direct messages are anything but
i tapped this out on my phone a couple of weeks ago at the writing club organised by lisa wehden
i sometimes wonder: how many messages have i read?
if you sum together AOL Instant Messenger, MSN messenger, Email, Slack, Support Desk Tools, Discord, Quill, Twitter, Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, iMessages, Instagram and plain old SMS texts—what would my total be?
is it 10m or 100m or more? i have no idea
the shear volume of text-based messages directed my way is becoming insane
however, they are so rarely truly direct messages
they are indirect
i think the vast majority of these messages represent text-based miscommunication
very few people are capable of reading clearly
most people are hallucinating when they are interpreting typed text on a screen
even fewer are capable of accurately expressing their true thoughts in written form
most people end up compressing their thinking into words that don’t accurately capture their intentions
given the shear volume of messages we receive and send, this should scare us
we are not sending direct messages
we are issuing globules of texts that glom together in someone’s mind to form warped models of reality
we are creating digital madness
i hate that the DM has become so universal
we do not profess love any more. we slide into the dm’s with lust
we not discuss ideas any more. we rage into the dm’s with anger
we do not have face-to-face conversations with colleagues any more. we pop into the slack dm’s with commands
i didn’t fully understand how much this form of miscommunication was damaging my mind until i turned off parts of the flood.
quitting twitter, deleting facebook, incinerating instagram and uninstalling signal caused me physical pain
for 5 years, i have woken up to caffeine and twitter i was addicted to the adrenaline of my own opinions. i enjoyed feeding the rhythms of jack dorsey’s algorithms. i knew how to play to the mob.
then the mob came for me. i was able to see the true nature of text-based miscommunication when the machine learning system picked me as the object of its disaffection
it was so absurd and so hollow that it forced me to totally re-evaluate my relationship with the direct message
at its core, a direct message is a route to your neural pathways
if someone can reach you, they can affect you
if someone can load some letters into your eye sockets, your brain is vulnerable to their insipid stupidity and idiotic insinuations
when you are young, hungry, and poor—as i used to be—you need to take any opportunity you can. you need to be open to direct messages
when you are older, content, and richard—as i am now—i need to reject every distraction i can. i need to be closed off to most
this shift is a hard thing to execute. you are effectively muting the world so you can focus on what you love. when you shut off your social media accounts you are sending the most direct message of all: i don’t want to hear from you
it turns out this drives people clinically insane. the few inboxes i have left on email, LinkedIn, Telegram and TikTok are now being flooded with people who want to load their thoughts into my head
as soon as i have backed up the content i created for those products up, i will be deleting them or closing off the direct message features
i don’t want to hear other people’s opinions
i want to think carefully about my ideas
i don’t want you try and message me directly with your opinions
there is a chance that some day we will collaborate on some of our ideas
but that chance is slim
most people are just pushing opinions out into the world
very few people are building ideas
most people are hallucinating their model of the capitalist reality and slipping into debt
very few people are financially free
most people are screaming about their pain online to anyone who might listen
very few people are heard
that is why i am removing most direct messages from my life. i don’t want the masses to have direct access to my brain any more.
my mind has been open to people’s opinions for 33 years. now i want to shift inwards and focus deeply on my ideas for products that people can use to access the protocols i love.
it is a profound shift
gm