I understand why food blogging went the way it did — ridiculously long-winded life stories with a recipe buried inside designed to hit keywords and algorithm checkboxes — but it’s an awful user experience and this is one use of AI I’m all for.
When I want a recipe, funnily enough I want the damn recipe. Good information is everywhere — it’s how fast you can access it that’s important now
The "OG" communication platforms of the internet - email and websites - may actually be safe havens - islands of respite - in the future internet of high slop. Email and websites send specific messages and require significant "owner" ownership, design and oversight when used most effectively.
So, you’re saying the hurricanes are my mom’s fault? 😮 Why do you hate my mom, Adam? 🤬 She just loves living on the beach and minding her own business! 🤪 But, seriously, how dare you blame innocent food bloggers who identify as victims despite publishing Great Aunt Mabel’s recipes without a revenue share to their cousins (dear departed Aunt Mabel’s spawn)? 😏
I won't be at all sad to see instructional websites with browser-crashing ads and 10 minute videos that describe a 10 second task go the way of the dodo. Glad I'm not the only one.
Agree with all of this especially the value in owning your email list. Although Substack allows you to leave with you list, I was interested in your thoughts on whether relying on this platform is also akin to building your work on stilts next to the sea?
If they decided to not let us export our contact lists I would leave. I don't think they would do this. They are not the same model as big tech. Not everything has to be extractive.
I was wondering when the "but what about the recipe bloggers" special pleadfest would happen.
TBH, I've been using AI for cooking for over a year, and most of the time it's fine. More often than not I just take a picture of my fridge and say "wdyt, Im hungry and I can cook", and it produces something (I can adjust if something is obviously wrong). Sometimes I discover something new, gets me out of a rut, and I riff on it for future dishes.
I saw one of them complaining on social media today but I mean, the internet giving you free attention at all is a miracle. Just figure out another way and adapt. All this is fluid.
Seems like platforms such as Substack will be more valuable. I think it has been the answer to internet slop, which frankly had gotten terrible long before AI started siphoning traffic.
My local news substack still gets plenty of traffic from Google (though there has been a decline), and it won’t erase my readership because I offer original reporting and in-depth stories that AI can’t do on its own.
One thing I would add - Ai gives you the ability to ask questions of it to further refine the answer to the question you have. I can’t ask a blog or YouTube video why what I’m seeing on my screen or under my hood looks different than what it’s describing. I’ve fixed a lot of problems this way.
Yes to all of this. Especially this part, " The new game is the old game and how marketing used to be: build a brand, own distribution, and give people a reason to care about you beyond “I rank first for how to cook a turkey.”
I take that literally as well-- print ads (literally the local Jewish paper, a park bench, in-person meetups).
1.) Create something of value
2.) Market it and make it easy for people to find you and sign up/buy/donate
I'm a big fan of "nuanced" content, which AI can't solve...For example, I follow a chap called "Steel Pan Guy" on YouTube. Why? I was intrigued for months because I had heard foodies talk about how glorious it is to cook on stainless steel.
Similar to Gordon Ramsay — though in much smaller scale — the guy has personality, a unique style — "Here's what 'Big Teflon' doesn't want you to know" — and his videos solve a very specific niche problem that I had.
Emphasis on "had."
Sure, I did use AI to figure out if the Viking brand pan I picked up at HomeGoods was worth the money (spoiler: it was), but things like technique, heat level, which oil to use...those are totes important.
Yes you have to have real reasons to follow people. This is going to require actually doing something human. Which might even be good - if no one makes money from cheap spam operations what is lost, really
I understand why food blogging went the way it did — ridiculously long-winded life stories with a recipe buried inside designed to hit keywords and algorithm checkboxes — but it’s an awful user experience and this is one use of AI I’m all for.
When I want a recipe, funnily enough I want the damn recipe. Good information is everywhere — it’s how fast you can access it that’s important now
The "OG" communication platforms of the internet - email and websites - may actually be safe havens - islands of respite - in the future internet of high slop. Email and websites send specific messages and require significant "owner" ownership, design and oversight when used most effectively.
Goodhart’s law, like karma, is a real bitch.
So, you’re saying the hurricanes are my mom’s fault? 😮 Why do you hate my mom, Adam? 🤬 She just loves living on the beach and minding her own business! 🤪 But, seriously, how dare you blame innocent food bloggers who identify as victims despite publishing Great Aunt Mabel’s recipes without a revenue share to their cousins (dear departed Aunt Mabel’s spawn)? 😏
I won't be at all sad to see instructional websites with browser-crashing ads and 10 minute videos that describe a 10 second task go the way of the dodo. Glad I'm not the only one.
Same as it ever was.
2008 me: http://louisgray.blogspot.com/2008/04/most-bloggers-dont-deserve-any-ad.html
OG post
Agree with all of this especially the value in owning your email list. Although Substack allows you to leave with you list, I was interested in your thoughts on whether relying on this platform is also akin to building your work on stilts next to the sea?
If they decided to not let us export our contact lists I would leave. I don't think they would do this. They are not the same model as big tech. Not everything has to be extractive.
I was wondering when the "but what about the recipe bloggers" special pleadfest would happen.
TBH, I've been using AI for cooking for over a year, and most of the time it's fine. More often than not I just take a picture of my fridge and say "wdyt, Im hungry and I can cook", and it produces something (I can adjust if something is obviously wrong). Sometimes I discover something new, gets me out of a rut, and I riff on it for future dishes.
I saw one of them complaining on social media today but I mean, the internet giving you free attention at all is a miracle. Just figure out another way and adapt. All this is fluid.
Seems like platforms such as Substack will be more valuable. I think it has been the answer to internet slop, which frankly had gotten terrible long before AI started siphoning traffic.
My local news substack still gets plenty of traffic from Google (though there has been a decline), and it won’t erase my readership because I offer original reporting and in-depth stories that AI can’t do on its own.
One thing I would add - Ai gives you the ability to ask questions of it to further refine the answer to the question you have. I can’t ask a blog or YouTube video why what I’m seeing on my screen or under my hood looks different than what it’s describing. I’ve fixed a lot of problems this way.
Yes to all of this. Especially this part, " The new game is the old game and how marketing used to be: build a brand, own distribution, and give people a reason to care about you beyond “I rank first for how to cook a turkey.”
I take that literally as well-- print ads (literally the local Jewish paper, a park bench, in-person meetups).
1.) Create something of value
2.) Market it and make it easy for people to find you and sign up/buy/donate
3.) Continue providing value
This is great.
I'm a big fan of "nuanced" content, which AI can't solve...For example, I follow a chap called "Steel Pan Guy" on YouTube. Why? I was intrigued for months because I had heard foodies talk about how glorious it is to cook on stainless steel.
Similar to Gordon Ramsay — though in much smaller scale — the guy has personality, a unique style — "Here's what 'Big Teflon' doesn't want you to know" — and his videos solve a very specific niche problem that I had.
Emphasis on "had."
Sure, I did use AI to figure out if the Viking brand pan I picked up at HomeGoods was worth the money (spoiler: it was), but things like technique, heat level, which oil to use...those are totes important.
Yes you have to have real reasons to follow people. This is going to require actually doing something human. Which might even be good - if no one makes money from cheap spam operations what is lost, really