Feeding the beast; ChatGPT users revealed; how not to write: Newsletter 17 September 2025

Newsletter 111. Think twice about recycling your outrage. Plus, not sounding like an AI, how consultants stand out, three people to follow and three books to read.

Welcome to the machine

You had a busy week. I know. You posted on social media, and I saw it. You’re hurting, like all of us, and I see that. But if you’ll just indulge me for one moment, I’d like you to think a minute about why you shared what you shared, and what you hoped to accomplish, and who you actually served.

You shared your anger at the assassination of a human being. I saw that. You’re against people being shot. They have families, and that makes it extra terrible. Very good of you to point that out.

Maybe you shared a bunch of things said by the guy who was shot. I saw it, just as I did the other hundred people who shared the same things. I’m sure the one-hundred-and-first time all of that is shared will definitely turn the tide and change everyone’s perspective.

Or maybe you shared your outrage at people criticizing the guy who had just been killed. You hate people who hate people who say hateful things. Okay. Got it.

You explained why you were sure the guy who shot him was a leftist, a MAGA son, in a videogame cult, or participating in some sort of transgender ideology. Whatever you shared, it coincided with your own ideas about the world that existed before the shooting. That makes sense, because in the absence of much actual evidence, you can fit the few fragmentary puzzle pieces lying around into whatever picture fits your worldview. The shooting has to mean something, and that’s how you make sense of it.

You got upset with people who weren’t upset enough with this shooting, or the other shooting of a politician that happened a few months ago or the children who were shot at their school or their church or whatever context this event is supposed to fit into. Clearly, if we’re not outraged about the right things, we’re part of the problem.

It’s an emotional issue. But let’s dolly back and look at it for a moment, because there are a few things we can all agree on — and they have very little to do with politics and guns.

I hope we can agree that posting online is unlikely to change someone’s heartfelt beliefs. That’s not how people change their minds. Did you ever change your mind because of something you read online? Did you ever change someone else’s by sharing a meme? Because that hardly ever happens.

I think we can agree that sharing the same thing hundreds of other people also share is not moving the needle on much of anything. This isn’t a voting booth. Everyone is shouting, and nobody is listening.

I think we can agree that many of us post out of anger — and that posting out of anger doesn’t actually make us feel any better.

I think we can agree that posting fuels the outrage machine, that fuels more violence. The IPSOS poll in the graphic shows nearly everybody sees that.

And we can agree that the more controversy there is, the more it sucks people into spending more time on social media, the more “engagement” it creates, and of course, the more profit it generates for Meta, X, TikTok, and the whole social media industrial complex.

I know what you think you are doing: expressing your heartfelt beliefs so everyone can see what side of things you’re on.

But the only people who see what you share are other people who agree with you, because that’s how the algorithms are set up, to maximize engagement and hide your post from people with diverse opinions.

I know it hurts to hear this, but you’re not helping anybody. You have no new information. You’re not telling anyone things they don’t already think or know. You’re not going to feel any better after you’ve shared. Whatever you imagine you are doing, what you are actually doing is feeding the outrage machine and helping the richest companies in the world to make more money and accumulate more power and fuel even more outrage.

I’m not trying to stop you. Far be it from me to put any barriers on free speech.

All I’d like is for you to think a minute about what you’re actually doing, what you’re actually accomplishing, as opposed to what you imagine you’re accomplishing.

Welcome to the machine. Enjoy your stay.

News for writers and others who think

Writers are changing how they write so as not to be mistaken for AI output. But avoiding bad writing is not how good writing happens.

OpenAI and Harvard researchers published a paper on how people actually use ChatGPT. Two-thirds of the people using ChatGPT to support writing were editing, critiquing, translating, or summarizing, not generating text.

Erin Brown is no longer executive editor at Greenleaf. Watch that space.

David C. Baker explains the four things expert consultants have that clients don’t: unique thinkers, objectivity, nimbleness, and experience in identifying common industry patterns. This is why the smart consultancies both large and small aren’t going to evaporate — because those four things are impossible to replicate for a corporate strategist with a few AI tools.

Old but good: how people perceive quality words, shown graphically in a YouGov poll. Worst: abysmal, appalling, dreadful. Best: Perfect, outstanding, excellent. Most “meh”: Fair, OK, satisfactory.

Joel Stein worries that he doesn’t deserve to get paid for LLMs pirating his books, because they weren’t that popular. Art is art. Stealing is stealing. It’s not about how many people bought them.

Three people to follow

Alice Sullivan , who edited 11 New York Times bestsellers

Kevin Ertell, providing insight into the gap between strategy and execution

Joe Marchese: VC. Entrepreneur. Media wizard.

Three books to read

Professional Drug Addict: A Memoir of Addiction, Crime, Homelessness, and Redemption by Arnel Castro Leyva (Kitsap, 2025). What happens when a tech executive trades corporate meetings for meth-fueled street survival?

How to Save the Internet: The Threat to Global Connection in the Age of AI and Political Conflict by Nick Clegg (Bodley Head, 2025). Insights, perhaps, from Meta’s former chief apologist.

Writing as a Way of Life: A Book about Art, Craft, and Devotion by Brian Morton (Black Lawrence, 2025). Psychic preparation for a life as a writer.