A certain amount of hustle and overselling by inventors and new companies has always been a thing. What’s unfamiliar in recent times is the combination of large, oligopoly companies with the failure of those companies to make an effort to go legit as they grow up. While American business culture has always celebrated “fake it ’til you make it,” we have pivoted to “make it, then fake it even harder.”
Marshferm•2mo ago
It’s format based. The basis for explanations are folk science: stories. They aren’t any more accurate than when they began except they incorporate science. But that does not in itself make them scientific. Same with economics, which is not a science but it includes aspects of it. Now look at code, which is neither tethered to engineering or science, but exists wholly separate operating behavior, operating folk science and science yet in conflation winds up being folk science.
The news is folk science. Explanations (a dispute over money ends in murder) are substituted for correlations (not every dispute over money ends up violent). The news reinforces big techs reliance on exploitative explanation addiction rather than the widespread adoption of post folk science correlations.
JohnFen•2mo ago
> A certain amount of hustle and overselling by inventors and new companies has always been a thing.
True, but there used to be a certain amount of restraint about it, in order to try to walk the fine line between "hyperbole" and "lying".
These days, companies don't care about that line and just lie freely, while at the same time straight-up abusing their customers. The lack of trust, and even the anger, is very well-earned.
dmarti•2mo ago
Marshferm•2mo ago
The news is folk science. Explanations (a dispute over money ends in murder) are substituted for correlations (not every dispute over money ends up violent). The news reinforces big techs reliance on exploitative explanation addiction rather than the widespread adoption of post folk science correlations.
JohnFen•2mo ago
True, but there used to be a certain amount of restraint about it, in order to try to walk the fine line between "hyperbole" and "lying".
These days, companies don't care about that line and just lie freely, while at the same time straight-up abusing their customers. The lack of trust, and even the anger, is very well-earned.