I'm worried about how much synthetic content we're consuming

Consider this an op-ed/ networking beacon.

I'm emphasising that it's me writing this, because today I saw a post from a founder that started "Hi, this is X's AI Agent! Let me tell you about how X is structuring his time..." And it stressed me out. That is, flatly, batsh behaviour.

I am starting to get intensely worried about the affect on human brains of consuming so much Venture-Capital-produced content.

I am going to try to learn more about this.

I also want to share my experience, for people who don't get it.

I've had a really weird career. I started working in VC by accident.

In late 2014, in picked up a day-rate data-entry gig from an Oxford classmate via Facebook, which turned into a long-term freelance gig to support my BA and Sociology MSc, which turned into a real, full-time job.

I was in VC spaces for just over five years, before I ran away from the industry, scorched-earth style.

It sounds kinda wild to say that I fell into (and then left) a career that a lot of people pay big MBA money to access. It might have been stupid. I just couldn't keep pretending to believe that selling the profits of publicly-funded research to sovereign wealth funds was a cool way to my spend time. It started really getting to me - I felt empty and anxious all the time, despite the perks, the free Ubers, the company card, the people who wanted to talk to me because I represented access to money.

That said, I got a front-row seat to how and why the world is changing. Some historically-relevant moments of my VC life included facilitating a Sam Altman town hall in 2016, and, in 2019, calling up a bunch of Oxford academics across a ton of fields to ask them if they thought an AI-enabled data analysis platform would help their research. I'd been blown away by a product demo, but all the professors said they'd never use it. Things change! & I've learned to trust my instincts.

Why should u care? etc

In my early twenties, I didn't understand what venture capital really *is*. I didn't have the experience to identify the systems that it propagates, the norms that it relies on, and what hanging out in those ROI-centric spaces was doing to my brain. At the time, the tech industry was still fun! Chill! Still giving out t-shirts and ping pong and perks!

I literally didn't have the skills or experience to think twice about my engagement in it. Just like 99% of the people who are engaging with VC's latest outputs, I didn't grow up with money - I didn't know how it worked.

So, this is what I worry about now. People are not inoculated in the way I got inoculated. Venture capital culture (bad! low key!) is inextricably linked with AI culture. AI culture is threatening to take over our entire political and communication system. It is threatening to shape our neurology - and, thus, our identities.

Anyway...Let's connect! AMA!