Oddbean

What if there is content created by somebody you don't follow, maybe you don't even know about them, but it his heavily liked and reposted by all the people you most respect? Some people want such content to be shown to them.

yeah, but colloquially "the algorithm" references a generally opaque reccomendation system optimizing for engagement. The distaste comes from the higher order effects of said algorithm. These effects are reflective of what happens when you try to get the system to optimize for a metric in a complex system.

There are lots of things an algorithm could do. Some of them are mostly benign and useful, and so I'm not against having such algorithms help people to find content. Jack seems to think X's algorithm is so good he can stop following everybody and just view what the algorithm is picking for him, and the content will be even better that way. So even "the algorithm" over there at X has been turned into this more benign and useful form. Does it amplify outrage as a second order effect? Only if us humans amplify outrage. Anyhow, I don't have firm opinions on this stuff, I'm just spitballing my thoughts.

Completely in agreement there. I use Amber with Amethyst to sign my events. Amber has the option to immediately accept all events once you've accepted once. I leave that setting turned off for some events like zaps, edits and reposts. That extra confirmation help me really know if i want to send that event, any anyone who subscribes to my event is affected by my "algorithm" With the constraints of main stream social media, algorithms maximized for time spent on app and interactions (not necessarily social). Async communication is already a nudge to be less likely meaningfully engage with ideas. 144 characters limit is a nudge to less likely have a well formed statment about the idea. Likes/reactions are a metric of emotional engagement, but typically aren't maximizing for specific types of emotional engagement and so it optimizes for the strongest signal, attention. Add on to the fact that we weight our negative experiences higher than positive and you have a strong facilitation of the outrage culture we see.