…I’ve taken a couple of months of time off in order to dedicate myself to some serious fiction writing. Hence the lack of updates lately.

After a month across the US to visit some friends (and attend to the Narrative Summit at the Austin GDC), I settled in San Diego for 2 months for 2 reasons: 1) It’s an easy living, so I wouldn’t have to worry about anything besides writing, and 2) I didn’t know anyone there, so I wouldn’t have to wish for anything besides writing.

I had stellar expectations in terms of output, but I have to admit that I don’t think I’ll reach my objectives. I think it’s okay, though, as I have learned much from my first formal attempt at writing.

There are currently 35 hours of content being uploaded on Youtube every minute. Most people answer to this with a shrug and ask how much of it will ever be viewed. But the question these people are actually asking is “How much of it will I get to view?” while the real question is “How much of it will find an audience?“

Is your 99% of crap the same as my 99% of crap? Of course not. So it’s more than likely that most of your 99% is somebody else’s 1%. Dismissing theirs means that anyone could dismiss yours, too. And then we’re back to having a few channels of average content that everyone can vaguely relate to.

The reason why there are “universal” superstars and trends in the first place (which most people consider to be the default state) is only a consequence of our former inability to distribute enough content to please everyone. The fact that 99% of the stuff out there is of no interest to you simply means that we’re finally catching up in terms of output: there’s now something for everyone to be passionate about, not just distractedly interested in.

We’re headed toward a sub-culture/niche society, and that means we’re about so see a whole lot of things we don’t agree with around us. Better get used to it.

Amazon knows I have Richard Morgan’s whole bibliography.

Amazon knows I just bought a Kindle.

So why do I have to fork over more than $10 per book I already own?

The only sensible way to go here, is to sent customers their Kindle already preloaded with all the books they’ve ever ordered on Amazon. There simply is no other alternative.

As I’ve been aching for a dislike button in Facebook for some time, this article seductively titled “Should Facebook add a dislike button?” instantly caught my attention; after all, why would anyone doubt that?

And mostly, I agree with the Pete, in that companies certainly wouldn’t want anybody to comparatively weight the Likes versus the Dislikes on their page. In a way, I think it’s somewhat short-sighted of them (as getting feedback from consumers is the golden rule to improving how you are perceived), but on the other hand, simple Likes/Dislikes don’t give out much information, and I’m pretty sure Facebook comments cannot be considered as constructive feedback.

To sum up, a Dislike button may or may not be in Facebook’s and in advertiser’s interests, from a business perspective.

But how about the user perspective? Here’s a quote that I strongly disagree with:

Like buttons are about connection; Dislike buttons are about division.

No they’re not.

Disliking something is just as connecting a statement as liking something. Electric car activists are not connected to one another by their fondness of electrons flowing through copper wire: they are because they dislike fossil fuel cars. The Wikipedia team brought hundreds of thousands of contributors together because of their collective distaste of the old way of doing things (too restrictive, not evolving fast enough, etc).

And this is how social signaling works, too: who we are is defined by what we dislike just as much as it is by what we do like.

Facebook is still about social interactions, right? Or has it morphed into an advertising platform already?