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Perverse Incentives Have Created a Runaway Media Monster March 6, 2026
A Monster Id of self-reinforcing perverse incentives is gathering strength with every click, every data point collected and every unseen algorithmic adjustment of the addictive dosage.
Much of what we rightly decry as dysfunctional is the result of perverse incentives built into systems not from malice but from the self-reinforcing nature of self-interest: whatever mechanisms serve self-interest are reinforced by those benefiting the most from their institutionalization as "the way the world works." What started out as of self-evident utility--for example, fee for service healthcare--slowly transmogrified from a common-sense model of modest costs into a monstrous industry with an insatiable appetite for revenues, profits and the political influence needed to further its permanent expansion. Though the system goes by the same name--fee for service--it bears no resemblance to its initial incarnation. The mechanisms of self-enrichment now dominate the entire system via the perverse incentives that have been codified by regulations and institutionalized in vast corporate cartels. This same self-reinforcing progression from a modest model with promise to a corporate-dominated monstrosity that enriches the few at the expense of the many has now reached its perverse-incentives perfection in the media, from mainstream to social media. The Web as a means of distributing content to every user started with decentralized, self-organizing mechanisms such as bulletin boards and web-hosting of websites and blogs. The machinery of generating revenue was limited to display adverts. Search was organic, meaning search engines were designed to crawl the Web and return the most relevant external links as search results. The advent of online auctions for key words and search placement (Overture et al.) transformed search from an organic service funded by display adverts to a vast revenue generation machine powered by auctioning search placement to the highest bidders. With the introduction of centralized social media platforms, the Web's center of gravity shifted from self-organizing message boards, commercial sites and wildly diverse blogs unaffected by centralized surveillance, monitoring and censorship via ill-defined community standards to a model of users generating content for free while the revenues generated by collecting and selling users' data flow to the corporate owners of the platform. An insignificant percentage of this vast flow of revenues is distributed to a tiny sliver of users who manage to attract millions of views / listens, i.e. engagement. For example, content creators who pile up one million views earn a magnificent $10 for their ceaseless efforts in promoting the content enriching the corporate owners of the social media platforms. Where advertising networks once paid a meaningful share of display advert revenues to the sites that hosted the ads, once Big Tech gained centralized, network-effects dominance, these revenues dwindled to insignificance for all but the handful of sites with massive audiences. Most of the advert revenue is collected by the search and social media platforms which now dominate user content creation and engagement. This arrangement is fueled by radically perverse incentives for all participants. The content creators are incentivized to post the most "engaging" content, which due to human nature tends to be sensationalized, exaggerated, emotion-triggering content that is indistinguishable from propaganda, misinformation and slop. AI has incentivized the reach by content creators for higher revenues via posting ever greater volumes of videos, audio and text content. As it becomes harder to distinguish authentic content from AI slop, the platforms' overall content is inevitably degraded / debauched. The platforms have every incentive to increase the addictive powers of their algorithms and the content generated by users, as the greater the user engagement, the more data they can collect and sell--and use to tailor what's delivered to individual users to maximize their profits. Faced with this endless spew of intentionally addictive, sensationalized Ultra-Processed content, mainstream media outlets have increased the density of their display adverts to the point that it's no longer worth the effort required to scroll through ads to find the content, which has also been sensationalized to compete with the content posted on social media by users desperate to expand their own audience by any means available-- including slop of every description. These perverse incentives have created a media monster, seeking revenues and profits not by creating content of self-evident value (what was labeled DBI in the traditional media--dull but important) but by following social media down the wormhole of sensationalized click-bait, "lifestyle" fluff and "sponsored content," i.e. promotional content commercial interests pay to place in high-visibility niches folded into other content. The traditional media prided itself on maintaining implicit standards of integrity and objectivity in reporting. These standards have largely been abandoned or debauched in favor of raw partisanship or click-bait sensationalism. As circulation and advert revenues decline, traditional media has responded by segmenting content subscriptions to milk more income out of subscribers: want to read the sports section? That's an extra subscription now. In effect, a Monster Id of self-reinforcing perverse incentives is gathering strength with every click, every data point collected and every unseen algorithmic adjustment of the addictive dosage. As longtime correspondent Peter K. noted, sensationalism, certainty and grandiose claims of hidden / profound insight all scale, as these activate our hard-wired attention receptors. Not only are these exaggerations of marginal value; they actively misdirect and scatter our attention, fragmenting our capacity to make sound assessments and focus on matters of actual importance in planning and organizing our own lives. Honest expressions of uncertainty and careful reporting of complex issues don't scale. Fostering addictions to endless scrolls of slop to maximize profits is--like a "health" system dominated by SickCare / Ultra-Processed Food cartels--the worst of all possible worlds, a world devoid of any redeeming value. 
I have been a content creator / writer since 1988, and I've experienced every step of this devolution, from the good old days of free-lancing for mainstream media newspapers and journals with the entire Gatekeeper machinery of editors, pitches, invoices, etc., to the Wild-West early Web of blogs and independent ad-funded journalism, to the domination of search and social media platforms and the present near-total reliance of creators on subscribers and the sales of content directly to the public. I haven't changed my content, even though I recognize my niche doesn't scale, and will never scale. I'm adapting to changes in distribution, but I'm sticking with standards that enable integrity and pride in my work. If this dooms me (and other creators like me) to permanent marginalization, so be it, because playing to "win" as measured by money in a realm ruled by perverse incentives is in effect selling your soul. Any mention that souls can be nurtured by integrity or squandered for lucre dooms one to a lean-to hovel in Digital Siberia, for anything other than focusing on maximizing profits by any means available is now considered an incomprehensible form of insanity. Of related interest: The War My new book Investing In Revolution is available at a 10% discount ($18 for the paperback, $24 for the hardcover and $8.95 for the ebook edition). Introduction (free) Check out my updated Books and Films. Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com Subscribe to my Substack for free My recent books: Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases originated via links to Amazon products on this site. THE REVOLUTION TRILOGY: Investing In Revolution Ultra-Processed Life The Mythology of Progress Systemic Problems/Solutions Investing In Revolution (2025) Introduction (free) The Mythology of Progress (2024) Introduction (free) Global Crisis, National Renewal (2021) Introduction (free) Money and Work Unchained (2017) Introduction (free) A Radically Beneficial World (2015) Introduction (free) What You Can Do Yourself Ultra-Processed Life (2025) Introduction (free) Self-Reliance in the 21st Century (2022) Introduction (free) When You Can't Go On: Burnout, Reckoning and Renewal (2022) Introduction (free) Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy (2014) Intro (free) Novels The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher Intro (free) The Secret Life of an Asian Heroine First chapters (free) Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com. Subscribe to my Substack for free Investing In Revolution print $18, (Kindle $8.95, Hardcover $24 (145 pages, 2025) 
Only now do we see that we've been investing in revolution for decades--not the revolutions we thought we were investing in, revolutions in technology and finance, but in the social revolution made inevitable by the extremes that we've reached in our single-minded pursuit of private gains.
The pendulum that we've pushed to an extreme will swing to the opposite extreme, and the artifices that have propped up a facade a stability for decades will accelerate the disorder rather than reverse it. We now stand at the point of decision, and this book offers a path to a reformation and renewal that serves the shared interests of us all, not just the few. Introduction (free) Ultra-Processed Life print $16, (Kindle $7.95, audiobook, Hardcover $20 (129 pages, 2025) 
Ultra-Processed Life: the substitution of a synthetic, commoditized, very profitable facsimile for what was once authentic.
Ultra-Processed Life is my term for everything that is analogous to ultra-processed snacks: attractively marketed, instantly alluring, easy to consume, addictive by design, tasty in the moment but harmful over time, its origins a black box of unknown processes, the brightly colored product bearing no resemblance to the real-world ingredients, an idealized form of what is inherently imperfect, untethered from the natural world. As with many others, the catalyst for my exploration was a life-threatening medical crisis that did not have a specific cause. This led me to wonder if our entire way of life is like an ultra-processed snack: tasty but not healthy, edible but stripped of the nutrients we need to be healthy, addictive by design. Introduction (free) The Mythology of Progress, Anti-Progress and a Mythology for the 21st Century print $20, (Kindle $9.95, Hardcover $24 (215 pages, 2024) audiobook, Read the Introduction and first chapter for free (PDF) 
What if the policies to accelerate growth are no longer working because our fix for every problem--growth at any cost--is failing? We're told Progress is inevitable as a result of technology, but everyday life is getting harder, not easier--the opposite of Progress, what I call Anti-Progress.
What if the real source of the unraveling is far deeper than economics or politics? What if the problem is what we see as the inevitable destiny of humanity--Progress--is actually a modern mythology, disconnected from the real-world consequences of growth for growth's sake? We indignantly reject that Progress is a mythology, but our need for mythology hasn't gone away because we've mastered technology; we've created a modern mythology of technology that is heedless of its own consequences. To truly progress, we need a new mythology aligned to 21st century realities. Read the Introduction and first chapter for free
Recent entries: Perverse Incentives Have Created a Runaway Media Monster March 6, 2026 Things Change March 3, 2026 The War March 1, 2026 The Decay of our Quality of Life No Longer Aligns with the Narrative February 26, 2026 How We Got Here: Moral Flexibility Leads to Moral Decay February 25, 2026 Money Is Funny That Way: The Case for USD Supremacy February 23, 2026 What Defines a "Good Economy"? Social Mobility and Not Losing Ground February 20, 2026 Small Business in the TINA Economy: Competing for the Scraps February 17, 2026 What Few Understand About Money February 12, 2026 Self-Employment Series #2: Ownership Is Not Freedom February 11, 2026 A Market Crash and Recession Are Bullish, Not Bearish February 10, 2026
The Banality of Evil and Those Who Said No
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"There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity." (Douglas MacArthur) "We are what we repeatedly do." (Aristotle) "Do the thing and you shall have the power." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." (E.F. Schumacher, via Tom R.) "He who will not risk cannot win." (John Paul Jones) "When we drink coffee, ideas march in like the army." (Honore de Balzac) "Progress is not possible without deviation." (Frank Zappa, via Richard Metzger) "Victory favors those who take pains." (amat victoria curam) "The man who has a garden and a library has everything." (Cicero, via Lee Bentley) "A healthy homecooked family meal and a home garden are revolutionary acts." (CHS) "Do you know what amazes me more than anything else? The impotence of force to organize anything." (Napoleon Bonaparte) "The way of the Tao is reversal" Or "Reversal is the movement of Tao." (Lao Tzu) "Chance favours the prepared mind." (Louis Pasteur) "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." (Winston Churchill) "Where there is ruin, there is hope for treasures." (Rumi) "The realm of gratitude is boundless." (CHS, 11/25/15) "History doesn't have a reverse gear." (CHS, 12/22/15) Smith's Law of Conservation of Risk: Every sustained action has more than one consequence. Some consequences will appear positive for a time before revealing their destructive nature. Some consequences will be intended, some will not. Some will be foreseeable, some will not. Some will be controllable, some will not. Those that are unforeseen and uncontrollable will trigger waves of other unforeseen and uncontrollable consequences. (July 8, 2014)(thanks to Lew G. for retitling the idea.) Smith's Neofeudalism Principle #1: If the citizenry cannot replace a kleptocratic authoritarian government and/or limit the power of the financial Aristocracy at the ballot box, the nation is a democracy in name only. The Smith Corollary to Metcalfe's Law (The Network Effect): the value of the network is created not just by the number of connected devices/users but by the value of the information and knowledge shared by users in sub-networks and in the entire network. (CHS, 4/6/16) My Credo of Liberation: I no longer care if the power centers of our society--the distant, fortified castles of our financial feudal system--are changed by my actions, for I am liberated by the act of resistance. I am no longer complicit in perpetuating fraudulent feudalism and the pathology of concentrated power. I no longer covet signifiers of membership in the Upper Caste that serves the plutocracy. I am liberated from self-destructive consumerist-State financialization and the delusion that debt servitude and obedience to sociopathological Elites serve my self-interests. (Thank you, Klaus-Peter L., for reminding me) "We've become a culture of excuses rather than solutions: solutions always require sustained effort and discipline." (CHS 4/9/16) "Fraud as a way of life caters an extravagant banquet of consequences." (CHS 4/14/16) "Creativity = problem solving = value creation." (CHS 6/4/16) "Truth is powerful because it is the core dynamic of solving problems." (CHS 7/21/17) "We live in a system of human emotions that masquerades as a science (economics)." (CHS 1/1/18) "Always remember, your focus determines your reality." (George Lucas) "Diversity is for poor people. Sameness is for the successful." (GFB) "When power dissipates suddenly, it dissipates completely." (CHS 7/14/19) "Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves." (Henry David Thoreau) "Markets cannot price in the value of non-monetized natural assets such as diverse ecosystems." (CHS 7/14/19) "Magical thinking isn't optimism, it is folly." CHS 1/3/22) "Tune in (to self-reliance), drop out (of hyper-consumerism and debt-serfdom) and turn on (to relocalizing capital and agency)." (CHS 1/5/22) "The path to everything you desire starts here: like yourself as you are right now." (CHS 11/20/22) "There are only two signals: how many essentials you produce and share and if you're consuming less with better results. Everything else is noise." (CHS 12/17/22) "Liberation is no longer needing any confirmation or feedback from others or the world for one's sense of self. Wealth, fame, recognition, admiration, praise, prestige, approval, sainthood, martyrdom, success: none are needed, none are desired." (CHS 12/26/22) "When fame, wealth, prestige, status and glory are out of reach, you're free to pursue other more valuable things." (CHS 2/6/22) "It is the sacred duty of every activist who seeks to better their community to grow and share as much life-giving food as is humanly possible." (CHS 6/15/23) "Being anonymous, gray and unknown is the ideal state of freedom." (CHS 3/15/24) "We seem to have entered a world of anti-leisure and anti-productivity in which the unpaid shadow work demanded to keep all the complicated digital bits in motion obliterate our leisure and productivity." CHS (5/22/24) "It is axiomatic that failing systems work the best just before they fail catastrophically." Ray W. "Looking younger is mere technique; thinking younger demands creativity." CHS (10/16/24) "Tell me what's taboo and I'll tell you the truths that threaten the status quo." CHS (12/15/24) "This is the core of the Attention Economy: the ultimate addiction is the addiction to ourselves." CHS (1/28/25) "If You Seek the Truth, Look for What's Taboo." CHS (7/18/25) "My definition of self-reliance: the less you need, the easier it is to get what you need." CHS (7/26/25) "Mastery requires reading and doing." CHS (7/28/25) "The replacement of authentic value, quality, agency, choice, trust, legitimacy and experience with self-serving facsimiles is the key dynamic of Ultra-Processed Life, my term for the present-day human condition." CHS (8/12/25) "Ultra-Processed Life replaces an authentic experience with a synthetic, simulated, commoditized, highly profitable version that's superficially attractive but destructive over the long term." CHS (8/12/25) "What we see everywhere is the replacement of authentic things--including democracy--with synthetic facsimiles designed to maintain the illusion of choice and value." CHS (8/12/25) "Sometimes certainty is the enemy we don't even see and uncertainty is our most faithful ally." CHS (9/20/25) |
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