Category: EventsCategory: Events

During yesterday’s “WHO’S WATCHING THE WATCHERS?” conversation, we started talking about Substack’s recent partnership with Pangram, the thing to detect AI writing. The thing is, talk to a bunch of people in the real world, and they have no idea what “a Substack” is, let alone what the fuck an AI detection tool is.

Let’s not outsource our taste to these AI conglomerates, and instead rely on the decades of life experience. The magazines we read when were kids. The songs we listened to on the radio. The adventures we had when renting movies.

From “The Lost Civic Life of Movie Rental Stores,”

Video clerks and store owners fostered a true third-place atmosphere in their stores. “There was always conversation in our store,” recalls Jerry Frebowitz, owner of Philadelphia’s Movies Unlimited. “Especially on Saturdays . . . there was so much film talk going on. Total strangers were talking to each other; it was really a phenomenon.” Though his customers always came to rent a movie, Frebowitz says, “They definitely stayed to talk . . . hardly anybody came in to get the movie and leave.”

There was no shortage of slop before AI, it’s just now we have a multi-billion dollar industry behind it trying to to sell bottom of the barrel CPM ads against it. Just as the techbro vultures co-opted the vibrant blogging ecosystem of the 2000s, they’ll decimate the post-social / current newsletter landscape to the ground as well.

Just go for a walk and let it burn/ Talk to our neighbors. Gather on a Zoom call (we’re talking about this again on Monday). Send each other letters. Update your website. Hop on the phone.

Does this solve everything? Does this “grow your audience” or help you make $10,000 per month?

Friend, the future is each other. The only zen at the top of a mountain is the zen you bring with you. Find your zen.

Substack rolled out an AI detection system using Pangram, and it’s kicked up more questions than answers.

​This is well beyond “did AI write this?”

​Did we opt-in to have all our writing scanned? Is our work used to train AI models? Where does that data go?

​When (not if) the detector gets it wrong, what are the consequences for the writer? Can we appeal?

​And underneath all of this, what kind of culture are we building? Are we putting our trust into the hands of Pangram? Are we building a paranoid creative surveillance state on an AI service? And who’s paying for it?!

​So many questions.

​We won’t settle all of this in an hour. This is a room to bring your reactions and feelings and talk about it with other people figuring it all out. There’s no right answer here, or perfect outcome, but we can get together with others as we look ahead.

Thursday, July 30 at 2:00 PM EDT → https://luma.com/fro6y0r8
Monday, Aug 3 at 9:00 AM EDT → https://luma.com/xo7xogcm

People ask a variation of this question almost weekly. They wrote a book, made an album, created a workshop, and then… well, how do we actually sell it? How do we let people know? And most importantly here at Social Media Escape Club, how do we do it without dancing for algorithms on multiple platforms?

This will be the focus of our Escape Pod Zoom calls this week.

This won’t be a super mega comprehensive how-to guide, this is a room full of people with varying levels of experience talking it through, feeling less alone, and leaving with a few to-do items for the coming week.

Thursday, Jul 23 at 2:00 PM EDT → https://luma.com/yqrrwriq
Monday, Jul 27 at 10:00 AM EDT → https://luma.com/z2i9e3cj

In our “WHY HAVEN’T YOU STARTED THE THING YET?” Escape Pod video call last week, a common thread is the question of “do I want to do this, or is it just thing I SHOULD do?”

“Should I start a newsletter?”
“Should I update my website?”

We need to ask better questions.

Who is this for? Who does it serve?

Asking “would the people who enjoy my work like to know about my art show next month?”
“Would the people who might hire me like to have current online portfolio to look at and a clear way to contact me?”

Start with clarity, then start.

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Join our next “WHY HAVEN’T YOU STARTED THE THING YET?” call, on Monday, July 13 from 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM EDT. Register here, pay what you want starting at $3.

If appearing on camera freaks you out, take inspiration from this video “how we shoot brand photography for AG1” from FLOWERS.

Now, yes of course, making a video like this takes some work. The editing! The text! Not to mention the super amazing footage featured throughout. But, friends – that wasn’t their first time making a video.

We all start somewhere.

A friend wanted to know how I made coffee, so I shot some footage, edited it together (I use ScreenFlow), added some of my own background music and narration, and that’s it. I’m not uploading it to YouTube, or featuring it on my website, but I made a video. It did the job.

This wasn’t my first video. I’ve been making videos for many years, with various projects, but nothing consistent in recent years.

So try making a video for one person, as the stakes are much lower. You’ve got ideas, concepts, lessons to teach, and putting them out into the world as video will probably make the world a better place, or at least help a friend make a good cup of coffee.

Join our upcoming Zoom calls talking about this, titled “WHY HAVEN’T YOU STARTED THE THING YET?” We’ll talk about what’s holding us back, face the fears, and maybe come away with a new found determination to finally start the thing you’ve been talking about starting.

Thursday, July 9 from 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT – REGISTER → https://luma.com/eyar9u7n
Monday, July 13 from 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM EDT- REGISTER → https://luma.com/c1166375