The financial incentives to create addictive digital content would instantly disappear, and so would the mechanisms that allow both commercial and political actors to create personalized, reality-distorting bubbles.
Clickbait, listicles, and affiliate marketing schemes would become worthless overnight. Algorithm-driven platforms like Instagram and TikTok that harvest and monetize attention, destroying youth, would lose their economic foundation.
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Removing these advanced manipulation tools would force everyone—politicians included—to snap back into reality. By outlawing advertising, the machinery of mass delusion would lose its most addictive and toxic fuel.
Again, this is not simply partisan. He was a villain ten years ago, and he's a villain today.
Yes, he's been philanthropic, and he's pledged to donate 99% of his Facebook shares to charity. That is genuinely amazing, and it deserves genuine praise. To be sure, it's a hell of a lot more money than I'll ever donate to charity. Still, what does it matter if he destroys the world in the process? Will his philanthropy even begin to clean up the mess he's created? Surely not. He's done far more than $200 billion worth of harm to society. Try putting a dollar amount on political extremism, a problem his company has massively exacerbated.
Mark Zuckerberg is a villain, and like all villains, he thinks he's doing good for the world. He's not.
Those who struggle with computers should play Myst. The unusual computer game, one of my favorites, is something of a boot camp in situational awareness. Don't know what you're doing? Great! You're on the right track.
The game drops the player onto an island with little explanation. No checklist is provided. No advice is broadcasted. Even the objective is unexplained. Only through exploration and experimentation do the story and plan begin to form. You're on your own, and yet, somehow, you figure it out.
Not sure how to print a document or sign up for a new service? Look for clues. Keep an eye out for anything that seems related. Press buttons and see what happens. Progress one step at a time, and don't be afraid to retreat from dead ends. Somehow, you'll get there, and you'll learn a great deal along the way. Made a mistake? Those can be undone. Rest assured, you won't be trapped in a book for all eternity.
As a rule of thumb, I try not to get worked up about people I haven't met in real life. “Supporters of Political Candidate Want Toast Banned,” a headline might read. Well, I've never met anyone in the real world who wants toast banned. Until I do, I'm not going to worry about it.
Of course it's important to notice and criticize bad ideas before they take hold. At the same time, with social media and the lazy, clickbait journalism it fuels, every bad idea now has a moment in the reactionary spotlight, and most will never affect much. Let's focus on the big problems of the day, the ones we'd notice with or without sensationalism.
edit (2026-01-27): I later deleted these chatbots. I wrote about the decision to do so in a blog post.
I created some chatbots which pretend to be historical figures. They respond to messages based on the knowledge, values, and personality of the people they represent. To use one, simply click its link and follow the on-screen instructions. None of the money currently goes to me.
I'm sure there will be hiccups, as there always are, but I'm proud of them. I think they'll be especially useful in education. What better way to learn than by talking to the topic of one's studies?
Abraham Lincoln (link removed)
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (link removed)
Frederick Douglass (link removed)
George Washington (link removed)
Jesus (link removed)
Moses (link removed)
Rosa Parks (link removed)
Socrates (link removed)
Susan B. Anthony (link removed)
The Buddha (link removed)
Thomas Edison (link removed)
The GPTs are built on top of ChatGPT and will launch with the GPT Store some time this week. To use them, one must sign up for ChatGPT Plus, which currently costs $20/mo. None of that money goes to me, and there's currently no way for me to charge an additional fee to use one of my GPTs. OpenAI may adopt a revenue-sharing model in the future, but it hasn't been rolled out yet. I have opinions on that (“Let's make the marketplace less like the App Store and more like Spotify!”” —No publisher ever), but there isn't much I can do about it right now. If I become annoyed enough by the enshittification, I'll consider removing my GPTs in protest. Besides, I don't honestly expect I'll make much money (or any money) doing this. It's just fun.
I have to share credit with my dad, who expressed an interest in chatting with an AI version of Abraham Lincoln. Now it's possible! I'm sure I'll add more historical figures in the future, so keep an eye out. When the GPT store launches, perhaps you'll be able to search my name or otherwise search for GPTs made by me.
I use the Clickbait Remover add-on in every browser that supports it. It replaces ridiculous, attention-grabbing YouTube video thumbnails with images that are actually grabbed from the video. In that way, it defeats the dishonest alarmism that creators employ to win your attention. It's one more reason I disable the YouTube app on my phone, using Android's wellness tools to limit the app to 0 minutes per day, and only use YouTube through web browsers, where these add-ons can take effect.
There's another add-on, DeArrow which de-shittifies both thumbnails and titles. I don't use it because I feel it's a little overzealous and because I think its settings UI is overwhelming, a pet peeve, but others might like it. It's made by Ajay Ramachandran, who also made SponsorBlock, which skips over sponsored content in videos.
I use the Unhook add-on in all browsers to remove all addictive and manipulative features from YouTube's website: recommended videos, trending videos, shorts, autoplay, and even the homepage, which has become a hodgepodge of the others. As I've mentioned before, YouTube is just too good at wasting my time. I've actually disabled the YouTube app on my phone, forcing myself to use their website instead, so that I can always benefit from Unhook. I recommend everyone install it.
Here's another technique I use to make gadgets less manipulative and addictive, in addition to perpetually using Do Not Disturb on my phone and smartwatch:
I use Focus mode on Android during work hours. The feature disables apps of my choosing during the specified time frame. It's actually not quite as helpful as it might seem, largely because Google allows the user to work around it very easily, almost encouraging the user to stop using it, but it's one small piece of a larger puzzle. I'm sure iOS has something similar, and perhaps it's not quite as self-defeating over there.
As part of my ongoing effort to share techniques for making modern devices less addictive and manipulative, here's another trick I use in addition to perpetually using Do Not Disturb on my smartphone:
My smartwatch is always in Do Not Disturb mode. It only makes noise when an alarm or timer goes off, and it never vibrates. There are no other exceptions because Wear OS apparently doesn't allow them. (I wouldn't mind getting a buzz from FitBit when it's time to move, but configuring that does not appear to be possible.)
Some might wonder why I have a smartwatch at all. It's a good question. Aside from knowing the time, I mostly use it to track my sleep. I honestly don't care about most of the other features.
edit (2025-12-14): Some time after writing this blog post, I sold the smartwatch and got a mechanical watch, which I recommend! I track my sleep using another app, and I honestly don't even need to do that. I don't need sleep tracking to know what worsens or improves my sleep.
I can become absorbed by technology like anyone else, but the nature of my absorption sometimes looks different because I work hard to make my gadgets less addictive. Over time, I'd like to share some of the techniques I use. Here's the first one, which I've mentioned before:
My phone is always in Do Not Disturb mode. I don't get any beeps or buzzes, except for emergency alerts, alarms, calendar reminders, phone calls within certain parameters (close contacts, repeat callers, etc.), and Slack messages from colleagues. I almost never need to be immediately alerted about anything else; I check my phone often enough already.
Interestingly, this isn't very easy to configure. Modern devices mostly require that we opt out of distractions, rather than opt in. Put another way, if the mode that respects our attention is called Do Not Disturb, what is the ordinary mode called?