I think every time AI can do something equally good or better than humans it stops being valuable or special
Marketing videos used to take lots of work of editing and motion graphics and a big budget
Now with Opus 5.5 etc it costs $0 to make one as good or better
That means ANYONE can make a marketing video now, so the timeline gets flooded with these videos (as you see happening now) and people stop caring about them, stop watching them and they stop grabbing attention
The response then to still grab attention is be different and that probably means IRL marketing videos that are original and unique and maybe personal
It's the grim reaper meme where AI keeps commoditizing another media format and bringing the cost down to close to $0
It already did so for graphic design (2023), last year with Nano Banana for photography (2025), this year with Seedance 2.5 it did it for video (2026) and this and next year motion graphics
𝕏 @sporadica: https://x.com/sporadica/status/2104424072717435064
Read on levels.io →
Marketing videos used to take lots of work of editing and motion graphics and a big budget
Now with Opus 5.5 etc it costs $0 to make one as good or better
That means ANYONE can make a marketing video now, so the timeline gets flooded with these videos (as you see happening now) and people stop caring about them, stop watching them and they stop grabbing attention
The response then to still grab attention is be different and that probably means IRL marketing videos that are original and unique and maybe personal
It's the grim reaper meme where AI keeps commoditizing another media format and bringing the cost down to close to $0
It already did so for graphic design (2023), last year with Nano Banana for photography (2025), this year with Seedance 2.5 it did it for video (2026) and this and next year motion graphics
𝕏 @sporadica: https://x.com/sporadica/status/2104424072717435064
Read on levels.io →
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I've been actively fighting almost guaranteed age-related loneliness for years, studies show after age 30 you start seeing friends less and when you get older especially men don't have any social life left!
It's preventable, but it takes effort and initiative
We've now organized 70 weekly coworking days where we meet with friends and work together, do show and tell, and try help each other make things (also hardware stuff more recently)
We've also started organizing movie nights, art nights, barbecues, we watched the World Cup final on a projector screen in the garden with friends
We did a collage night the other day where we bought cheap gossip magazines, colored paper, and Pritt glue, and gave everyone scissors to make their own art, I think nobody spent time on their phone for at least 4 hours, making things puts you in a flow state and it's fun to do it in a group because you talk about different stuff while making things than you would for ex having a dinner
Movie nights are nice too but less popular I think cause everyone prefers to watch movies alone and also you can't really talk during a movie
Coworkings range from having sometimes 20 people to sometimes just 2 people, people have their own lives, but me and @rameerez still try to organize them weekly
One thing I realized is that we are usually the ones organizing stuff, but that's not a bad thing, there's even studies about this, there's usually a few people in a group who organize most of the events
If nobody in your group organizes stuff, it doesn't mean nobody wants to do stuff, but you have to take the initiative to bring people together which isn't easy in a time where phones and apps and the internet are simply easier and cheaper dopamine than driving to a friends house for a party
You can start with a coworking day, everyone brings their laptop, and you provide WiFi and coffee, then later you can try more types of events
Having an active social life is just as important or in some studies even more important for health than physical fitness
After a nice party I feel tired but satisfied, I had fun and didn't spend time on my phone or computer but instead talked and laughed with friends etc.
We don't drink alcohol with very few exceptions and nor do our friends, so it's mostly just having really nice food and sparkling water or kombucha etc, and we don't really need alcohol, after a few hours it gets fun enough anyway!
So I recommend everyone, take initiative, and organize something and get people together, it'll be fun! 😊
𝕏 @levelsio: https://x.com/levelsio/status/2105087277206737029
Organizing can be cheap or if you want to spend more money on it not so cheap, you can also ask people to bring food to save on costs
@theannalux tracks the nights we organized and we've spent about $5K on it in food for 26 nights (ex coworkings)
𝕏 @theannalux: https://x.com/theannalux/status/2105293992355037621
Read on levels.io →
It's preventable, but it takes effort and initiative
We've now organized 70 weekly coworking days where we meet with friends and work together, do show and tell, and try help each other make things (also hardware stuff more recently)
We've also started organizing movie nights, art nights, barbecues, we watched the World Cup final on a projector screen in the garden with friends
We did a collage night the other day where we bought cheap gossip magazines, colored paper, and Pritt glue, and gave everyone scissors to make their own art, I think nobody spent time on their phone for at least 4 hours, making things puts you in a flow state and it's fun to do it in a group because you talk about different stuff while making things than you would for ex having a dinner
Movie nights are nice too but less popular I think cause everyone prefers to watch movies alone and also you can't really talk during a movie
Coworkings range from having sometimes 20 people to sometimes just 2 people, people have their own lives, but me and @rameerez still try to organize them weekly
One thing I realized is that we are usually the ones organizing stuff, but that's not a bad thing, there's even studies about this, there's usually a few people in a group who organize most of the events
If nobody in your group organizes stuff, it doesn't mean nobody wants to do stuff, but you have to take the initiative to bring people together which isn't easy in a time where phones and apps and the internet are simply easier and cheaper dopamine than driving to a friends house for a party
You can start with a coworking day, everyone brings their laptop, and you provide WiFi and coffee, then later you can try more types of events
Having an active social life is just as important or in some studies even more important for health than physical fitness
After a nice party I feel tired but satisfied, I had fun and didn't spend time on my phone or computer but instead talked and laughed with friends etc.
We don't drink alcohol with very few exceptions and nor do our friends, so it's mostly just having really nice food and sparkling water or kombucha etc, and we don't really need alcohol, after a few hours it gets fun enough anyway!
So I recommend everyone, take initiative, and organize something and get people together, it'll be fun! 😊
𝕏 @levelsio: https://x.com/levelsio/status/2105087277206737029
Organizing can be cheap or if you want to spend more money on it not so cheap, you can also ask people to bring food to save on costs
@theannalux tracks the nights we organized and we've spent about $5K on it in food for 26 nights (ex coworkings)
𝕏 @theannalux: https://x.com/theannalux/status/2105293992355037621
Read on levels.io →
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Great article on increasing solitude of our societies, in this case US but same probably in EU to a lesser extent:
"Derek Thompson's essay "You Are No Longer Invited to Dinner" argues that Americans have largely stopped having people over.
The headline stat comes from combining the old DDB Needham Life Style surveys Robert Putnam used in *Bowling Alone* with a new replication by Data For Progress.
The share of Americans who host friends or family at home at least monthly fell from 42% in 1975 to 12% in 2026, roughly a 70% drop. Most other forms of socializing also fell by double digits over the last 30 years, including cards, bars, sporting events, and volunteering. The decline in hosting was steeper than the much-discussed drop in church attendance.
He rules out two comforting explanations. People haven't just moved dinners to restaurants, since solo dining is rising and face-to-face socializing is down overall. They also haven't replaced parties with other social activities. Exercise and travel are up, but exercise is mostly solitary, and time spent at home has jumped sharply since the 2010s.
His explanations:
1. Harried dual-earner households. As societies get richer, leisure starts to feel like work, and planning a dinner party is basically unpaid project management. Women historically ran the family social calendar. When they moved into paid work, men didn't take over that job. He admits this can't be the whole story, because total leisure time has actually increased.
2. Intensive parenting. Parents, especially fathers, now spend far more time with their kids, and that time comes out of evenings that used to go to hosting adults.
3. Shrinking friend networks. Close friendships are declining, most sharply among people without college degrees, so hosting is becoming a luxury good. People who never host skew toward independents and non-graduates. He speculates that weaker social ties may lead to weaker party attachment, rather than the other way around.
4. Home is too comfortable. Americans spent almost two extra hours a day at home between 2003 and 2022, much of it on screens and short-form video.
His closing idea is a "Lump of Leisure" theory, a twist on the Lump of Labor fallacy. Technology hasn't made human work unnecessary, but it has made other people less necessary for fun. Social leisure turns out to be finite and easy to displace.
He frames this as a coordination failure rather than a personal one: a dinner party requires schedules, cleaning, food, allergies, and the risk of a dull evening, while TikTok asks nothing of you.
A footnote adds that if everyone gets a bit busier, the difficulty of coordinating a get-together rises multiplicatively, so small increases in individual busyness could produce large drops in socializing overall."
https://www.derekthompson.org/p/the-death-of-the-american-host
Read on levels.io →
"Derek Thompson's essay "You Are No Longer Invited to Dinner" argues that Americans have largely stopped having people over.
The headline stat comes from combining the old DDB Needham Life Style surveys Robert Putnam used in *Bowling Alone* with a new replication by Data For Progress.
The share of Americans who host friends or family at home at least monthly fell from 42% in 1975 to 12% in 2026, roughly a 70% drop. Most other forms of socializing also fell by double digits over the last 30 years, including cards, bars, sporting events, and volunteering. The decline in hosting was steeper than the much-discussed drop in church attendance.
He rules out two comforting explanations. People haven't just moved dinners to restaurants, since solo dining is rising and face-to-face socializing is down overall. They also haven't replaced parties with other social activities. Exercise and travel are up, but exercise is mostly solitary, and time spent at home has jumped sharply since the 2010s.
His explanations:
1. Harried dual-earner households. As societies get richer, leisure starts to feel like work, and planning a dinner party is basically unpaid project management. Women historically ran the family social calendar. When they moved into paid work, men didn't take over that job. He admits this can't be the whole story, because total leisure time has actually increased.
2. Intensive parenting. Parents, especially fathers, now spend far more time with their kids, and that time comes out of evenings that used to go to hosting adults.
3. Shrinking friend networks. Close friendships are declining, most sharply among people without college degrees, so hosting is becoming a luxury good. People who never host skew toward independents and non-graduates. He speculates that weaker social ties may lead to weaker party attachment, rather than the other way around.
4. Home is too comfortable. Americans spent almost two extra hours a day at home between 2003 and 2022, much of it on screens and short-form video.
His closing idea is a "Lump of Leisure" theory, a twist on the Lump of Labor fallacy. Technology hasn't made human work unnecessary, but it has made other people less necessary for fun. Social leisure turns out to be finite and easy to displace.
He frames this as a coordination failure rather than a personal one: a dinner party requires schedules, cleaning, food, allergies, and the risk of a dull evening, while TikTok asks nothing of you.
A footnote adds that if everyone gets a bit busier, the difficulty of coordinating a get-together rises multiplicatively, so small increases in individual busyness could produce large drops in socializing overall."
https://www.derekthompson.org/p/the-death-of-the-american-host
Read on levels.io →
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I'm noticing Westerners are continously having lower standards every year and seem to not even notice the declining quality standards of everything around them
I do notice it and when I tell them (IRL or on here) they make me sound jaded or disconnected from reality as if we expect too much
They're literally boiling the frog and most don't notice it
Then we fly out to Switzerland, UAE or East and parts of South East Asia and we realize there's nothing to complain about so it's not us, it's the West
𝕏 @mmjukic: https://x.com/mmjukic/status/2105602006719348751
Read on levels.io →
I do notice it and when I tell them (IRL or on here) they make me sound jaded or disconnected from reality as if we expect too much
They're literally boiling the frog and most don't notice it
Then we fly out to Switzerland, UAE or East and parts of South East Asia and we realize there's nothing to complain about so it's not us, it's the West
𝕏 @mmjukic: https://x.com/mmjukic/status/2105602006719348751
Read on levels.io →
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🇪🇺 EU bankruptcies have now reached the highest level since they started measuring them in 2019
Meanwhile new EU business registrations have been stagnant or decreasing
I discovered this after another one of the interior design stores in the Netherlands we bought from suddenly disappeared off the internet, luckily we already received the stuff we ordered (a big stone table) and dodged a bullet
Quite expensive stuff and their Trustpilot is full of "where's my €7000 table". This is the second interior design store we bought from that went bankrupt just after we received our things, very interesting
So I started looking at EU bankruptcies and discovered they're skyrocketing and new business registrations are stagnant or decreasing
They really managed to regulate and tax away any existing business while making people give up to even think of starting a business in Europe
The US also has bankruptcy growth since 2022 but there it's actually quite stable if you compare it to 2010-2020, no skyrocketing growth
𝕏 https://x.com/levelsio/status/2105759722175357279
Read on levels.io →
Meanwhile new EU business registrations have been stagnant or decreasing
I discovered this after another one of the interior design stores in the Netherlands we bought from suddenly disappeared off the internet, luckily we already received the stuff we ordered (a big stone table) and dodged a bullet
Quite expensive stuff and their Trustpilot is full of "where's my €7000 table". This is the second interior design store we bought from that went bankrupt just after we received our things, very interesting
So I started looking at EU bankruptcies and discovered they're skyrocketing and new business registrations are stagnant or decreasing
They really managed to regulate and tax away any existing business while making people give up to even think of starting a business in Europe
The US also has bankruptcy growth since 2022 but there it's actually quite stable if you compare it to 2010-2020, no skyrocketing growth
𝕏 https://x.com/levelsio/status/2105759722175357279
Read on levels.io →
A good example @johnonolan sent me today
An Apple Store in Dubai where you have Apple Watches lying around freely with the door open, not secured, not behind glass
Right by the front door!
A high trust society like we used to have too
𝕏 https://x.com/levelsio/status/2105649487788036574
Read on levels.io →
An Apple Store in Dubai where you have Apple Watches lying around freely with the door open, not secured, not behind glass
Right by the front door!
A high trust society like we used to have too
𝕏 https://x.com/levelsio/status/2105649487788036574
Read on levels.io →
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It's such a weird experience that I can now build things faster than I get new ideas for things
𝕏 https://x.com/levelsio/status/2106138101043044498
Read on levels.io →
𝕏 https://x.com/levelsio/status/2106138101043044498
Read on levels.io →
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This is great and another example of city states attracting all the skilled Europeans with better living, working and regulatory conditions!
𝕏 https://x.com/levelsio/status/2106376810305040731
Read on levels.io →
𝕏 https://x.com/levelsio/status/2106376810305040731
Read on levels.io →
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Just a day later and now Javier Milei is offering full Argentinean citizenship with residence and passport for $350,000
Countries will keep plucking out the high skilled and wealthy from around the world for better conditions elsewhere
Which is easier than ever especially in Europe
This isn't new of course, this is what the US, Canada, South America and Australia did for centuries to attract people
It's why there's Dutch dairy farmers all over the world because many got poached in 1950 after WW2 to migrate elsewhere (and often get free or cheap land to farm on)
𝕏 https://x.com/levelsio/status/2106695234990063921
Read on levels.io →
Countries will keep plucking out the high skilled and wealthy from around the world for better conditions elsewhere
Which is easier than ever especially in Europe
This isn't new of course, this is what the US, Canada, South America and Australia did for centuries to attract people
It's why there's Dutch dairy farmers all over the world because many got poached in 1950 after WW2 to migrate elsewhere (and often get free or cheap land to farm on)
𝕏 https://x.com/levelsio/status/2106695234990063921
Read on levels.io →
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Airbnb's entire rating scale is now 4.5 to 5.0
You can't make this up 😂
I made a site called http://hotelist.com to fix this, it normalizes ratings from booking sites: for example if it's always 4 to 5, it stretches those ratings to 0 to 5, so a 4 becomes a 0, and a 4.5 becomes a 2.5
It also uses scours the web for actual opinions about hotels instead of booking sites and then rates based on that
𝕏 https://x.com/levelsio/status/2107055382459732293
Read on levels.io →
You can't make this up 😂
I made a site called http://hotelist.com to fix this, it normalizes ratings from booking sites: for example if it's always 4 to 5, it stretches those ratings to 0 to 5, so a 4 becomes a 0, and a 4.5 becomes a 2.5
It also uses scours the web for actual opinions about hotels instead of booking sites and then rates based on that
𝕏 https://x.com/levelsio/status/2107055382459732293
Read on levels.io →
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I analyzed the range of ratings on booking sites and it's pretty crazy
Airbnb goes just from 4.5 to 5 with a median of 5!
But most others aren't better, they all range from about 4 to 5, and almost all have a median of 4.25, with not many scores outside of it!
The best site in terms of honest ratings is actually Yelp, whatever they're doing it's working, it shows an actual normal distribution and ratings you can trust
Hotelist itself is a normal distribution with median at 3.5, which was my goal, most stays are average/okay which I'd consider 3.
From https://hotelist.com/stats#rating-by-site
𝕏 https://x.com/levelsio/status/2107088849163665717
Read on levels.io →
Airbnb goes just from 4.5 to 5 with a median of 5!
But most others aren't better, they all range from about 4 to 5, and almost all have a median of 4.25, with not many scores outside of it!
The best site in terms of honest ratings is actually Yelp, whatever they're doing it's working, it shows an actual normal distribution and ratings you can trust
Hotelist itself is a normal distribution with median at 3.5, which was my goal, most stays are average/okay which I'd consider 3.
From https://hotelist.com/stats#rating-by-site
𝕏 https://x.com/levelsio/status/2107088849163665717
Read on levels.io →
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