We're missing authentic social software.

· Bits and Bobs 8/25/25
  • We're missing authentic social software.
    • A space between the zombie contact book and engagement-maxing hellscapes.
    • LLMs might finally enable it.
    • The contact book app is a dead-end relic with a data model from decades ago.
      • They probably have zero full-time people working on it anywhere.
    • Meanwhile, social media quantified human relationships into a grotesque, performative fever dream because that's all computers could handle.
      • Quantitative, not qualitative.
    • Sub and Super-Dunbar social systems are fundamentally different beasts.
      • Super-Dunbar inevitably becomes performing for an audience, which pulls everything into the engagement-maxing gravity well.
    • Facebook started as a contact list (primary use case) with a content mill on the side (secondary use case)—but it metastasized into the latter and abandoned the former.
      • Both Facebook and Salesforce grew from "system of record about other people"—one went consumer, one went enterprise, both captured massive value.
    • People are the center of our lives (duh!), but they're nuanced.
      • It's impossible to model in a one-size-fits-none ontology some PM decided on 40 years ago.
    • Now LLMs give us qualitative nuance at quantitative scale.
      • Computing can finally navigate relational complexity.
      • An AI could help you invest in the relationships that actually matter to you, not the ones that generate the most engagement.

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