Cliches aren’t born; they develop from the abuse of repetition. I think that the speed and scale at which generative AI works will likely send certain phrases and constructs speeding into their second lives as cliches faster than we’ve ever experienced. The em-dash discourse was just the beginning.
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Quick thoughts
My theory. All the people in the drug ads you see on TV exist in the same world. They’re in a horrible Truman Show style environment where they are being coerced into demonstrating positive effects of the drugs. They can’t not smile or they get moved to “the control group.”
The Studbudz All-Star weekend stream is better than any sports-related programming I’ve ever seen, including F1: Drive to Survive. They should win every kind of Emmy, including daytime and regional.
The white pages would be wild to a young person. A book with everyone’s phone numbers AND addresses that you had to pay EXTRA to be excluded from.
YouTube’s 20th continues with a trends report we released today. Some parts of this story will be very familiar, but I think you’ll find surprises in the data. https://www.youtube.com/trends/report/tr25-20th-birthday/
Books
- Earnestp finished reading Loneliness & Company by Charlee Dyroff October 11, 2025Earnestp finished reading Loneliness & Company
- Earnestp finished reading Cue the Sun! by Emily Nussbaum October 11, 2025Earnestp finished reading Cue the Sun!
- Earnestp finished reading Washington Black by Esi Edugyan October 11, 2025Earnestp finished reading Washington Black
- Earnestp started reading Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins February 4, 2025Earnestp started reading Convergence Culture
- Earnestp finished reading Generation X by Douglas Coupland February 2, 2025Earnestp finished reading Generation X
- Earnestp started reading Generation X by Douglas Coupland January 30, 2025Earnestp started reading Generation X
- Earnestp finished reading Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken January 18, 2025Earnestp finished reading Ultra-Processed People
- Earnestp started reading Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken January 6, 2025Earnestp started reading Ultra-Processed People
- Earnestp wants to read Generations by Neil Strauss January 6, 2025Earnestp wants to read Generations
- Earnestp wants to read Generation X by Douglas Coupland January 6, 2025Earnestp wants to read Generation X