People vs Algorithms

The power of brands has eroded, particularly media brands. The path forward for legacy media brands is uncertain but almost assuredly both less glamorous and less lucrative -- and that's with the understanding that media companies usually had bigger brands than they had businesses. The arrival of AI is likely to accelerate that decline.

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9-5 Girl on TikTok sparked a debate over the outdated ideas of the 9-5 work day, which was stared by Henry Ford for the Industrial Era. Time and again, new generations have reacted against conventions and ended up pushing for change. We consider how this will accelerate change in work, politics and more.

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While many people pretend that “the media” are still gatekeepers to information, those days are past. The information space is a free for all in which the news industry is only a part, and arguably not even the most important part. From podcasts to newsletters to TikToks to tweets, the decentralized information space is already here and its evolution will have far reaching implications well beyond the fate of news companies and impact society itself. 

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On a crossover episode of The Rebooting Show and People vs Algorithms, Alex and Brian discuss zero-interest rate phenomena and how they distorted by the tech industry and media industry -- all while giving us subsidized and unlicensed taxis and hotels along with some really silly stuff like all those scooters and the 15-minute delivery services that never made economic sense. With the new mantra of higher-for-longer, not to mention the promise and specter of AI, we discuss how that affects the type of business you build. 

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“Deliver something nobody else is delivering,” advises Milk Street’s Christopher Kimball. The media veteran, who created Cooks Country and America’s Test Kitchen, joins the show to discuss why media needs to go back to basics to build lasting brands or be left behind as digital flotsam in an algorithmic feed.

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You don't have to be an engineer or be a developer to be a product person, although it helps. This week, we discuss how Elon Musk makes products, why non-technical people gravitate to product management and where media products go wrong.

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Bustle Digital Group's Bryan Goldberg joins to discuss why the scale era wasn't as great as it was portrayed. The future of digital media will be about brands that can hold cultural heft and use it well beyond the page to escape the yoke of algorithms.

• Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter
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Most of the challenges facing media come down to misaligned incentives. Publishers face a bad set of options to serve the competing interests of advertisers and the audience while keeping the lights on. The horror show of UK news sites is a sign of things to come. Publishers and platforms have long had misaligned incentives, as games studios are belatedly finding out, while companies are struggling to balance the incentives of workers, management and shareholders.

• Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter
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This week, we discuss the rebundling, with a focus on the future of pay TV and why tech companies will inevitably be the rebundlers with media companies the rebundled.

• Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter
• Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter
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One person's "fire-breathing dragon" is another person's a*****e. The zero-interest rate era is in the rearview mirror, and businesses will be under more pressure to do more with less. Between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, there is a celebration of behavior that might easily be described as assholish. This week, we contemplate where the line exists, particularly in an ambitious work environment.

Plus: How our love of narratives gives rise to simplistic heroes-and-villains fables, and a defense of Burning Man as a haven of "creative optimists."

• Making Sense: Can We Contain Artificial Intelligence?
• Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter
• Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter
• Alex Schleifer's Universal Entities
• Follow Alex, Brian and Troy on Twitter