7-Bullet Saturday: The Age of Silent Monopolies
Because the most powerful forces in your life aren’t loud. They’re invisible.
1. What I’m Reading
📖 The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu
We talk a lot about market monopolies. But attention monopolies? Those are scarier.
This book exposes how companies commodify your focus and sell it—piece by piece—to the highest bidder.
💡 Big idea: Your attention is not free. It’s the most valuable asset you never agreed to sell.
→ Who owns your mindspace now?
2. What I’m Listening To
🎧 Land of the Giants: The Rise of Amazon
Forget what you know about business podcasts—this one feels like a thriller.
It’s about how Amazon didn’t just become a retailer. It became infrastructure.
💡 What’s dangerous about Amazon isn’t its size—it’s that it became default.
You don’t choose it. You just assume it.
That’s how invisible monopolies win.
3. What I’m Watching
🎥 The Social Cooling Effect – Data Ethics Video Essay
This one messed with me. It suggests that surveillance doesn’t just affect privacy—it changes personality.
When we know we’re being watched, we become more conformist, more polite, more predictable.
💡 Insight: Big Tech doesn’t just collect your data. It compresses your behavior.
And slowly, you become a safer version of yourself.
→ What would you say online if no algorithm could hear it?
4. What I’m Studying
🧠 Infrastructure as Influence
Most power today doesn’t command. It defaults.
Google decides what’s true.
TikTok decides what’s viral.
iOS decides what apps live or die.
💡 You don’t notice power when it feels convenient.
That’s why infrastructure is the final form of control.
It’s not about telling you what to do—it’s about making you never question the option you chose.
5. Quote I’m Pondering
“The greatest trick power ever pulled was making itself invisible.”
— paraphrased from The Usual Suspects
Real power doesn’t scream. It whispers through systems, defaults, and convenience.
💡 If you can’t see it, you can’t fight it.
And maybe that’s the point.
6. Tool I’m Using
The anti-attention browser. Blocks ads, trackers, and scripts that steal your focus.
Bonus? It’s clean, fast, and doesn't treat your data like a piñata.
💡 If you can’t escape the system, at least choose the one that respects you.
7. Idea I’m Exploring
💡 Maybe the next revolution won’t be loud.
It won’t be protests or tweets or boycotts.
It will be… choosing differently. Quietly. Repeatedly.
Quitting Google.
Paying for email.
Reading books instead of feeds.
Choosing decentralization not for tech, but for mental freedom.
→ Freedom begins with changing defaults.
Final Thought
We keep waiting for dystopia to arrive like a villain in a black trench coat.
But it’s already here. It’s efficient. Polished. User-friendly.
It shows up as “recommended for you.”
So this week, pause before you click.
Ask: Who benefits if I don’t think about this too hard?
🔄 Forward this to someone whose thoughts are still their own.
See you next Saturday,
Luong 🚀