My Internet: Derek Thompson
The ‘Abundance’ co-author finds it impossible to have strong opinions about AI.
Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.
Some weeks, we quiz a “very online” person for their essential guide to what’s good on the internet.
Today we welcome Derek Thompson, a staff writer at The Atlantic and host of the news podcast Plain English. He is also the co-author, with Ezra Klein, of Abundance, a new book that has engendered a torrent of discourse about YIMBYism and the path forward for the Democratic party. Derek thinks Spotify is sensational and sees the risk of group polarization in group chats. —Nick
EMBEDDED: Where do you tend to get your news?
DEREK THOMPSON: The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, the NBER economics paper page, Group Chats, Group Slacks, and, yes, Twitter.
EMBEDDED: How do you keep up with the online discourse? How important is it to you to do this?
DEREK THOMPSON: I think it’s important to leave oneself moderately open to online discourse, as a journalist. Wall it off entirely, and you’re denying yourself a window to the world. Mainline it, and you’re often drinking from a firehose of outrage and nonsense that, in 48 hours, won’t leave a trace. Online discourse is like whiskey. Delicious in the right doses, a dependable source of headaches in excess, and toxic at the extreme.
EMBEDDED: What are your favorite newsletters?
DEREK THOMPSON:
EMBEDDED: What’s one positive media trend? What’s one negative trend?
DEREK THOMPSON: The worst thing about media is the rise of the highly popular and profitable conspiratorial right, which plays brilliantly to (a part of) the public’s sense that the world is made up entirely of dark elite collusion. These folks have poisoned the media space of the right, which is I think fully detached from any curious effort to understand reality in a way that is distinct from rooting for Trump to succeed and liberals to be embarrassed. The positive media trend is that, for the curious, it’s straightforwardly easier than ever to learn about literally anything.
EMBEDDED: Do you have a take on the “manosphere”? Do you think personalities like Joe Rogan, Lex Fridman, and Theo Von have shaped young men’s political leanings?
DEREK THOMPSON: There’s so much focus on the supply of manosphere content, and not enough focus on the demand. Why are these guys popular? What can liberals take from the lesson of their popularity to become more popular among young men?
EMBEDDED: Do you believe that the “artificial general intelligence” and “superintelligence” that many AI boosters have warned of actually pose a risk to humanity?
DEREK THOMPSON: Yes. But I don’t know how strongly I believe what I believe about AI. I find the whole thing to be very confusing and impossible to have very strong opinions about.
EMBEDDED: Do you use Slack or Teams for work? What’s the best thing about Slacking with your co-workers? What’s the worst thing?
DEREK THOMPSON: Slack is great. But every Slack and group chat has the same risk, which is group polarization. The people with the most extreme views tend to be most active and vocal, and the people with moderate or uncertain views tend to be most quiet, and this leads most group conversations to create a false sense of certainty and unison, which is often belied by quietly held disagreements that aren’t published. I think group polarization is really interesting because it seems to operate at the level of all groups—at work, in clubs and associations, and in chats.
EMBEDDED: Do you pay for a music streaming service, and if so, which one? What’s a playlist, song, album, or style of music you’ve listened to a lot lately?
DEREK THOMPSON: I use Spotify for music, podcasts, and audiobooks, and I think it’s sensational. To be clear: The company owns the Ringer, which produces my podcast, but I’m 99% sure I would have all of these opinions even if that weren’t the case.
EMBEDDED: If you could only keep one streaming service for TV and/or movies, which would it be, and why? What’s a show that you’re really into right now?
DEREK THOMPSON: Max, so I can keep rewatching episodes of Veep over and over again.
EMBEDDED: What’s your favorite non-social media app?
DEREK THOMPSON: Kindle and Oura.
EMBEDDED: Is there any content you want but can’t seem to find anywhere online?
DEREK THOMPSON: The JP Morgan analyst Michael Cembalest publishes a monthly newsletter that is essentially a one-stop-shop for macroeconomic news and data. I’d love that for other industries: science, biotech, software, AI, national politics. I want more specialized one-stop-shop media that synthesize everything that mattered in the previous month.
EMBEDDED: Have you recently read an article or book that you’ve found particularly insightful?
DEREK THOMPSON: The books What Hath God Wrought, by Daniel Walker Howe, and The Republic For Which It Stands, by Richard White, are collectively a 1,600 page history of America between the 1820s and 1890s. It’s my favorite period in American history, and they are my favorite books about this period.
EMBEDDED: What’s the last thing that brought you joy online?
DEREK THOMPSON: Houthi group chat memes. Times are dark, and democracy is fragile, but for one 24 hour period, the Internet rose up and delivered a steady stream of sensational memes.
Thanks Derek! Buy his book, read his writing, and listen to his podcast.
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