What I've been reading this week

Seeing as people rely so much on social media, which itself is a terribly inefficient way to source news, I thought I'd start sharing things I've stumbled across this.

I curate stuff separately both for Ministry of Testing and Rosieland, these links fall somewhere in between those resources, generally a mixture of tech, marketing and business.

Notes from the Exit: Why I Left the Attention Economy

I didn’t leave the attention economy because I hated it. I left because I understood it, because once you see the system for what it is—a parasitic loop that rewards noise over nuance, metrics over meaning, reaction over reflection—you have two choices. Keep optimizing for reach, or

Westenberg.Joan Westenberg

Some thoughts on how people (including me) are using AI

As many of you may have noticed, some of these Torment Nexus newsletters involve the presentation of a bunch of evidence in the form of links, followed by a well-thought-out conclusion (some may be more well-thought than others, but I let’s not quibble). I want to say up front that

The Torment NexusMathew Ingram

Search unbundling has begun

Google isn’t dead—but its grip is loosening. From Perplexity to Cursor, here’s how search is splintering into smarter, focused tools.

Matt Downeymattdowney

Are AI Chatbots Replacing Search Engines? AI vs Google [New Research] | Orbit Media Studios

AI overviews now appear at the top of half of all search results. But is Google itself getting fewer clicks? See all the findings in our new research…

Orbit Media StudiosAndy Crestodina

Gumroad’s Interestingly Timed “Open-Source” Play

The creator-economy service Gumroad decided to open-source its platform at a suspiciously convenient time. (And even “open source” might be stretching it.)

Tedium: The Dull Side of the Internet.Ernie Smith

Is AI-focused AEO is the new SEO?

Why people are talking about AEO instead of SEO. Hint: It’s about AI.

HubSpotJuliet Bennett Rylah