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Remember, our misery is some potential investor’s financial prospect. We read these articles with different eyes. There are people who are the real audience and

Remember, our misery is some potential investor’s financial prospect. We read these articles with different eyes. There are people who are the real audience and salivate when they read these sentiments.

MarkusQ 1mo ago
Who's making money off our misery exactly? I can see it as a foreign adversary psyop (they benefit from us being demoralized) or as a side effect of the attention economy (more clicks is all that matters) or even a hyper-partisanship epiphenomenon (whichever side is currently down wants people to think everything is awful). But "our misery is some potential investor’s financial prospect" sounds like some schlock B-movie plot. How is that supposed to work? Are they secretly feeding creatures from the 4th dimension by harvesting misery or something?
- s1artibartfast 1mo ago
  Advertisers make money on clicks, and content creators get a cut. This is the backbone that the entire internet operates on. Fear is the best driver of attention and clicks. Someone can choose to pass on a light-hearted fun article. If they feel their life or the fate of the universe is in the balance, they will read it. There isn't some evil mastermind behind it, just the banal economic incentives and evolutionary psychology. Edit: by way of example, when every woman I know got pregnant, their social media instantly filled up with stories about dead babies. Nobody hard coded that, but the algorithm picked up on the fact that pregnant women will pay attention to stories of dead babies. After all, it is incredibly heartbreaking and the next Tick Tock might include the fact that will save their own baby. It takes a lot of self-awareness to say "while I might learn information that saves my baby, that is incredibly unlikely so I will refuse to watch this 30 sec video or read this article"
  - MarkusQ 1mo ago
    That was my point exactly. There isn't some evil mastermind behind it--at least, in the click-case; in the psyops or vote-for-us! cases there might sort of be, but even there they aren't profiting from the misery per se.
    - scotty79 1mo ago
      That's the curse of free choice. People choose things that draw them in not the things good for them. They choose sweet and salty fats in the real world and they choose things that make them feel the strongest emotion online. The system based on consumer choice delivers.
  - onraglanroad 1mo ago
    > by way of example, when every woman I know got pregnant Impressive work, but surely there were suspicions?
- vinyl7 1mo ago
  Emotionally charged headlines generate clicks, and in 2026 displaying ads is the primary source of income for all major companies
  - MarkusQ 1mo ago
    Right, that was in my list. That's a clear case of the misery being incidental / collateral damage.
- bdjdjdjdh 1mo ago
  [dead]
- pzo 1mo ago
  Short sellers earn the most when company they bet against is crashing. On the other hand investors benefit when they competitors are crashing. For many labor is just expensive cost running company - I can see how some people salivate
- geraneum 1mo ago
  We, developers/tech-employees (safe to assume since we’re on HN) are the “entire class of workers” that the article is talking about. The premise is losing faith in the future of our profession. Which is something that’s openly advertised to the investors by AI companies and more importantly, openly discussed. > But "our misery is some potential investor’s financial prospect" sounds like some schlock B-movie plot. That’s a curious one. I think it’d be healthier if you reflect on why you perceive it that way.
  - MarkusQ 1mo ago
    Oh, that's an easy one. When I'm trying to model a situation I consider a wide variety of possible explanations, and then rank them by how well they fit the facts. I also note when someone is trying to push a narrative on me, and consider what might make them do that. I also watch out for instances of trope-thinking, where the explanation is just a pattern match to some other situation, and am careful to distinguish cases where the exemplar is fictional (thus the B-movie tag above). And thanks for your expressed concern about my mental health!

MarkusQ 1mo ago

Who's making money off our misery exactly? I can see it as a foreign adversary psyop (they benefit from us being demoralized) or as a side effect of the attention economy (more clicks is all that matters) or even a hyper-partisanship epiphenomenon (whichever side is currently down wants people to think everything is awful). But "our misery is some potential investor’s financial prospect" sounds like some schlock B-movie plot. How is that supposed to work? Are they secretly feeding creatures from the 4th dimension by harvesting misery or something?

s1artibartfast 1mo ago
Advertisers make money on clicks, and content creators get a cut. This is the backbone that the entire internet operates on. Fear is the best driver of attention and clicks. Someone can choose to pass on a light-hearted fun article. If they feel their life or the fate of the universe is in the balance, they will read it. There isn't some evil mastermind behind it, just the banal economic incentives and evolutionary psychology. Edit: by way of example, when every woman I know got pregnant, their social media instantly filled up with stories about dead babies. Nobody hard coded that, but the algorithm picked up on the fact that pregnant women will pay attention to stories of dead babies. After all, it is incredibly heartbreaking and the next Tick Tock might include the fact that will save their own baby. It takes a lot of self-awareness to say "while I might learn information that saves my baby, that is incredibly unlikely so I will refuse to watch this 30 sec video or read this article"
- MarkusQ 1mo ago
  That was my point exactly. There isn't some evil mastermind behind it--at least, in the click-case; in the psyops or vote-for-us! cases there might sort of be, but even there they aren't profiting from the misery per se.
  - scotty79 1mo ago
    That's the curse of free choice. People choose things that draw them in not the things good for them. They choose sweet and salty fats in the real world and they choose things that make them feel the strongest emotion online. The system based on consumer choice delivers.
- onraglanroad 1mo ago
  > by way of example, when every woman I know got pregnant Impressive work, but surely there were suspicions?
vinyl7 1mo ago
Emotionally charged headlines generate clicks, and in 2026 displaying ads is the primary source of income for all major companies
- MarkusQ 1mo ago
  Right, that was in my list. That's a clear case of the misery being incidental / collateral damage.
bdjdjdjdh 1mo ago
[dead]
pzo 1mo ago
Short sellers earn the most when company they bet against is crashing. On the other hand investors benefit when they competitors are crashing. For many labor is just expensive cost running company - I can see how some people salivate
geraneum 1mo ago
We, developers/tech-employees (safe to assume since we’re on HN) are the “entire class of workers” that the article is talking about. The premise is losing faith in the future of our profession. Which is something that’s openly advertised to the investors by AI companies and more importantly, openly discussed. > But "our misery is some potential investor’s financial prospect" sounds like some schlock B-movie plot. That’s a curious one. I think it’d be healthier if you reflect on why you perceive it that way.
- MarkusQ 1mo ago
  Oh, that's an easy one. When I'm trying to model a situation I consider a wide variety of possible explanations, and then rank them by how well they fit the facts. I also note when someone is trying to push a narrative on me, and consider what might make them do that. I also watch out for instances of trope-thinking, where the explanation is just a pattern match to some other situation, and am careful to distinguish cases where the exemplar is fictional (thus the B-movie tag above). And thanks for your expressed concern about my mental health!