Algorithim Alternatives
A non-writer friend of mine lost their job last night (insurance industry) due to downsizing, and first thing I saw during this morning’s workout was that T. C. Parker is being pushed out of their job by A.I. and Amazon is expected to get rid of up to 30,000 employees today. Meanwhile, the madness continues in Russia and the Ukraine, the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is fraying at both ends, the Caribbean is being bulldozed by a hurricane, the government shutdown continues, the global economy is disintegrating, and food banks report that October has been their busiest month in 2025 — evidence of which I can see for myself at the Food Bank two blocks from my store. Oh, and our current President — much like our previous President — is probably struggling with some sort of cognitive decline. Which is apparently America’s only export now — a succession of old men from both political parties drooling into their Cream-O-Wheat.
But you know what has social media in an uproar? It is not any of these things.
No, it’s the fact that John Carpenter didn’t care for The Substance.
Here is the exchange, verbatim:
That’s it. That’s all he said. He didn’t like the film. And because of that social media churn we talked about here in earlier entries, and the toxicity of the algorithm, this has been the top news story for the last 24 hours, with people attacking each other over John’s opinion of a film.
We are doomed as a civilization. But hey, I get it. Things are bad, and you want to stick your head in the sand and avoid all the terrible news and instead argue about shit that doesn’t matter because you feel powerless to do anything about the things that do matter. But have you considered logging off and doing something different? Have you considered perhaps reading a book? Author Bryan Smith told me last night that he feels Joe Hill’s King Sorrow is “a goddamn masterpiece. The kind of horror epic I thought was gone with the 80s.” And while I’m not as far along in the book yet as Bryan is, I agree with him that it’s a masterpiece. It might be Joe’s best (I’ll save that verdict until I finish it).
King Sorrow is a big enough book that you can escape reality for a few weeks or maybe even a month. But hell, read any book. Listen to music. Play a video game. Go for a walk. Exercise. Talk to your friends in person, rather than via a device. Do something, anything, other than scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll. Because these platforms — these algorithms — are nothing but a giant fucking evil dragon, and you are sacrificing your time and mental health to them.
And time, I fear, is something we all seem to be running out of.
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Pandi Press reports a bunch of orders over the weekend for the November Pandi Pack which contains THE BEST OF BRIAN KEENE and FOUR PAST MEATNIGHT. Still time to get yours. They make great holiday presents.
Work yesterday was focused on the first draft of ONE-EYED MONSTER (a collaboration I’m writing with Laurel Hightower). Part of today will be focused on that, as well, in addition to shipping the weekend’s Vortex online orders, and the weekly meeting of the Central PA Comic Book Retailer Mafia.
Currently Reading: King Sorrow by Joe Hill
Currently Listening: “Roll With the Changes” by REO SPeedwagon