Navigating the "attention economy" as a creator

I heard from a ton of you in the last couple of days after sharing my thoughts in Friday’s newsletter (Thursday, if you’re a paid subscriber!) on the media’s current obsession with Hasan Piker. I was not surprised to hear from people across the political spectrum.

There was no consensus. Some people love Piker, some are neutral and some can’t stand the guy. Within those three groups, there was plenty of variation as well. Like my own stance (that I don’t really watch him, but I also think the reaction is overblown), plenty of takes I saw were thoughtful and nuanced. Here’s a few!

I worry he's taking progressive would-be Democrat voters and turning them into cynical non-voters, a net negative for Democrats. 

I hadn’t considered this angle. If it’s true, it does provide a good answer to my original question: why do liberal podcast bros care so much about him?

This reader, like the vast majority of you, made a point to say they love our content. I am always struck by just how empathetic and thoughtful you all are. Even in the heat of debate, there’s an underlying kindness, and I very much appreciate it.

Here was a top comment on our YouTube Community Post, where I posted screenshots of the newsletter:

More context on the 9/11 comment: He appoligized [sic] 2 days after the stream on the Young Turks. Specifically he said "deserved" was inappropriate, and clarified that he meant that the US shouldn't be surprised that the interventionism policies had blowback.

It’s true. He did walk it back shortly after. My mistake! Your comments on this went both directions. From another emailer:

You frame it as though he’s walked back his comments. However, he recently hung a framed newspaper front page from 9/12/2001 on the wall behind him in his livestreams

I’m grateful to the many who sent corrections and their points of view via email and in the comment section on YouTube. Never stop doing that! It’s part of our policy to own our mistakes.

The following was one of the more strongly worded critiques.

I’m a Gen Z liberal, and my main complaint (although I have many minor ones) with Hasan is that he is fundamentally illiberal … He is a subversive political actor. His praise of Mao is not on accident.

I saw the last piece of this, on Piker’s support for Mao and Stalin specifically, in a few emails. The word “illiberal” came up as well. I think it’s worth exploring further and hope to spend a full half hour on it in our upcoming series, which premieres next month on YouTube. This will also give me a chance to fact-check the many specific critiques — and praises — you all so diligently laid out to me via email.

In some emails, and especially in the YouTube Community Post, I saw a ton of praise for Piker, or general agreement that the criticism was overblown.

Mainstream media always feels more comfortable punching to the left than actually taking the fight to the GOP and establishment dems. Hasan just seems like an easy target to them, but I feel like it'll backfire spectacularly and just show [sic] how out of touch they are

This was echoed in an email that called out the need for “grace and constructive criticism.”

He can say something out of his ass sometimes but I think in the contemporary internet when you are always giving your opinions you’re bound to have some bad ones.

One emailer said they felt Piker could not just be waved away (fair). They also pointed out an interesting contrast in the comparison I had made between Piker and Hunter Biden.

Biden has apologized to those he's hurt with his addiction & is in recovery. Piker's addiction might be a different animal, but he's still actively in it, so there's no room to just come out & say unequivocally that he's sorry.

I think there’s something to consider in the “internet addiction” of it all, if that is what the commenter is alluding to. Most content creators have some form of it, just as a result of spending their entire careers on the internet. Personally, I try to combat it by being extremely offline on Saturdays and most of Sundays.

Now, all that said. Not all the emails were friendly!

I wish you r******* Piker fans would stop pretending to not know him, not watch his content and not be fucning [sic] sycophants.

I can appreciate that someone unfamiliar with me might not take me at my word. But folks, I really don’t watch his content! That was why I wrote the original post — I was only hearing about him because of people complaining about him. With that in mind, I'm going to elaborate more on the “attention economy” later on in this post.

For now, back to the lighter part of each Sunday’s newsletter.

Like John Krasinski, I kind of love The Devil Wears Prada. It’s well-acted, well-written, light but with some intense moments. It’s a very rewatchable movie with some real heart. My wife and I had planned to see the sequel, blandly titled (for marketing purposes, I assume) The Devil Wears Prada 2, but parenting got in the way of that movie night. So, now that it finally started streaming on Disney+, we watched it in two installments (parenting caused us to pass out halfway through the initial watch).

It’s… ok? Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt and Meryl Streep slipped effortlessly back into their characters. I feel that for the second time this year, after seeing The Odyssey, I’m watching Anne Hathaway muscle her way through a poorly written role. I think Hathaway is incredibly talented, but I was more excited when I saw the other three on screen, or local KC-born legend Caleb Hearon.

Anyway, they did what most formulaic sequels do these days and retreaded the same ebbs and flows of the original plot. Totally serviceable. The biggest surprise was the opening few minutes in which award-winning journalists were fired. That was followed by hiring decisions made at the whim of a billionaire and the gradual realization that two characters were clearly based on Jeff Bezos and billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, to whom he used to be married.

I didn’t hate this framing, but it felt a little like they were putting a hat on a hat. I would love to see all of these actors in a separate film about how billionaires are buying and selling great institutions. But it felt weird watching these familiar characters stand in for all the journalists being thoughtlessly fired, with Streep’s Miranda Priestly shoehorned into the hero role. It would be like casting Mickey Mouse and Goofy in a biopic about crypto bros. Sure, that’s interesting, but… are these the best characters to make the point?

Or rather… drinking less coffee than I’d like.

Folks, the coffee carafe for our KitchenAid coffee maker is broken again. And the more I read the reviews, the more I realize it’s a common problem, which is why the replacement carafe keeps running out of stock. It may be time to just start over and get a brand-new coffee maker. As much as I love going to our local Caribou Coffee as a temporary fix, it’s getting expensive to keep up this addiction.

So, what coffee maker should we get? Eagerly standing by, awaiting your suggestions at [email protected].

I made an uncharacteristically personal video on Friday, speaking more plainly about the earthquake in Colombia. The majority of my wife’s family lives there. In short, it’s devastating. All of them have been impacted in big and small ways. The recovery will take years, likely decades. Many kind people in the comments asked how they can help. I found this article from AP News especially helpful.

In particular, I like that they give options for both US-based and Colombia-based organizations.

Circling back to our main discussion, another email asked that I speak more about the “attention economy”…

I would love to get your take on the “attention economy” as you put it as a content creator. My take on it is that everyone is trying to feed the social media beast and from that you get rewarded with likes and subscriptions which turn into dollars for people like the Pikers, and Cenk Uygurs, Carlsons and even Joe Rogan. 

As a jumping-off point, I pretty much agree with this on its face. Yes, content creators are trying to feed the social media beast. And yes, it’s all in service of more engagement and subscribers that can be turned into dollars. In this very newsletter, every week, we ask if you’d like to become an LNI member, after all (here’s the link!).

This is why I was not shy in pointing out last week that I, too, want your attention and also benefit from this content creator ecosystem. I think that it would be ridiculous to denounce content creators who turn your attention into money, while simultaneously benefiting from it myself.

In my view, this job is not unlike any other job. There are noble ways to do it and there are less-than-noble ways. Think of your own job. There are likely good and bad actors. You may have a co-worker who takes shortcuts. You may have another who works hard and makes a genuine effort to help customers. This is how I view my job, and it’s informed by my previous jobs (ice cream vendor, barista, Sea Base Island Mate, Colbert Report intern, VIP concert ticket helpline, rainwater garden consultant, etc.). Most importantly, my previous bosses — the majority of whom were very good people — taught me that it’s the person up top who sets the tone for the company.

So, if the product or currency is “attention,” then we have to go about collecting it in an honest way. That’s why at LNI we don’t accept money from super PACs or political parties. We don’t take money from prediction markets, which I personally find morally bankrupt. These aren’t just our policies. We have turned down these opportunities multiple times in the last year. Here’s where I remind you, again, that you can support us by becoming a member or making a contribution.

I don’t view “the attention economy” as a bad thing. I view it as something that can be corrupted or compromised by the ways people go about getting and benefiting from it.

Then you have to hear my latest dad-take.

Why did they add another SuperKitty? I like Willa the Wildcat but she ruins the pace of the SuperKitties song! And what’s her skill? Preparedness? She’s “ready”? Come on, Disney Junior. Get it together.

To end on a positive note: I love the Glamsters, who were also introduced in season 3.