolled around my head since I read Counterculture to Cyberculture way too late 2021. There was a recieved idea that fundamentally, university scholars and research institution employees could scale their own very specific, very contingent ways of transmitting information through flat hierarchies and institutions, non-gov institutions, and so for between highly educated, hight trust smart people. And it would scale from the 60s and 70s counterculture to the whole world.
This was entirely wrong. It turns out most people don't live in societies with strong liberal load-bearing institutions. It turns out that antisocial weirdos who were previously semi-isolated have a strong need to kill people they hate. It turns out the Internet was not a one-way conduit to 90s academic liberalism. It turns out most people can't regulate their own attention spans in the onslaught that reaches them.
I haven't started Infinite Jest yet. I definitely have a shorter attention span in my 50s than when I was younger. I'm working on it by committing to reading more in depth pieces. I have put a hold on The Siren's Call now.
I spent a few weeks across the valley in Wengen early this summer... just stunning!
I spent a lovely 3 days in Mürren last year, mostly hiking and otherwise doing nothing. I even caught the annual town festival (decorated cows on parade!).
Vacation pictures in the chat!
https://substack.com/chat/1543281
I've enjoyed a number of free-sub articles, but this one got my money.
Every day I thank my lucky stars that I deep-sixed Facebook years ago and never got on Twitter or downloaded Vine/etc.
Agree, this captured a feeling I've had for a while and am now encouraged to give monies and attention to Mr. JJ :).
I enjoyed this post a lot, not least because it made me want to go back to Switzerland a lot.
I think a good addendum is to point out that DFW made Infinite Jest so long and dense, with all those hundreds of footnotes, precisely because he wanted the point of the book itself to be manifested in the time and attention it would take to finish reading. And without wanting to spoil the ending, at the last moment he pulls the rug out from under you in a very significant way, too, that drives home that point.
The book *is* the Entertainment, to an extent, but it's also the cure for it.
This gets at what I loved most about Substack in its early days and what I hate most about it now. It used to be easy for me to hop on and just check the latest from those I thoughtfully chose to follow. Now it defaults to an infinite scroll of notes, restacks, and comments intended to grab my attention. What was once a nice change of pace from the rest of the internet has started devolving into what everything else is.
Am I alone in feeling this frustration?
I tend to simply not visit my homepage on substack. I navigate directly to the blog I want to check on a web browser.i think I turned off most notifications, so subscriptions mostly just give me paid post access. I think using websites like this is often a good way to bypass the stream or scroll or whatever.
I agree, I’ve been using my browser more and removing apps for that reason and it certainly has helped.
You should be able to change your setting to default to your sybscription inbox. That's what it does for me on the phone I'm using to write this.
I didn’t realize it was a setting I could change. But it’s setup now, thanks for the tip!
The following approach might be useful.
I use both Twitter and Bluesky, but I don't follow anyone. Instead, I bookmark the pages of accounts that I like, and visit them when I like.
Because I'm not following anyone, I don't receive notifications.
Overall, it results in a better experience: I can drop in on a particular account, see what's going on, add a comment (if applicable), and move on.
Very Civilized! (The downside is low engagement with my content)
I switched to a paid subscription because of the Arguments are Soldiers post. This is another one that would have done it for me.
"I hope that I provide you some value a couple of times per week, that you enjoy these posts and get something out of them." -- You certainly do provide us with something of value and that thousands of us enjoy and get something from them. Thanks, sir, for the work you do for us.
Long live the words of DFW. Wish he was still around. Thank you for this piece.
Please consider Karen Hao's "Empire of AI" for which I am theoretically in a book club and which I have had essentially no trouble getting distracted by the internet with. (The New York Magazine essay on new Jewish stories I suppose is ON the internet but could probably have existed in an all-print universe)
In an all-print universe author could have assumed that the audience had read all these writers and would point out as I did that he needed to take "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" a lot more seriously. It is literally set in the present (2007, when it was published), but in Chabon's alternate history universe.
Audience would point it out, not author
great article!
> In an information rich-world, the wealth of information means the dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that attention consumes.
this quote is wrong, it should be "a scarcity of whatever it is that *information* consumes"
Fixed, thanks!
You know, this is something that has rolled around my head since I read Counterculture to Cyberculture way too late 2021. There was a recieved idea that fundamentally, university scholars and research institution employees could scale their own very specific, very contingent ways of transmitting information through flat hierarchies and institutions, non-gov institutions, and so for between highly educated, hight trust smart people. And it would scale from the 60s and 70s counterculture to the whole world.
This was entirely wrong. It turns out most people don't live in societies with strong liberal load-bearing institutions. It turns out that antisocial weirdos who were previously semi-isolated have a strong need to kill people they hate. It turns out the Internet was not a one-way conduit to 90s academic liberalism. It turns out most people can't regulate their own attention spans in the onslaught that reaches them.
Excellent piece!
I cried
I haven't started Infinite Jest yet. I definitely have a shorter attention span in my 50s than when I was younger. I'm working on it by committing to reading more in depth pieces. I have put a hold on The Siren's Call now.
I spent a few weeks across the valley in Wengen early this summer... just stunning!
I really needs this article. Thank you
I spent a lovely 3 days in Mürren last year, mostly hiking and otherwise doing nothing. I even caught the annual town festival (decorated cows on parade!).