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A possible future for Damn Interesting

摘要

文章称作者过去靠兼职工程师工作支付账单，同时抽时间做研究、写作、编辑与播客维持项目二十年；近年兼职岗位消失，雇主要求全职或不予回应，作者已接下全职职位成为瓶颈；同时 AI slop 充斥互联网，作者尝试一次小额 GoFundMe fundraiser，目标与过去部分时间薪资相同，若成功将重返该项目 12 个月关注；此次筹款独立于 Give a Damn 捐赠系统（覆盖主机、订阅、许可等），后者由现有捐助者维持；文末提及原 1948 年液态骰子搅拌器专利及 1950 年 Magic 8 Ball，但无具体数据或结论，仅用概率类比基金成功率。

荐读理由

他自己找全职工作维持生计，又通过GoFundMe实验筹钱继续写长文；这对独立开发者来说，提供了真实的技术创业信号——证明AI slop洪水里，长文内容仍需人工投入人力才能生存。

原文

Printed from https://www.damninteresting.com/a-possible-future/

Alan Bellows here, founder of Damn Interesting. For the better part of twenty years, I kept this project afloat by working part-time engineering jobs to pay the bills, and spending the other halves of my work days researching, writing, editing, and podcasting. But in recent years, the landscape has shifted, and those part-time positions appear to have gone extinct. Employers want all or nothing⁠—at least those willing to respond to an application from a graybeard.

So a few years ago, after months of searching, I finally had to just take a full-time position. I had always been a bit of a bottleneck around here, but now I’m a downright cork. Meanwhile, a tsunami of AI slop sloshes over most of the Internet.

Clearly something must be done. So I am trying an experiment⁠—a one-off fundraiser. I know the timing isn’t ideal, but the goal is restrained. My hope today (and possibly again a year from today) is that we can raise the same as I used to make with my part-time salary, which will allow me to return much of my time and attention back to this project for the next 12 months.

If you want to push back against the rising tide of AI, and see more long-form articles from Damn Interesting, here’s how to chip in:

GoFundMe →

This fundraiser is entirely separate from our Give a Damn donation system, which aims to cover Damn Interesting monthly expenses⁠—web hosting, subscriptions, usage licenses, link curation, and that sort of thing. An amazing array of donors support us through that system, and those lovely people are the reason we survive to this day. This new experiment is specifically so I myself can afford to spend more time writing and running the site.

Thanks for reading, and for helping out if you can.

Original 1948 patent for 'liquid filled dice agitator'

Pictured at the top of this post is the twenty-sided die from inside a “Magic 8 Ball Novelty Fortune-Telling Toy,” invented in 1950 by Albert C. Carter and Abe Bookman in Cincinnati, Ohio. When the toy is upturned, the buoyant icosahedron floats to the top of a cylinder filled with blue-dyed alcohol, pressing one of the yes-or-no answers against the clear viewport.

Contrary to common expectations, the toy’s affirmative and negative responses do not appear with equal frequency. There are five “no” responses, five “unclear” responses, and ten “yes” responses. That means the Magic 8 Ball is twice as likely to provide a yes answer than a no. So will my outlandish fundraiser actually work? Odds are, signs point to yes.

GoFundMe →

Printed from https://www.damninteresting.com/a-possible-future/

Since you enjoyed our work enough to print it out, and read it clear to the end, would you consider donating a few dollars at https://www.damninteresting.com/donate ?

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