This is an essay I wrote in 2022, inspired by Kyle Chaka’s 2016 viral essay, “Welcome to Airspace”. After seeing an excerpt from Kyle’s new book on the front of /c/Technology, I thought y’all might be interested in reading this piece of mine, which is less about the design of physical spaces, and more about The Algorithm™'s influence on creative practice in general.
This is a conversation I can have a million times, so I hope you enjoy.
Back in the day, both Harlan Ellison and Hunter Thompson wrote about the economics of being a writer. Around 1970 [iirc] Ellison said that if he sold one TV script a year he could pay his bills and write what he wanted. Thompson’s “Hell’s Angels” has a chapter on being a ‘drop out.’ A biker could get a Union stevedore job and save enough in six months to hit the road for two years. A part time waitress could keep herself and her musician boyfriend going.