By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 14/04/2026Thompson has his own name for this phenomenon of algorithmically induced, regret-inducing flow: he calls it "zombie flow." It's flow that "recapitulates the goal of flow while evacuating the purpose." 39/ 1100
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 14/04/2026Zombie flow is "progress without pleasure" - it's frictionless, and so it gives us nothing except that sense of the world going away, and when it stops, the world is still there. 40/ 190
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 14/04/2026The trick is to find a way of compartmentalizing that rewards attention with some kind of productive residue that you can look back on with pride and pleasure. I wouldn't call myself a happy person. I don't think I know *any* happy people right now. 41/ 2110
