By Michael Evans, March 29, 2024
The 3 Rules to a Better World for Storytellers
Who and what should algorithms be in service of?
Seems like a trivial, philosophical question — but it’s an essential one to answer for the wellbeing of publishing and humanity.
There’s a lot of talk about generative AI. However, the most pervasive AI of all is recommendation algorithms.
It’s too lazy and too simple to state that recommendation algorithms are GOOD or BAD.
They are good for some people in some instances. Bad for those same people in other instances. And worse for others in more instances.
At this point I’ve read more than a handful of books on this topic.
Subprime Attention Crisis by Tim Hwang and Race After Technology by Ruha Benjamin are two of the best.
I also study neuroscience. Through my studies — it is unclear what is different between the design of neurons in our brains and the way that algorithms are designed.
Frankly, our brains actually work quite similar to algorithms, and similar to the recommendation algorithms and now generative AI models that are proliferating, we don’t even know how our brains work OR how these “intelligent” computer systems work.
Most of my smartest friends are basically giving up their life to work on this problem. The broader societal question of how we can make the intelligent computer systems we have built and are currently building not destroy the world but instead create a better future.
In many ways, I feel like we’re doing the same with Ream.
What do recommendation algorithms look like in service of humanity?
Scratch that.
That’s the wrong question.
More specifically, WHICH humans will be served by these algorithms and WHAT will they be served with?
Up to this point — it seems clear.
Algorithms are black boxes controlled by massive big tech platforms optimized to serve advertisers (this is true on Amazon, Facebook, and basically every other large social platform) and serve the ATTENTION of viewers.
When we incorporate generative AI into this broken system of big tech platforms, the outcome becomes dystopian and even worse for us authors. They NEVER served us to begin with. The imagination can start to run wild with what can happen next (and it’s not unwarranted, we share similar concerns… why do you think we’re working so hard to change this?).
This system, the publishing and technology world we have today, often puts the creators (which we are all creators in one context or another) in the proverbial shitter.
I’ve been there. Feeling like I’m creating for the algorithm. Literally sacrificing my life to please the “algorithm gods”.
I’m lucky I’m still here.
We know the world is in a weird place when we idolize the machines we created.
My main motivation behind starting Ream was to solve this^.
It’s not subscriptions. Sure they are cool. But that’s just a business model.
It’s not community. I love community, it’s essential for us to experience as humans, and with the rise of “third places” online and the breakdown of social life at home and IRL in the workplace and beyond… the communities creators lead have an increasingly important role to play in serving the humans of the world.
But there was only one motivation for starting Ream.
To fix the broken incentive system online for authors and readers.
Will it be perfect? Hell no. I won’t even pretend that’s possible. But we can’t let perfect be the enemy of better.
Better is possible. A lot better is possible.
It’s worth fighting for.
But what does better look like?
WHICH humans should algorithms serve and HOW should algorithms serve them?
This is the fundamental question.
We have already seen companies try and pretend to not have algorithms. It’s an empty vapid, ideal. Very few people can even give you a clear boundary of what an algorithm is and when someone actually does, you realize that algorithms are so pervasive that they are part of who we are.
The difference now is that algorithms are global.
The consciousness they spark and experiences they share are global.
There’s massive benefits to this network.
It’s called the internet.
Unless we live in one of the Post Apocalyptic Survival Thrillers I wrote (which I sincerely hope we don’t), then there is no going back.
The internet is here to stay. And it’s done a ton of good despite its deep seeded flaws.
But we have to fix it. For us authors. For our readers. For our children and their children.
And I think the answer is quite simple.
It goes back to our values.
It goes back to why we are building what we are.
And it goes back to the broader vision I will be unveiling on May 7.
For now, I’ll share with you the 3 rules that underpin it all.
#1: Storytellers Rule the World. The publishing ecosystem should be designed to give storytellers power from the ground up. From the data that feeds algorithms, from the control of the creation and distribution of content, and for the businesses they are trying to serve. All of it… storytellers must rule. Not some freaking Silicon Valley VC or big tech platform that was never designed to serve you anyways.
#2: Readers First. Recommendation algorithms only go so far. They can’t and SHOULD NOT be the only pipeline for discovery. What separates algorithms from our neurons? No one is certain. We must create a future where human + machine recommendations can coexist. And in that process machines will shape our human recommendations just as our human recommendations shape the machines. And this is not just as simple as “oh we take user input of likes and comments to surface stories”. That’s bullshit. Anyone who is an honest artist understands that data is an abstraction. Data does not make us human. And the true experience of a story can’t be encapsulated or measured by a machine (that won’t happen ANYTIME soon either by the way, decades away if ever). So it comes down to doing something more radical. It comes down to TRULY putting Readers First in discovery. What does that look like? Well you’ll have to wait and see… but it’s been the big passion of mine all along.
#3: Community is King. Algorithms (both machine driven and the “algorithms of our mind”) often prioritize short term outcomes above all else. This is a MASSIVE problem. In another great book, The Story Paradox by Johnathan Gottschall, it is discussed how storytelling created modern civilization — that Storytellers Rule the World — but that storytelling now threatens our existence. Community is about love. Community is about belonging. Community is about cultivating a space for togetherness, shared experience, and sustainability over the long run. Communities are supposed to last generations — not days like viral hashtags. What does this mean for us? That attention is like saturated fat. Feels super good in the short run, but too much of it will kill us (we already seed this happening). What does a more balanced diet look like? If we make community king and elevate the power of fandom, we can cultivate a future that is more accepting and sustainable for all. This helps to explain why subscriptions are the foundation of all of this. It’s your world as a storyteller to build a shared space for your readers that they come back to month over month.
This world will not be perfect. This world will also evolve.
But this world we are building for fiction authors and readers everywhere — will be remarkably better than what exists today.
Rome wasn’t built overnight. Neither will Ream.
But we can’t wait to create a future where the ecosystem of people, technology, and systems that make up publishing are in service of Community is King, Readers First, and Storytellers Rule the World above all else.
A better world for publishing.
We hope you join us.It’s going to be a lot of fun 