Post 24: Propagation and accountability

(Who grew up in the 90s?)

I’m not sure if it is obvious or not, but I am having A LOT of fun with this Substack project, so thank you very much to those who are taking the time to read these conversations! It is very much appreciated.

I think this project is very good for me because it balances what I really want to do, which is learn weird things, with some accountability.

Instead of just jumping from topic to topic with the LLM, I have to, at least once a day, try to focus what I am thinking/learning about into a format that (hopefully) is understandable to others, not to mention helping me to actually know, (or seem to know if you have been following along the Posts), what I am learning and thinking about enough to try to write a synopsis of some sort. If you have been reading, you know that I sort of put the minimal effort into that part, 🙂, the whole organization of thoughts component, and again, thanks for putting up with that.

Anyway, every once in a while I get the idea that I should try to propagate this project further by venturing further out into social media with it or something, (I took the first step by mentioning it in a facebook post, but really, contrary to the wider reality of what facebook has become, my connections there are a pretty gentle and forgiving lot. And to reach out there I was able to be honest about how subscribing and reading this Substack might not actually be worth anyone’s time lol).

I know, I know. .. Get to the point! But I have all sorts of mixed feelings about this. First, as someone who really came of age in the 90s, the idea of actually working to promote myself or something I am doing feels, well, gross. Second, as I sort of alluded to above, I like doing this, and taking the time to promote something would take away from the limited time I actually get to do it . Third, (and probably most obvious), all I am doing here is publishing conversations with LLMs, something anyone can do, and why would this even have an audience when anyone can do it themselves. . . (although I frequently ask myself the same question about people who sit and watch other people play video games on youtube and twitch rather than playing them themselves. . . I totally respect it, but I don’t get it at all. I’ve always wanted to be a PC not an NPC. . . I probably just insulted everyone who is reading this, also a reason why promotion probably isn’t my bag 🤣).

Okay, so that is enough of that. . . I had a conversation with ChatGPT about trying to promote my substack, see below and enjoy you NPCs!

PS: Okay, so someone who understands the youtube/twitch video game thing better than I do explained it to me like this: Apparently the people who get watched are entertaining in some way beyond just playing the games, the communities are fun, and the viewers frequently DO play the games themselves as well. . . Fine, while I can’t guarantee reading my stuff will be entertaining, I try, . . . and I think communities sort of build organically, so I am not going to worry about that. . . and I am sure a lot of you do use LLMs, but maybe you get ideas from this?

P.P.S: After writing the above I added to the convo with ChatGPT asking it to help me frame why I would want to propagate this substack. It did have a good point, in theory, the more people that read this, the more likely I am to get people communicating ideas back to me that neither the LLM nor I had considered. . . that is very cool and has certainly happened, (and has been the best part for sure!).

P.P.P.S.: I am on Bluesky now, so I will probably start mentioning my posts there at some point. . . @nathanielbarber.bsky.social . That doesn’t seem too onerous. . . probably going to stay off of X/Twitter though. . .

P.P.P.P.S.: One of the things ChatGPT suggested I say this at the end of my posts: If this resonated with you, consider sharing it with someone else who might enjoy it!