What the Techbros Can’t Understand
Lots of talk about the AI bubble finally bursting, and about the desperation of its supporters to ram their failing product down our necks. ‘Consumers don’t understand it’, they cry, like we’re too dim, or too traditional, or too scared of new technology or horizons. I’m not ranting about how much I despise generative AI and the damage it does, on multiple levels (and how much I’m looking forwards to its fall), because I’m pretty sure everyone knows that already.
Instead, I’m going to talk about why they can’t sell it and, a fundamental human need that their little sociopath brains just can’t seem to grasp:
Community.
Whatever your chosen hobby, art or medium, it’s about sharing. Books and music, comics, arts, crafts, you want to share them. It’s why the early days of Social Media, before the Lords of Algorithm came storming in, were so utterly magical. Blogger, Twitter, LiveJournal, sharing links on Technorati or StumbleUpon – so many sites that don’t exist any more, or that’ve since sold their souls – were about building community. We celebrated things, we made and shared them, we talked about them. Everything was ideas, creativity and interaction. We made new friends, all over the world, and we met up in person. And while the lay of the internet’s land may have changed, the need for community remains. Be you a BookTok girlie sharing your favourite romantasy, or a TTRPG gamer exploring and expressing around a (virtual or physical) table, it hasn’t gone away.
As an author, the same is true. Writing may be a solitary profession, but its energy comes from its people. From panels and events and WhatsApp chats, from meeting in the bar and hanging out at the Con. From supporting and helping each other, in whatever small (or large) ways we can.
And, of course, the same is also true of marketing. Good PR, too, is about people. It’s about your passion for what you’re doing, and communicating that passion to those around you. Yes, you can post pictures and videos and press releases, tick all the tidy boxes, but for those to have impact, you have to talk to, and understand, your audience. You can’t just throw this stuff them on stony ground. You need to establish, not only the numbers, but proper contacts and (dare I say it) even friends. An LLM might barf endless emails, but it can’t respond to beeds. It can’t learn from anything, only what it steals.
And that, of course, is where it’s all gone wrong. As more and more companies go, 'Hey cool', and then realise they've shot themselves in the foot, the truth is coming to light. In cutting human contact out of interaction, they're failing to listen, to 'read the room', to learn and understand. They've forgotten that it’s not about ‘producing content’, it’s about who reads/watches/uses it, and what they really want to see.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I, for one, wait on that bursting bubble with baited breath.
Reading: Lots of Warhammer, and a shout-out for Nate Crowley’s Severed, part of the second run of novellas, published in 2019. It’s a tough call, making soulless robots all touching and emotional, their hearts filled with love, but Nate manages in absolutely beautiful style. I deft you not to fall for this book, and never look at Necrons in the same way, ever again.
Watching: Starfleet Academy. Seeing mixed reviews for this one, but am genuinely enjoying it. Extra points for Lura Thok, the half-Klingon, half-Jem’Hadar RSM, who’s guaranteed to scare the shit out of anything, and who isn’t happy to see Oded Fehr, back on our screens at last. Not sure about the floating ship nacelles, but Robert Picardo knocks it out of the opera house, as ever, and it’s interesting to see a central character that doesn’t necessary does what he’s told, never mind a senior officer who wanders round with bare feet. Not 100% convinced yet, but curious to see where this does.
Playing: Still on my PlayStation break, and our TTRPG sessions have been a bit sporadic, over Christmas. I did do some painting, though, and remain embarrassingly awful. Seriously, I’ve no idea how you lot manage to paint things so fucking tiny, when I can barely see them.
And yes, I have just bought myself a better magnifier. Never give up, never surrender.