The worst thing about X is that it is the perfect marketplace for trading on Other People's Thoughts, Second-Hand Experience, and Things I Read™️.
I'm not talking about the thoughtful QT or the well-executed expert interview. I'm only partially talking about the AI reply bots, with their “Read this post: {link} and reply with a thoughtful reply” prompts. I'm maybe not even talking about the slop farm content posters, who are so obviously and unashamedly GPT-powered it's kind of impressive they get away with it.
I'm talking about the blind leading the blind, where describing has the same perceived value as doing and summarizing is positioned as knowing. When this is how content is created, it's even worse when it's consumed, where listening feels like learning and watching feels like building.
We're thin wrappers all the way down, and it's destructive to the minds on both sides of the markdown.
I can't control the reward systems, but I can give you advice: earn your content.
Value creation over consumption
In many endeavors, outcomes over outputs is wise advice, but it turns craft into commodity. It's clear to me which creators care more about their creative process, deep research, and quality of insight and which are inserting character chits into the algorithm slot machine.
While it's hard to decouple the earthly delights of views + engagement from the work of content creation, I recommend putting more effort in what you produce than maximizing its consumption. While many of us (me included!) make a business out of our little posts and videos and essays, I think the long burn of quality will outrun the temporary highs of the reply guys.
Change how you spend time and measure success accordingly.
Primary > Secondary > Tertiary
The fact is: it's easier to read than to do, and even reading is hard for our dopamine-fried brains. But we want to know. We yearn for an effortless education.
As a result, too much of what is created and consumed are tertiary sources--synthesis of synthesis. What is so insidious about the Summary Industrial Complex is that it obliquely claims authority where there is none; surely someone who managed five to seven paragraphs on a topic must know something about it! We convey primary-source authority to secondary-source consumers and call it insight.