De-algorithmize your money

Let's all log off.

Hi friends,

It’s been a while since I sent the flagship newsletter, but I’ve been having fun experimenting with a (week)daily edition highlighting the biggest money stories of the day.

Will I keep doing it? Who knows! But it’s good to keep on top of the news and I’ve found that writing it has given me a lot of ideas and even more questions about the current state of Money in America. More to come.

Over at The Purse, I recently wrote about SNAP, student loans, and why the lipstick index may not hold up anymore.

In today’s issue:
1. De-algorithmize your money
2. The many seasons of a layoff
3. On my radar

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De-algorithmize your money

I’ve always hated Yelp. Not through any fault of the platform’s own, it’s a smart and, for many people, useful service. More so, I’ve always hated being beholden to it. I’d much rather walk into a random café or restaurant and take my chances than pull up Yelp and look for whatever it tells me is “good” nearby.

Call me a luddite or simply a curmudgeon, but I think too many aspects of our lives are mediated by algorithms. How many of us have purchased something that had 1,000 5-star reviews or read something because an influencer recommended it, only to be deeply disappointed?

The more that everything becomes algorithm-ized, the more pressing it seems to me to decouple my attention—and by extension, my money—from the internet generally and social media sites more specifically. I hate the phrase “now more than ever” but…now more than ever we all really need to log off.

There are the very obvious effects social media or retailer algorithms have on our finances. We might be inclined to shop more or take uninformed investment advice that pops up on our FYP. Being continuously shown the same product you briefly viewed once a few weeks ago can’t be good for many wallets; nor are all the scams that abound on these sites. Companies are using AI to turbocharge dynamic pricing—an algorithm by a different name—on everything from flights to groceries, costing us more and more.

But there are other less obvious effects, as well, that influence our finances. The constant drumbeats by influencers we follow, consciously or not, have us buying more and more than we could possibly need. Dark patterns manipulate us by design. It’s worthwhile to think about what data these companies are collecting on you and how they’re using it to sway behavior (usually to get you to buy something, but sometimes in other more nefarious ways) and if you’re comfortable with it. Then consider what value you get in exchange.

Personally, I’ve been reflecting on what an impediment being online can be to what I would consider much more important aspects of my life, whether reading the stack of books beside my bed or writing this newsletter—things that, given my interests and aspirations, I need to be doing. I’d really rather my attention not be devoted to what’s being pushed on me, I hope to have a little more agency than that.

Our attention is extremely valuable, and, increasingly, just a handful of companies control much of what we’re seeing, hearing, and reading. If you aren’t on these sites, good for you, I’ll mail you your cookie, but billions of us are. When so much of our media environment is privatized in the hands of a few extremely rich men who only want to get richer, you begin to wonder what it is you’re doing spending your one precious life on their apps.

Brief aside: Of course, there is an inherent tension with the work I’ve done for the past decade-plus. Being a journalist requires you to be clued in, all the time, to what is happening in the world. You also need to track trends, pay attention to where audiences are congregating, and take stock of how they’re getting their information. Every year, social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok play a bigger and bigger role. That means increasingly working within the companies’ frameworks to try to get a bite of the apple. This hasn’t gone well for traditional nonpartisan outlets or journalism as a whole.

Ask any journalist, and I doubt a single one got into this field in order to “capture attention” or even be what we’ve come to think of as an influencer (okay, I’m less sure about that second bit). Yes, you need to have a nose for a story or angle that will resonate, but that is a very different skillset from what is required in our current media environment to attract a reader- or, more likely, viewership. That’s even the case here on Substack, which seems to be becoming more social media-ified by the day. (Sincerely: Notes sucks.)

For me, the hardest times to decouple my brain from the algorithm are when it’s already tired. I’ve been making an effort to have other things to do during those times (often when the work day is done or the time between dinner and bed), things other than watching another screen.

Cooking has become a balm. I’m taking on bigger projects and planning out meals in a way that’s only possible because I am no longer strictly working 9-5. I’ve started listening to audiobooks only while I cook or clean, and I find myself looking forward to that time more and more each day.

I’m also keeping a stack of crossword puzzle and Sudoku books next to the couch to do while my husband plays video games, and I always have a paper book on hand, though I haven’t read as much as I would like over the past few weeks. Long walks outside and yoga are other tools in the arsenal. Volunteering in my community is next on my list.

There’s no real tidy ending here except that I believe controlling our inputs is one of the most valuable and important things we can do for ourselves in today’s attention economy. I would encourage folks to read, watch, or listen on alternative platforms; better yet, go somewhere IRL and just take things in, whether the library, a local museum, art gallery, a park, or whatever it is. It’s okay if the book you’re reading didn’t make a “best of” list; it’s likely even better if it was never for sale in TikTok shop.

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The many seasons of a layoff

Despite losing my job just three-ish months ago, I am already finding myself in the position of Job Loss Advice Giver to friends who have experienced even more fresh cuts.

It’s not a good feeling. I was really struck recently when a friend said, “no one quite tells you what the morning after getting laid off feels like.” I’ve memory-holed a bit of that, but I do remember how unmoored I felt, how even worse than the immediate loss of income, benefits, coworkers, and responsibilities was the realization that I would have to rebuild everything from scratch and hope the career I had painstakingly constructed over a decade-plus didn’t stall out in the process. It led to some not-so-kind thoughts about the work I’ve done so far, and then a surge of energy to reclaim my efforts and start doing more work I was proud of.

I’m at the point now where I’ve made a few hard decisions about the direction my future is going in, and am juggling a couple different income streams I hope will add up to enough. I’m still anxious about where All This is going, especially with the current political environment in the U.S., which is making everything feel even more unstable.

The good news is three months on, I’m really excited about the work we’re doing at The Purse, and feel lucky to have someone like Lindsey Stanberry in my corner. I’m also having fun (like, actual fun) writing about the things I want to here. Still, it’s been hard to recalibrate to less income after steadily building up my salary over the past 11 years, while also reframing what it means to be successful. As I wrote a few months back, I was at the point in my career where I was finally taking a step back from the constant hustle, the constant search for something new and better. Now I’m back to hustling again.

In giving my friend advice I hope was helpful—log off (ah, a theme!), disconnect, go outside, journal, cook some good meals—it made me want to redouble my efforts to put together a resource guide for layoffs.

If you have suggestions/tips on what to include, lmk! Could be cost cutting suggestions, job hunt tips, mental health advice—whatever would be helpful. There’s little doubt all of us will go through job loss at some point (if not multiple points), but we can always be there to provide advice, encouragement, or a group chat to vent to.

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On my radar

• Follow: I think I’ve already suggested her once, but I really appreciate kate 🌱🧶📚😻 ’s content about eating well but cheaply.

• Job market: I’m tracking all of the recent layoffs from large employers including Amazon, GM, Meta, and many more.

• Money Today: A lot happened over the past few weeks! Layoffs! Travel delays! Retailers are running out of pennies! No one can afford health insurance!

• Privacy: I didn’t get into the AI of it all in today’s newsletter, but all those AI chatbots will make surveillance pricing even worse. “I would say where we’re headed is that we’ll see this sort of surveillance pricing accelerate. The amount of data that we’re producing is growing, particularly as we share more and more information with chatbots.”

• Recipes: I made acorn squash soup with veggies from the CSA and this recipe. It was very good (tho a little sweet)! We also got a lot of cabbage, which I’ve never really cooked with before, so I’m experimenting. I made this cabbage sausage pasta which was pretty good (I cut way back on the heavy cream), and these piroshki might be a weekend project.

That’s it for now. See ya soon,
A