[donbright]

i agree with everything. however.

i recently subscribed to Curiosity Stream. its like netflix but only academic-ish documentaries. its "curated" by human beings. i can almost feel the lack of "algorithm". its weird how i feel about it, compared to youtube or whatever.

it reminds me a little bit of going to a "health food store" in the mid 1990s. they were all tiny, tiny niche shops usually owned by one person or a family. they sold weird stuff like organic tofu and soy milk. nowdays, you can buy both of those products in walmart and target.

something very strange happened... somehow the shitty mass market moved towards the tiny, higher quality, higher price niche products.

how did that happen?

[wool_gather]

That's how it always happens. Something becomes perceived as high quality and desirable. Due to its high quality, it is expensive. But many people want it, so there's an opening for a product that is similar enough for the "layperson", but doesn't cost what the "connoisseur" is willing to pay. Nine times out of ten, that means lower quality.