WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.799 Welcome to the deep dive. We have a mission today 00:00:03.799 --> 00:00:08.060 that is highly unusual. Highly unusual, but honestly 00:00:08.060 --> 00:00:10.220 incredibly fascinating once you get into it. 00:00:10.339 --> 00:00:12.000 Exactly, because if you really give this your 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:14.839 attention, we are going to explore the exact 00:00:14.839 --> 00:00:18.280 intersection of ultimate human triumph. And cold 00:00:18.280 --> 00:00:22.899 clinical digital archiving. Yes. That raw adrenaline 00:00:22.899 --> 00:00:25.519 fueled feeling of finally standing on the mountaintop 00:00:25.519 --> 00:00:29.559 right versus a completely sterile database. Because 00:00:29.559 --> 00:00:32.079 we aren't looking at a stack of biographies today. 00:00:32.259 --> 00:00:34.520 No, we are not. We aren't analyzing financial 00:00:34.520 --> 00:00:37.179 spreadsheets or motivational speeches. The single 00:00:37.179 --> 00:00:40.420 document we are going to tear apart and fundamentally 00:00:40.420 --> 00:00:43.659 psychoanalyze is one specific web page. And not 00:00:43.659 --> 00:00:46.500 just any web page. Right. It is the literal Wikipedia 00:00:46.500 --> 00:00:49.619 disambiguation page for the exact phrase, I made 00:00:49.619 --> 00:00:52.380 it. Which is a profound juxtaposition right from 00:00:52.380 --> 00:00:55.000 the outset. I mean, when you or really anyone 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:57.060 listening thinks of the phrase, I made it, you 00:00:57.060 --> 00:00:59.460 picture tears of joy. Oh, absolutely. You picture 00:00:59.460 --> 00:01:02.159 a marathon runner crossing a finish line or an 00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:04.000 entrepreneur ringing the opening bell at the 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:06.079 stock exchange. or someone holding a hard -won 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:08.459 diploma after years of night classes. Exactly. 00:01:08.680 --> 00:01:11.599 It is arguably the most passionate, definitive 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:13.739 declaration of human arrival that we have in 00:01:13.739 --> 00:01:16.579 the English language. Yeah. And yet, the document 00:01:16.579 --> 00:01:20.260 we are looking at is a purely structural necessity 00:01:20.260 --> 00:01:23.280 of an online encyclopedia. It's literally just 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:25.879 infrastructure. Its sole purpose in the digital 00:01:25.879 --> 00:01:29.420 universe is to correct internal broken links. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:32.900 It redirects internet traffic. It is the ultimate 00:01:32.900 --> 00:01:35.500 administrative wet blanket thrown over the fire 00:01:35.500 --> 00:01:37.819 of human ambition. That is the perfect way to 00:01:37.819 --> 00:01:40.920 phrase it. OK, let's unpack this. Because a phrase 00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:43.760 so full of raw emotion, so packed with the blood, 00:01:43.900 --> 00:01:47.019 sweat, and tears of success is literally categorized 00:01:47.019 --> 00:01:50.680 by the internet's largest encyclopedia as a traffic 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:53.480 problem. A navigational error. Right. It is treated 00:01:53.480 --> 00:01:56.450 as a mistake. You type in, I made it, looking 00:01:56.450 --> 00:01:58.609 for that pinnacle of achievement, and the system 00:01:58.609 --> 00:02:01.250 essentially stops you at the door and says, hold 00:02:01.250 --> 00:02:04.310 on, which exact version of success are you actually 00:02:04.310 --> 00:02:06.390 looking for? It forces you into a digital waiting 00:02:06.390 --> 00:02:09.550 room. Yes. But before we get completely lost 00:02:09.550 --> 00:02:11.090 in the philosophy of that, I want to make sure 00:02:11.090 --> 00:02:14.189 we are grounded in the actual mechanics. What 00:02:14.189 --> 00:02:17.810 exactly is a disambiguation page doing on a technical 00:02:17.810 --> 00:02:20.669 level? Why does it even exist? What's fascinating 00:02:20.669 --> 00:02:23.569 here is how the architecture of Wikipedia handles 00:02:23.569 --> 00:02:27.680 the inherent messiness. of human language. An 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:31.080 encyclopedia, by its very nature, thrives on 00:02:31.080 --> 00:02:34.620 singularity. It wants one topic to equal one 00:02:34.620 --> 00:02:36.939 definitive article. Right, a one -to -one ratio. 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:39.259 Exactly. The database requires a one -to -one 00:02:39.259 --> 00:02:41.919 relationship between a title and a subject. But 00:02:41.919 --> 00:02:43.860 human ambition and language just don't work that 00:02:43.860 --> 00:02:46.740 way. They really don't. The phrase, I made it, 00:02:46.780 --> 00:02:49.599 is ubiquitous. It is universally claimed by so 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:51.340 many different people across so many different 00:02:51.340 --> 00:02:53.639 mediums that it causes a structural collision 00:02:53.639 --> 00:02:55.139 in the database. What's structural collision? 00:02:55.020 --> 00:02:57.900 Right. Multiple entities have claimed this exact 00:02:57.900 --> 00:03:00.500 phrase as the title of their defining work. So 00:03:00.500 --> 00:03:02.800 the system cannot offer a single article. It 00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:05.500 has to build a detour. It has to build this bureaucratic 00:03:05.500 --> 00:03:08.319 scaffolding, the disambiguation page, to manage 00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:10.780 the overflow of triumph. As you said, it is literal 00:03:10.780 --> 00:03:13.340 traffic control. And the wording on the page 00:03:13.340 --> 00:03:16.800 itself is so telling. Right down at the bottom 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:19.860 of the content area, it gives this explicit, 00:03:20.300 --> 00:03:23.039 almost robotic instruction to the user. The part 00:03:23.039 --> 00:03:26.020 about the incorrect link. Yes. It says, this 00:03:26.020 --> 00:03:29.120 disambiguation page lists articles associated 00:03:29.120 --> 00:03:31.900 with the title, I made it. OK, standard enough. 00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:34.719 But then it adds, if an internal link incorrectly 00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:37.280 led you here, you may wish to change the link 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:39.599 to point directly to the intended article. It's 00:03:39.599 --> 00:03:42.000 so clinical. Think about the philosophical weight 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:43.819 of that phrase for a second for you, the listener. 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:47.000 If an internal link incorrectly led you here. 00:03:47.020 --> 00:03:50.180 Oh, wow. Imagine how often in your own life you 00:03:50.180 --> 00:03:52.139 feel like you are following a link. following 00:03:52.139 --> 00:03:54.460 a specific path, aiming straight for that feeling 00:03:54.460 --> 00:03:57.139 of, I made it. Only to arrive at a place of pure 00:03:57.139 --> 00:03:59.840 ambiguity. Exactly. That is a brilliant way to 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:02.300 conceptualize it. You follow the path, you follow 00:04:02.300 --> 00:04:04.560 the link, assuming it leads to a definitive conclusion. 00:04:05.020 --> 00:04:07.460 But instead of an answer, you hit a crossroads. 00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:10.319 A menu. Right, a menu asking you to clarify your 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:12.979 intentions. The system assumes that arriving 00:04:12.979 --> 00:04:15.900 at ambiguity is a mistake, an incorrect link 00:04:15.900 --> 00:04:18.620 that needs to be fixed by the user. It demands 00:04:18.620 --> 00:04:21.040 that you trace your steps back. It demands that 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:24.360 you point directly to a singular intended destination. 00:04:24.829 --> 00:04:27.269 It completely refuses to let you just sit in 00:04:27.269 --> 00:04:30.029 the ambiguity of success. Right. And the environment 00:04:30.029 --> 00:04:32.689 where this crossroads exists is entirely surrounded 00:04:32.689 --> 00:04:35.589 by digital bureaucracy. Heavily surrounded. Before 00:04:35.589 --> 00:04:37.730 we even scroll down to see the people who actually 00:04:37.730 --> 00:04:40.569 claim they made it, we're confronted with the 00:04:40.569 --> 00:04:43.860 user interface. Looking at the exact wording 00:04:43.860 --> 00:04:46.699 from our source material, the very top of the 00:04:46.699 --> 00:04:49.699 page is a fortress of navigation. It really is 00:04:49.699 --> 00:04:51.879 a fortress. We have the main menu, the command 00:04:51.879 --> 00:04:54.980 to move to sidebar hide, navigation, main page, 00:04:55.480 --> 00:04:57.660 contents, current events, random article about 00:04:57.660 --> 00:05:00.620 Wikipedia. Contact us. None of which has anything 00:05:00.620 --> 00:05:03.100 to do with success or triumph. Nothing. It's 00:05:03.100 --> 00:05:05.699 just the massive imposing machinery of the archive 00:05:05.699 --> 00:05:08.040 making sure you know you are inside a controlled 00:05:08.040 --> 00:05:10.500 system. And that controlled system is heavily 00:05:10.500 --> 00:05:13.079 governed by rules and legalities. Right. At the 00:05:13.079 --> 00:05:15.459 very bottom of the document, framing the entire 00:05:15.459 --> 00:05:19.660 concept of I made it, we have a stark legal declaration. 00:05:19.759 --> 00:05:23.220 Oh, the licensing stuff. Yes. It states, text 00:05:23.220 --> 00:05:25.779 is available under the Creative Commons attribution 00:05:25.779 --> 00:05:28.740 share alike 4 .0 license. Additional terms may 00:05:28.740 --> 00:05:31.740 apply. Wow. By using the site, you agree to the 00:05:31.740 --> 00:05:34.910 terms of use and privacy policy. Wikipedia is 00:05:34.910 --> 00:05:37.370 a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, 00:05:37.750 --> 00:05:40.910 Inc., a non -profit organization. I want to push 00:05:40.910 --> 00:05:42.970 back on that for a second, though. I mean, isn't 00:05:42.970 --> 00:05:45.470 that just standard boilerplate? It is standard. 00:05:45.589 --> 00:05:49.620 Every website has terms of service. actually 00:05:49.620 --> 00:05:52.879 trying to tame the concept of success, or is 00:05:52.879 --> 00:05:56.079 this just the necessary legal reality of hosting 00:05:56.079 --> 00:05:58.439 user -generated content in the 21st century? 00:05:58.639 --> 00:06:01.000 It is absolutely the necessary legal reality, 00:06:01.139 --> 00:06:03.459 but that doesn't negate the profound irony of 00:06:03.459 --> 00:06:05.720 the juxtaposition. Okay, fair. The phrase, I 00:06:05.720 --> 00:06:08.100 made it, usually implies breaking the rules, 00:06:08.350 --> 00:06:11.029 defying the odds, stepping outside the bounds 00:06:11.029 --> 00:06:13.790 of normal societal expectations to achieve something 00:06:13.790 --> 00:06:16.170 extraordinary. It is an inherently rebellious 00:06:16.170 --> 00:06:18.870 declaration. Exactly. But the moment that declaration 00:06:18.870 --> 00:06:21.189 is digitized and archived, it is immediately 00:06:21.189 --> 00:06:23.850 boxed in by a code of conduct and a cookie statement. 00:06:24.050 --> 00:06:26.329 That's hilarious. You can declare, I made it 00:06:26.329 --> 00:06:28.750 to the heavens, but the Wikimedia Foundation 00:06:28.750 --> 00:06:31.250 Inc. is still going to ensure that the metadata 00:06:31.250 --> 00:06:34.290 of your declaration complies with the Creative 00:06:34.290 --> 00:06:37.790 Commons Attribution share alike 4 .0 license. 00:06:37.639 --> 00:06:40.800 It forces the wildness of human achievement to 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:43.899 conform to strict standardized legal parameters. 00:06:44.420 --> 00:06:46.319 Precisely. When you put it like that, it really 00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:48.360 does highlight the domestication of the concept. 00:06:48.980 --> 00:06:51.480 Attribution share alike. Yeah. You achieve your 00:06:51.480 --> 00:06:53.500 wildest dreams, but you better make sure you 00:06:53.500 --> 00:06:55.759 attribute the source and share the license. You 00:06:55.759 --> 00:06:57.860 must share the license. And the archive isn't 00:06:57.860 --> 00:07:00.680 just precise about the legalities. It is incredibly 00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:03.879 relentlessly precise about time. The timestamp. 00:07:03.980 --> 00:07:06.019 Yes, the document provides the exact anchor for 00:07:06.019 --> 00:07:08.139 this digital snapshot. In the hidden category 00:07:08.139 --> 00:07:10.819 section it reads, this page was last edited on 00:07:10.819 --> 00:07:18.500 22 March 2024 at 23 .50 UTC. 23 .50 UTC. Co -coordinated 00:07:18.500 --> 00:07:20.720 universal time. Right. 10 minutes to midnight 00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:23.560 on a global clock. 10 minutes to midnight. Think 00:07:23.560 --> 00:07:25.500 about the cinematic quality of that specific 00:07:25.500 --> 00:07:29.000 timestamp. It's very dramatic. On March 22, 2024, 00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:32.480 as the day was just about to roll over into tomorrow, 00:07:32.600 --> 00:07:36.550 for anyone operating on UTC, someone or. perhaps 00:07:36.550 --> 00:07:39.329 an automated bot, was the backend of Wikipedia, 00:07:39.889 --> 00:07:42.470 tweaking the structural metadata of, I made it. 00:07:42.550 --> 00:07:45.009 They were finalizing the architectural boundaries 00:07:45.009 --> 00:07:47.550 of success right before the day ended. It takes 00:07:47.550 --> 00:07:50.769 this massive, abstract, timeless concept and 00:07:50.769 --> 00:07:53.889 pins it to a hyper -documented millisecond in 00:07:53.889 --> 00:07:56.129 human history. It grounds the ethereal nature 00:07:56.129 --> 00:07:58.810 of success into the mundane reality of database 00:07:58.810 --> 00:08:01.230 maintenance. Yeah. And that tangibility, that 00:08:01.230 --> 00:08:03.430 grounding, finally brings us to the actual core 00:08:03.430 --> 00:08:07.000 content of the page. pass the search bars, the 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:09.660 login prompts, the donate buttons. All the transactional 00:08:09.660 --> 00:08:11.439 elements of the interface. Right, you reach the 00:08:11.439 --> 00:08:14.279 list. The actual artifacts of success that the 00:08:14.279 --> 00:08:16.600 encyclopedia deems worthy of disambiguation. 00:08:16.959 --> 00:08:19.339 And what is most striking here is the sheer brevity 00:08:19.339 --> 00:08:22.519 of the list. It is astonishingly brief. Throughout 00:08:22.519 --> 00:08:25.079 all of recorded human history, across every discipline, 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:27.939 this disambiguation page lists exactly three 00:08:27.939 --> 00:08:31.240 specific musical works that lay formal encyclopedic 00:08:31.240 --> 00:08:34.629 claim to the title, I made it. Just three. In 00:08:34.629 --> 00:08:37.029 this specific snapshot of the database, there 00:08:37.029 --> 00:08:40.450 is a triad of triumph. Three artists who planted 00:08:40.450 --> 00:08:43.509 their flag, claimed the phrase, and broke the 00:08:43.509 --> 00:08:45.929 database just enough to require this page. And 00:08:45.929 --> 00:08:48.629 the timeline of these three works is incredibly 00:08:48.629 --> 00:08:50.570 tight, which is where the real story starts to 00:08:50.570 --> 00:08:53.230 unfold. Let's examine that timeline. The very 00:08:53.230 --> 00:08:55.649 first entry on the list dates back to the beginning 00:08:55.649 --> 00:08:59.049 of the last decade. The wording is precise. I 00:08:59.049 --> 00:09:03.009 made it. Cash Money Heroes, a 2010 song by Kevin 00:09:03.009 --> 00:09:04.980 Rudolph. Let's look closely at the structure 00:09:04.980 --> 00:09:06.980 of that title because it is doing a lot of heavy 00:09:06.980 --> 00:09:09.379 lifting. It really is. The artist is Kevin Rudolph. 00:09:09.559 --> 00:09:12.659 The medium is a song. The year is 2010. But the 00:09:12.659 --> 00:09:15.460 title itself is not just I Made It. It has a 00:09:15.460 --> 00:09:17.779 parenthetical built right into the official name. 00:09:17.899 --> 00:09:20.480 Cash Money Heroes. Right. I Made It. Cash Money 00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:23.519 Heroes. The song comes pre -disambiguated. That 00:09:23.519 --> 00:09:25.779 is a critical observation. He didn't just release 00:09:25.779 --> 00:09:29.000 a song called I Made It. He included the qualifier. 00:09:29.179 --> 00:09:31.659 the parenthetical in the official artistic release. 00:09:31.860 --> 00:09:34.259 It acts as its own form of internal traffic control 00:09:34.259 --> 00:09:37.200 before Wikipedia even gets involved. But why 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:39.980 would an artist do that? If you were declaring 00:09:39.980 --> 00:09:43.080 that you made it, why dilute the statement with 00:09:43.080 --> 00:09:45.399 a bracketed corporate shout out? It's a good 00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:47.279 question. It's like standing on the summit of 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:49.259 Mount Everest and shouting, I made it. And just 00:09:49.259 --> 00:09:51.299 for the record, I'm referring specifically to 00:09:51.299 --> 00:09:54.259 the cash money heroes version of making it. Why 00:09:54.259 --> 00:09:57.289 tag your own triumph like that? It speaks volumes 00:09:57.289 --> 00:10:00.029 about the crowded, hyper -branded nature of modern 00:10:00.029 --> 00:10:03.129 pop culture, particularly in 2010. Oh, for sure. 00:10:03.429 --> 00:10:05.889 Perhaps simply saying, I made it felt too broad, 00:10:06.110 --> 00:10:08.309 too ambiguous to stand on its own in the marketplace 00:10:08.309 --> 00:10:11.700 without a qualifier. By adding the parenthetical, 00:10:12.080 --> 00:10:14.460 Rudolph roots the abstract, universal feeling 00:10:14.460 --> 00:10:17.240 of success to a specific musical collective, 00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:20.299 a specific brand identity, and a highly specific 00:10:20.299 --> 00:10:22.700 moment in the music industry. A heavily branded 00:10:22.700 --> 00:10:24.980 success. Exactly. It's a declaration of success, 00:10:25.100 --> 00:10:27.940 yes, but it is a highly qualified, almost corporate 00:10:27.940 --> 00:10:30.879 success. It is success within a defined franchise. 00:10:31.080 --> 00:10:33.299 A franchise success. That makes perfect sense 00:10:33.299 --> 00:10:35.720 for the era. But then we move forward in time, 00:10:35.820 --> 00:10:39.470 leaving the 2010s pop rap scene behind. Yeah. 00:10:39.769 --> 00:10:43.129 Five years pass. We hit 2015 and the second entry 00:10:43.129 --> 00:10:45.850 on the page presents a massive shift. The text 00:10:45.850 --> 00:10:50.049 reads, I made it a 2015 album by Diamond Rio. 00:10:50.389 --> 00:10:52.950 Diamond Rio. Right. We are shifting from a single 00:10:52.950 --> 00:10:56.470 song by a pop artist to an entire album by a 00:10:56.470 --> 00:10:58.820 country music group. And we must pay close attention 00:10:58.820 --> 00:11:01.340 to the typographical rules Wikipedia enforces 00:11:01.340 --> 00:11:03.620 here, because the formatting tells the story. 00:11:03.720 --> 00:11:06.960 Oh, the italics. Yes. In the database, the Kevin 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:09.200 Rudolph song is enclosed in quotation marks. 00:11:09.740 --> 00:11:11.799 The Diamond Rio album, however, is presented 00:11:11.799 --> 00:11:15.039 in italics. Quotation marks versus italics. It 00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:17.299 seems like a minor formatting rule, but what 00:11:17.299 --> 00:11:19.700 does it actually mean for how we perceive the 00:11:19.700 --> 00:11:22.250 work? It denotes the scale and the container 00:11:22.250 --> 00:11:25.429 of the artistic statement. In standard encyclopedic 00:11:25.429 --> 00:11:27.809 formatting, quotation marks are used for shorter, 00:11:28.029 --> 00:11:30.730 subordinate works. A chapter in a book, an episode 00:11:30.730 --> 00:11:32.990 of a television show, or a single song. They're 00:11:32.990 --> 00:11:35.570 pieces of a larger whole. Exactly. Italics, on 00:11:35.570 --> 00:11:37.809 the other hand, are reserved for major independent 00:11:37.809 --> 00:11:40.809 works. A full book, a complete film, or a full 00:11:40.809 --> 00:11:43.529 -length album. So a song is just a piece? A song 00:11:43.529 --> 00:11:46.149 is a fleeting statement. It is three or four 00:11:46.149 --> 00:11:49.279 minutes of triumph enclosed in quotes. An album 00:11:49.279 --> 00:11:52.299 in italics represents an entire era. It is a 00:11:52.299 --> 00:11:55.259 sustained curated collection of thoughts, themes, 00:11:55.519 --> 00:11:58.620 and emotions that culminate in that single overarching 00:11:58.620 --> 00:12:01.500 title. That is a brilliant distinction. So by 00:12:01.500 --> 00:12:04.480 claiming the phrase for an entire album in 2015, 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:07.279 Diamond Rio is stretching the declaration out. 00:12:07.450 --> 00:12:09.909 AR. It's no longer just a passing feeling you 00:12:09.909 --> 00:12:12.110 get for three minutes on the radio. It is the 00:12:12.110 --> 00:12:14.690 defining thesis of an entire artistic project. 00:12:14.690 --> 00:12:17.610 Yes. And the sheer bizarre reality of the digital 00:12:17.610 --> 00:12:21.169 archive is that this sprawling, era -defining 00:12:21.169 --> 00:12:24.350 country album is forced to share this tiny, sterile 00:12:24.350 --> 00:12:27.850 digital real estate with a 2010 pop song featuring 00:12:27.850 --> 00:12:30.009 a parenthetical brand name. They are neighbors 00:12:30.009 --> 00:12:32.070 in the database. They are neighbors. And they 00:12:32.070 --> 00:12:34.129 are about to be joined by the final piece of 00:12:34.129 --> 00:12:37.230 our triad. 2016. Yes, the third and final entry 00:12:37.230 --> 00:12:39.389 on the page moves us forward just one more year 00:12:39.389 --> 00:12:43.049 to 2016. The text simply reads, I made it Fantasia 00:12:43.049 --> 00:12:45.809 song, 2016. And here we see another shift. We 00:12:45.809 --> 00:12:47.669 are back to a song and not an album. So we are 00:12:47.669 --> 00:12:49.590 back to quotation marks. But look at the title 00:12:49.590 --> 00:12:53.110 itself. Unlike Kevin Rudolph in 2010, Fantasia 00:12:53.110 --> 00:12:54.970 didn't build a parenthetical into her title. 00:12:55.320 --> 00:12:57.980 The song isn't called I Made It, American Idol 00:12:57.980 --> 00:13:02.700 winner, or I Made It, the 2016 remix. The artistic 00:13:02.700 --> 00:13:06.240 statement is absolute. It is pure, unadorned, 00:13:06.340 --> 00:13:08.879 and unqualified. The title of the track is simply 00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:12.139 I Made It. If we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:13:12.379 --> 00:13:15.039 we see a fascinating progression in how confidence 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:18.409 is expressed. Fantasia felt no need to qualify 00:13:18.409 --> 00:13:21.070 her arrival. The statement stands entirely on 00:13:21.070 --> 00:13:23.769 its own. Yeah, it's so powerful. However, because 00:13:23.769 --> 00:13:26.649 she chose such a pure title, the database could 00:13:26.649 --> 00:13:29.929 not handle it. The encyclopedia itself had to 00:13:29.929 --> 00:13:32.690 impose the parenthetical Fantasia song just to 00:13:32.690 --> 00:13:34.570 keep the digital architecture from collapsing 00:13:34.570 --> 00:13:36.909 in on itself. The artist provided the pure emotion. 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:39.259 And the system provided the required metadata. 00:13:39.940 --> 00:13:41.320 Exactly. It's like the system couldn't handle 00:13:41.320 --> 00:13:43.100 the raw confidence of it. It had to step in and 00:13:43.100 --> 00:13:45.799 say, OK, we respect your pure declaration, but 00:13:45.799 --> 00:13:48.080 for the sake of the servers, we have to tag this 00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:50.840 as a Fantasia song from 2016. It requires the 00:13:50.840 --> 00:13:53.039 tag. But let's look at this whole triad together. 00:13:53.299 --> 00:13:56.720 2010, 2015, 2016. That is an incredibly tight 00:13:56.720 --> 00:14:00.429 window. Over a mere six year span, we have this 00:14:00.429 --> 00:14:03.529 sudden burst of artistic declaration. Three completely 00:14:03.529 --> 00:14:06.429 different musical entities. A pop rap artist, 00:14:06.809 --> 00:14:09.429 a veteran country band, and an R &B powerhouse. 00:14:10.070 --> 00:14:12.850 All felt absolutely compelled to release a major 00:14:12.850 --> 00:14:16.389 work with this exact specific terminology. What 00:14:16.389 --> 00:14:18.330 is going on there? It invites us to consider 00:14:18.330 --> 00:14:21.419 the cultural undercurrents of that specific half 00:14:21.419 --> 00:14:24.279 decade. The 2010s. Right. The early 2010s were 00:14:24.279 --> 00:14:26.840 defined by the long, grueling recovery from the 00:14:26.840 --> 00:14:30.440 2008 global financial crisis. People spent years 00:14:30.440 --> 00:14:32.700 trying to claw their way back to stability, trying 00:14:32.700 --> 00:14:35.100 to find solid ground. Right. That totally tracks. 00:14:35.279 --> 00:14:38.559 It is highly plausible that by 2010, Kevin Rudolph's 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:41.139 song was capturing that initial aggressive push 00:14:41.139 --> 00:14:43.620 to return to form and claim a piece of the pie. 00:14:43.720 --> 00:14:46.139 Yeah. By 2015, the recovery was more established, 00:14:46.379 --> 00:14:48.340 perhaps allowing Diamond Rio to claim it as a 00:14:48.340 --> 00:14:50.700 sustained era, a full album's worth of stability, 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:53.940 and by 2016 Fantasia could state it as an absolute 00:14:53.940 --> 00:14:56.559 unqualified fact. That makes a lot of sense. 00:14:57.220 --> 00:14:59.500 They are capturing the zeitgeist of a recovery 00:14:59.500 --> 00:15:02.779 period. But regardless of their individual genres 00:15:02.779 --> 00:15:05.779 or their chart success, they are all forever 00:15:05.779 --> 00:15:10.110 locked together in this digital amber. This disambiguation 00:15:10.110 --> 00:15:13.649 page is the great equalizer. It is the ultimate 00:15:13.649 --> 00:15:16.710 flattening of achievement. The encyclopedia does 00:15:16.710 --> 00:15:19.289 not care about billboard chart positions. It 00:15:19.289 --> 00:15:22.470 does not care about record sales, platinum plaques, 00:15:22.669 --> 00:15:25.129 or the subjective emotional resonance these works 00:15:25.129 --> 00:15:28.250 had on their listeners. On this specific page, 00:15:28.690 --> 00:15:30.909 in the eyes of the database, they are merely 00:15:30.909 --> 00:15:33.899 three bullet points under a bolded heading. The 00:15:33.899 --> 00:15:36.639 text literally reads, I made it may refer to, 00:15:37.080 --> 00:15:39.600 followed by three blue hyperlinks. I have to 00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:42.059 stop you there, though. Is it really a flattening 00:15:42.059 --> 00:15:44.840 of achievement, or is it just the necessary neutrality 00:15:44.840 --> 00:15:47.519 of an index? How do you mean? We don't accuse 00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:49.620 a phone book of flattening human lives just because 00:15:49.620 --> 00:15:51.960 everyone gets the same font size. Why should 00:15:51.960 --> 00:15:54.200 we view Wikipedia's formatting as something that 00:15:54.200 --> 00:15:57.220 diminishes the art? That is a very fair counter 00:15:57.220 --> 00:15:59.899 argument. An index is inherently neutral, and 00:15:59.899 --> 00:16:03.620 its neutrality is its utility. However, the emotional 00:16:03.620 --> 00:16:06.139 friction occurs because the subject matter itself 00:16:06.139 --> 00:16:09.519 making it is the antithesis of neutrality. Oh, 00:16:09.539 --> 00:16:12.399 okay. It is the peak of subjective human experience. 00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:15.340 When you reduce the peak of subjective experience 00:16:15.340 --> 00:16:18.820 to an objective uniform bullet point, the contrast 00:16:18.820 --> 00:16:21.419 feels stark. You work your entire life to stand 00:16:21.419 --> 00:16:23.639 on that summit and shout, I made it. And your 00:16:23.639 --> 00:16:26.659 encyclopedic reward is becoming a standardized 00:16:26.659 --> 00:16:29.759 10 -point font hyperlink sitting next to two 00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:31.779 other people who shouted the same thing. Right. 00:16:32.019 --> 00:16:34.700 It is a necessary function of the archive, but 00:16:34.700 --> 00:16:37.240 it is a humbling one to observe. Humbling is 00:16:37.240 --> 00:16:39.899 exactly the right word. you achieve your ultimate 00:16:39.899 --> 00:16:42.519 dream, and you become a navigational waypoint. 00:16:42.580 --> 00:16:45.360 A waypoint, yes. But wait, it actually gets even 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:47.820 deeper and arguably more philosophical. Yeah. 00:16:48.080 --> 00:16:50.340 Because beneath this list of three musical works, 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:53.779 beneath our triad of triumph, there's a whole 00:16:53.779 --> 00:16:55.779 other section of the page that completely flips 00:16:55.779 --> 00:16:57.740 the script on how we are supposed to view success. 00:16:58.100 --> 00:17:00.200 The cross -references. Right. If you scroll past 00:17:00.200 --> 00:17:02.220 Fantasia, there is a bold heading that reads, 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:05.970 see also? The See Also section is where the rigid 00:17:05.970 --> 00:17:08.190 structure of the database suddenly reveals a 00:17:08.190 --> 00:17:10.930 surprising level of thematic intuition. Yes. 00:17:11.450 --> 00:17:13.910 Beneath that bold heading, there are no more 00:17:13.910 --> 00:17:16.710 songs. There are no more albums. There is only 00:17:16.710 --> 00:17:20.109 one single bullet point. One link. One specific 00:17:20.109 --> 00:17:22.829 link that the architecture of Wikipedia has decided 00:17:22.829 --> 00:17:25.950 is absolutely essential for you to consider if 00:17:25.950 --> 00:17:28.369 you are currently looking at the page for I made 00:17:28.369 --> 00:17:32.150 it. And that link is we made it. Disambiguation. 00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:34.599 And we must look at the exact justification the 00:17:34.599 --> 00:17:36.940 archive provides for this link. Right below we 00:17:36.940 --> 00:17:39.339 made it, there is a tiny, almost invisible line 00:17:39.339 --> 00:17:41.539 of text explaining its presence. What does it 00:17:41.539 --> 00:17:44.339 say? It says, topics referred to by the same 00:17:44.339 --> 00:17:46.440 term. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:17:46.920 --> 00:17:50.039 Topics referred to by the same term. The algorithm, 00:17:50.420 --> 00:17:53.460 or the human editors behind the scenes. the collective 00:17:53.460 --> 00:17:56.400 hive mind of the digital archive, has fundamentally 00:17:56.400 --> 00:17:59.839 recognized that the singular I is conceptually, 00:18:00.019 --> 00:18:02.759 inextricably adjacent to the plural we. It's 00:18:02.759 --> 00:18:05.579 a profound connection. You cannot look up the 00:18:05.579 --> 00:18:09.579 solitary, ego -driven declaration of I made it 00:18:09.579 --> 00:18:12.660 without the encyclopedia gently tapping you on 00:18:12.660 --> 00:18:15.039 the shoulder and saying, hey, you really need 00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:17.240 to look at the collective version too. See also, 00:18:17.619 --> 00:18:20.630 we made it. This raises an important question 00:18:20.630 --> 00:18:22.490 and it is something I want everyone listening 00:18:22.490 --> 00:18:25.329 to genuinely reflect on regarding your own life 00:18:25.329 --> 00:18:28.230 and career. What is the true nature of success? 00:18:28.569 --> 00:18:32.369 In modern Western culture, we are heavily conditioned 00:18:32.369 --> 00:18:35.849 to celebrate the singular genius. We romanticize 00:18:35.849 --> 00:18:38.250 the solitary hero, the self -made individual 00:18:38.250 --> 00:18:40.309 who pulls themselves up by their bootstraps and 00:18:40.309 --> 00:18:43.640 reaches the summit entirely alone. I made it. 00:18:43.799 --> 00:18:45.940 Right. It is an inherently ego -driven statement. 00:18:46.119 --> 00:18:48.359 It draws a hard boundary around your own personal 00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:50.299 achievement, isolating it from the contributions 00:18:50.299 --> 00:18:52.079 of others. Exactly. It's the entrepreneur on 00:18:52.079 --> 00:18:54.220 the magazine cover alone. It's the solo artist 00:18:54.220 --> 00:18:56.900 accepting the Grammys. Precisely. But the archive, 00:18:57.180 --> 00:18:59.700 in its infinite, interconnected, hyperlinked 00:18:59.700 --> 00:19:03.799 wisdom, refuses to let the eye stand completely 00:19:03.799 --> 00:19:06.740 isolated. It won't let you be alone. By explicitly 00:19:06.740 --> 00:19:10.220 forcing a link from I made it to the disambiguation 00:19:10.220 --> 00:19:13.339 page for we made it, the encyclopedia is making 00:19:13.339 --> 00:19:16.819 a subtle but profound thematic assertion. It 00:19:16.819 --> 00:19:19.619 is directly linking individual triumph to collective 00:19:19.619 --> 00:19:22.579 achievement. It is suggesting that the two concepts 00:19:22.579 --> 00:19:25.519 are not opposites, but neighbors. It's almost 00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:27.900 like the page is forcing a moment of humility 00:19:27.900 --> 00:19:30.640 on you. Very much so. Imagine you are sitting 00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:33.230 at your computer. You just got a huge promotion, 00:19:33.609 --> 00:19:35.369 or you just sold your first novel, and you are 00:19:35.369 --> 00:19:37.410 feeling incredibly proud of yourself. You type, 00:19:37.410 --> 00:19:39.690 I made it into Wikipedia. Maybe you're looking 00:19:39.690 --> 00:19:41.710 for a song to match your mood. And the system 00:19:41.710 --> 00:19:44.549 responds? The system essentially responds, congratulations. 00:19:44.690 --> 00:19:47.069 That's great. But remember, nobody makes it entirely 00:19:47.069 --> 00:19:49.109 alone. You had teachers, you had mentors, you 00:19:49.109 --> 00:19:52.400 had a support system. See also, we made it. It 00:19:52.400 --> 00:19:54.740 forces you to broaden your perspective outward. 00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:57.700 And we must also note that we made it is itself 00:19:57.700 --> 00:20:00.599 listed as a disambiguation page. The text clearly 00:20:00.599 --> 00:20:03.519 says we made it. Disambiguation is not a single 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:06.019 definitive article either. Oh, wow. So the collective 00:20:06.019 --> 00:20:09.019 success is just as messy and crowded as the individual 00:20:09.019 --> 00:20:12.640 success. Exactly. The ambiguity scales perfectly. 00:20:13.279 --> 00:20:15.539 Whether you claim success individually as an 00:20:15.539 --> 00:20:19.039 I or collectively as a we, you still create a 00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:21.420 pile up in the archive. A pile up of triumph. 00:20:21.349 --> 00:20:24.190 There are so many groups, so many bands, so many 00:20:24.190 --> 00:20:26.089 collectives who have had to shout, we made it, 00:20:26.250 --> 00:20:28.309 that they too broke the database and required 00:20:28.309 --> 00:20:30.930 their own traffic control page. That is amazing. 00:20:31.210 --> 00:20:33.589 But the linkage between the two pages remains 00:20:33.589 --> 00:20:36.309 the critical point. It serves as a digital reminder 00:20:36.309 --> 00:20:38.930 that language is fluid and our human experiences 00:20:38.930 --> 00:20:41.930 are deeply connected. Deeply connected. The transition 00:20:41.930 --> 00:20:45.230 from I to we is perhaps the most important psychological 00:20:45.230 --> 00:20:47.609 journey a person can make in their life. And 00:20:47.609 --> 00:20:50.349 here it is, represented simply and quietly as 00:20:50.349 --> 00:20:53.549 a cross -reference in a digital index. In the 00:20:53.549 --> 00:20:56.690 eyes of the database, I and we are just variations 00:20:56.690 --> 00:20:59.119 on the exact same thematic frequency. It blows 00:20:59.119 --> 00:21:01.579 my mind how much heavy philosophy is baked into 00:21:01.579 --> 00:21:04.180 a page that was literally just designed to fix 00:21:04.180 --> 00:21:06.579 broken hyperlinks. The architecture reveals a 00:21:06.579 --> 00:21:08.619 lot. It really does. Yeah. But I want to shift 00:21:08.619 --> 00:21:11.440 our focus now, because the main content of the 00:21:11.440 --> 00:21:15.900 page, the 2010 to 2016 triad of songs and albums, 00:21:16.279 --> 00:21:20.039 they see also link to collective success. That 00:21:20.039 --> 00:21:22.480 is really only half the story told by the document 00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:25.119 we are analyzing. Yes, the margins. Exactly. 00:21:25.420 --> 00:21:28.059 The rest of the text we're examining is absolutely 00:21:28.059 --> 00:21:30.180 covered in what we could call the marginalia 00:21:30.180 --> 00:21:32.700 of the digital canvas. It's all the user interface 00:21:32.700 --> 00:21:35.140 details, the settings, the toggles, the options 00:21:35.140 --> 00:21:37.480 that surround the main text. The UI as text. 00:21:37.640 --> 00:21:40.460 Right. And honestly, treating these UI elements 00:21:40.460 --> 00:21:43.140 as vital parts of the modern reading experience 00:21:43.140 --> 00:21:45.920 reveals some of the most bizarre, hilarious, 00:21:46.299 --> 00:21:49.059 and ultimately restrictive things about how we 00:21:49.059 --> 00:21:51.029 interact. interact with knowledge today. We often 00:21:51.029 --> 00:21:53.230 treat the interface as invisible. We are trained 00:21:53.230 --> 00:21:55.349 to look past the menus and the sidebars to get 00:21:55.349 --> 00:21:57.589 to the core content. We just block it out. But 00:21:57.589 --> 00:21:59.890 the interface is the architecture that governs 00:21:59.890 --> 00:22:02.309 how we perceive the information. It dictates 00:22:02.309 --> 00:22:04.549 the environment. And because our source document 00:22:04.549 --> 00:22:07.029 captured all of it, we are forced to confront 00:22:07.029 --> 00:22:10.269 the highly specific, sometimes nonsensical, digital 00:22:10.269 --> 00:22:13.529 room in which the concept of I made it is housed. 00:22:13.849 --> 00:22:15.730 Nonsensical is the perfect word for it. Let's 00:22:15.730 --> 00:22:17.710 look at the sidebar under the appearance section. 00:22:18.589 --> 00:22:20.990 Wikipedia gives you tools to customize how the 00:22:20.990 --> 00:22:23.769 page looks. Okay. And the very first option listed 00:22:23.769 --> 00:22:26.789 under appearance is something so wildly specific, 00:22:27.150 --> 00:22:30.289 so utterly whimsical, that I almost couldn't 00:22:30.289 --> 00:22:31.849 believe it was real when I read the document. 00:22:31.930 --> 00:22:35.250 It's the birthday mode. Yes. The text explicitly 00:22:35.250 --> 00:22:38.670 says, birthday mode, baby globe. And right below 00:22:38.670 --> 00:22:41.049 it, it gives the current status. Zero disabled, 00:22:41.289 --> 00:22:43.630 one enabled. And then a helpful little link that 00:22:43.630 --> 00:22:46.269 says, learn more about birthday mode. Birthday 00:22:46.269 --> 00:22:50.160 mode. baby globe. It is an utterly surreal phrase 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:53.839 to encounter on a sterile, bureaucratic disambiguation 00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:56.960 page governed by Creative Commons licenses. Completely 00:22:56.960 --> 00:22:59.400 surreal. We have just spent time analyzing the 00:22:59.400 --> 00:23:01.640 deep philosophy of individual versus collective 00:23:01.640 --> 00:23:04.279 triumph. We are looking at a six -year bust of 00:23:04.279 --> 00:23:06.859 musical declarations and hovering right there 00:23:06.859 --> 00:23:09.279 in the periphery of your vision is a toggle switch 00:23:09.279 --> 00:23:12.039 offering you a baby globe. I have to ask you. 00:23:12.109 --> 00:23:14.470 What could a baby globe birthday mode possibly 00:23:14.470 --> 00:23:17.130 look like on a Wikipedia page? The text says 00:23:17.130 --> 00:23:19.809 it is currently disabled, but you, the user, 00:23:19.890 --> 00:23:22.529 have the power to click enabled. The power of 00:23:22.529 --> 00:23:25.410 the baby globe. Imagine you are deep in thought, 00:23:25.750 --> 00:23:28.529 pondering the semantic difference between Fantasia's 00:23:28.529 --> 00:23:31.390 unqualified success and Diamond Rio's era -defining 00:23:31.390 --> 00:23:34.490 album, and you decide you know what this profound 00:23:34.490 --> 00:23:37.630 moment of reflection really needs. A baby globe. 00:23:37.769 --> 00:23:41.049 It's absurd. What happens? Do digital confetti 00:23:41.049 --> 00:23:44.029 cannons go off across the screen? Does the puzzle 00:23:44.029 --> 00:23:47.529 piece Wikipedia Globe put on a tiny pixelated 00:23:47.529 --> 00:23:50.990 party hat? The sheer whimsy of birthday mode 00:23:50.990 --> 00:23:53.990 existing on the exact same page as the stern 00:23:53.990 --> 00:23:57.049 legal warning about the terms of use is the ultimate 00:23:57.049 --> 00:24:00.170 paradox of the internet. It is. It is simultaneously 00:24:00.170 --> 00:24:02.829 a rigid legal document and a potential child's 00:24:02.829 --> 00:24:04.789 birthday party just waiting to be activated. 00:24:04.940 --> 00:24:07.200 It speaks to the modern trend of gamification 00:24:07.200 --> 00:24:09.539 and the desperate need for personalization in 00:24:09.539 --> 00:24:12.140 our digital archives. The systems we build are 00:24:12.140 --> 00:24:14.000 desperate to be engaging. They want you to stick 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:16.279 around. The architecture knows that a disambiguation 00:24:16.279 --> 00:24:18.680 page is inherently dry. It's just a list of links. 00:24:19.319 --> 00:24:21.460 So the interface attempts to offer you these 00:24:21.460 --> 00:24:24.119 little Easter eggs, these tiny hits of dopamine. 00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:27.000 A hit of dopamine from a baby globe. Exactly. 00:24:27.240 --> 00:24:30.819 A baby globe to celebrate. What exactly? The 00:24:30.819 --> 00:24:33.319 anniversary of the page's creation. Your own 00:24:33.319 --> 00:24:36.640 personal birthday. The ambiguity of the feature 00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:39.640 itself is palpable, but it highlights how the 00:24:39.640 --> 00:24:41.980 archive tries to soften its own clinical nature 00:24:41.980 --> 00:24:44.779 with superficial whimsy. Superficial whimsy, 00:24:44.880 --> 00:24:47.279 exactly. Because when you look at the other customization 00:24:47.279 --> 00:24:50.559 options, the archive's true nature reveals itself. 00:24:50.759 --> 00:24:53.660 And it is not whimsical at all. Not at all. The 00:24:53.660 --> 00:24:55.940 document details a whole suite of options for 00:24:55.940 --> 00:24:58.519 customizing how you view the archive, how you 00:24:58.519 --> 00:25:01.400 visually process the concept of success. It lists 00:25:01.400 --> 00:25:04.799 text sizes, small, standard, large. It lists 00:25:04.799 --> 00:25:07.380 width options for the layout, standard, wide. 00:25:07.799 --> 00:25:10.000 It even lists a color beta, which is the theme 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:13.339 automatic light dark. On the surface, the interface 00:25:13.339 --> 00:25:15.420 is offering you autonomy. It is telling you, 00:25:15.480 --> 00:25:17.579 you are in control of your digital experience. 00:25:17.779 --> 00:25:19.740 You can view the concept of I made it however 00:25:19.740 --> 00:25:21.940 you prefer. Big text, small text, dark mode. 00:25:22.140 --> 00:25:24.980 You are the master of this domain. But here is 00:25:24.980 --> 00:25:27.519 where we encounter what I think is the most fascinating 00:25:27.519 --> 00:25:30.839 contradiction in the entire text. It is a profound 00:25:30.839 --> 00:25:34.029 paradox of control. Yes, the interface presents 00:25:34.029 --> 00:25:36.670 you with all these choices, but immediately below 00:25:36.670 --> 00:25:39.950 these toggle options, the system absolutely pulls 00:25:39.950 --> 00:25:42.230 the rug out from under you. It really does. Let's 00:25:42.230 --> 00:25:44.650 look at the exact wording. Under the text size 00:25:44.650 --> 00:25:47.390 options, where you can supposedly choose standard 00:25:47.390 --> 00:25:51.180 or large, the text explicitly dictates. This 00:25:51.180 --> 00:25:54.940 page always uses small font size. It is a remarkable 00:25:54.940 --> 00:25:57.000 bait and switch. It is. It gives you the buttons 00:25:57.000 --> 00:25:59.299 for standard and large. It lets you think you 00:25:59.299 --> 00:26:01.380 have a choice in the matter and then it immediately 00:26:01.380 --> 00:26:05.180 issues an authoritarian mandate. No, regardless 00:26:05.180 --> 00:26:07.339 of what you click, you will view success in small 00:26:07.339 --> 00:26:10.039 font. And we see the exact same mechanic applied 00:26:10.039 --> 00:26:12.299 to the width option. You are offered the choice 00:26:12.299 --> 00:26:14.980 to select standard or wide, but the explanatory 00:26:14.980 --> 00:26:18.200 text below dictates the content is as wide as 00:26:18.200 --> 00:26:21.220 possible for your browser window. Right. It completely 00:26:21.220 --> 00:26:23.500 overrides your personal selection based on the 00:26:23.500 --> 00:26:25.619 hardware constraints of your device. Unbelievable. 00:26:25.900 --> 00:26:28.259 But the most striking example is the color mode. 00:26:28.819 --> 00:26:32.400 You are offered automatic, light, or dark. Dark 00:26:32.400 --> 00:26:35.059 mode is of course incredibly popular for digital 00:26:35.059 --> 00:26:38.460 reading, but the absolute unyielding rule of 00:26:38.460 --> 00:26:41.920 the page is stated plainly right below the options. 00:26:42.240 --> 00:26:44.180 This page is always in light mode. This cage 00:26:44.180 --> 00:26:47.519 is always in light mode. Wow. Think about the 00:26:47.519 --> 00:26:50.240 incredible irony happening here. We are analyzing 00:26:50.240 --> 00:26:53.299 a page that is entirely dedicated to the concept 00:26:53.299 --> 00:26:55.700 of claiming ultimate success, of having made 00:26:55.700 --> 00:26:58.579 it. of reaching the absolute pinnacle where you 00:26:58.579 --> 00:27:00.680 finally have the power and the leverage to call 00:27:00.680 --> 00:27:02.700 the shots in your life. You're at the top. And 00:27:02.700 --> 00:27:06.299 on this exact page, the digital system rigidly, 00:27:06.359 --> 00:27:09.519 almost mockingly, overrides your choices. You 00:27:09.519 --> 00:27:11.559 want to view your success in dark mode to save 00:27:11.559 --> 00:27:14.400 your eyes. Too bad. You must view success in 00:27:14.400 --> 00:27:16.480 the glaring light. No dark mode for triumph. 00:27:16.619 --> 00:27:19.119 You want large text so you can really study the 00:27:19.119 --> 00:27:20.980 details of Kevin Rudolf's parenthetical. Nope. 00:27:21.440 --> 00:27:23.710 Small font only. You're completely powerless 00:27:23.710 --> 00:27:25.670 in the phase the archives hard -coded formatting 00:27:25.670 --> 00:27:27.750 rules. The illusion of choice is spelled out 00:27:27.750 --> 00:27:30.650 right there in the text. It serves as a brilliant 00:27:30.650 --> 00:27:33.490 if unintentional metaphor for navigating massive 00:27:33.490 --> 00:27:37.269 systems. The archive insists on absolute uniformity 00:27:37.269 --> 00:27:41.240 for its structural pages. A disambiguation page, 00:27:41.240 --> 00:27:43.940 as we established, is not an article. It is infrastructure. 00:27:44.099 --> 00:27:45.940 It's the plumbing. It is the plumbing of the 00:27:45.940 --> 00:27:48.859 encyclopedia. And infrastructure does not care 00:27:48.859 --> 00:27:51.299 about your personal aesthetic preferences. It 00:27:51.299 --> 00:27:55.259 must remain functional, standardized, and unyielding 00:27:55.259 --> 00:27:57.920 to maintain the integrity of the whole. Wow. 00:27:58.200 --> 00:28:00.460 The fact that the interface still displays the 00:28:00.460 --> 00:28:03.079 choices, knowing full well it is programmed to 00:28:03.079 --> 00:28:05.599 override them, reflects a sort of bureaucratic 00:28:05.599 --> 00:28:08.680 cruelty. It is a constant subtle reminder that 00:28:08.680 --> 00:28:10.349 no matter how how much you feel you have made 00:28:10.349 --> 00:28:12.809 it in the real world, the moment you enter the 00:28:12.809 --> 00:28:15.750 digital realm, you are subject to the unyielding 00:28:15.750 --> 00:28:18.910 rules of the platform. You will conform to the 00:28:18.910 --> 00:28:20.690 small font. You will remain in the light mode. 00:28:21.089 --> 00:28:23.769 You are a guest in the database. That is so deeply 00:28:23.769 --> 00:28:25.390 humbling. You are a guest in the database. The 00:28:25.390 --> 00:28:27.450 interface is constantly quietly putting you in 00:28:27.450 --> 00:28:29.670 your place. And if the unyielding formatting 00:28:29.670 --> 00:28:32.049 wasn't enough to humble you, there is also the 00:28:32.049 --> 00:28:34.930 constant nagging request for your unpaid labor. 00:28:35.099 --> 00:28:37.839 Right in the middle of the page, sandwiched between 00:28:37.839 --> 00:28:40.640 the triad of musical triumphs and the profound 00:28:40.640 --> 00:28:43.880 see also link to collective success, there's 00:28:43.880 --> 00:28:47.380 this bolded, highly intrusive prompt. Our document 00:28:47.380 --> 00:28:49.960 captures it perfectly. It says, take a short 00:28:49.960 --> 00:28:53.160 survey and help us improve Wikipedia. The quick 00:28:53.160 --> 00:28:56.500 surveys prompt, the ubiquitous digital panhandler. 00:28:56.619 --> 00:28:59.299 Exactly. The text continues. Take a short survey, 00:28:59.779 --> 00:29:02.480 no thanks, or visit survey. And then underneath 00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:04.819 it, just to remind you of the bureaucracy, read 00:29:04.819 --> 00:29:07.059 our privacy statement, to stop quick surveys 00:29:07.059 --> 00:29:09.500 from appearing, change your preferences. It's 00:29:09.500 --> 00:29:11.599 a full interruption. It is a complete interruption 00:29:11.599 --> 00:29:13.720 of the user experience. You are sitting there 00:29:13.720 --> 00:29:16.660 trying to contemplate the ultimate arrival, the 00:29:16.660 --> 00:29:19.480 definitive finality of I made it, and the system 00:29:19.480 --> 00:29:21.980 is tapping on your screen like a clipboard -wielding 00:29:21.980 --> 00:29:24.599 canvasser on the street saying, excuse me, could 00:29:24.599 --> 00:29:26.339 you do some free labor for us? Could you help 00:29:26.339 --> 00:29:28.859 us improve our data collection? It shatters the 00:29:28.859 --> 00:29:31.640 very illusion of finality that the phrase I made 00:29:31.640 --> 00:29:35.900 it relies upon. I may it, the implication is 00:29:35.900 --> 00:29:39.240 that the long, arduous journey is finally over. 00:29:39.619 --> 00:29:41.680 The grueling work is done, the ultimate goal 00:29:41.680 --> 00:29:44.079 has been achieved, and now it is time to rest 00:29:44.079 --> 00:29:46.390 and enjoy the view. You made it to done. But 00:29:46.390 --> 00:29:48.890 the presence of the quick survey on this specific 00:29:48.890 --> 00:29:51.970 page serves as a harsh reminder that the digital 00:29:51.970 --> 00:29:54.710 archive, and perhaps the human project of knowledge 00:29:54.710 --> 00:29:58.869 accumulation itself, is never, ever truly finished. 00:29:58.910 --> 00:30:01.710 Never. There is no final destination in a database. 00:30:01.930 --> 00:30:04.289 There is always room for optimization. There 00:30:04.289 --> 00:30:06.829 is always a survey to take, a preference to update, 00:30:06.950 --> 00:30:10.269 a privacy statement to read. The system is inherently 00:30:10.269 --> 00:30:13.269 restless and eternally dissatisfied. It's the 00:30:13.269 --> 00:30:15.769 eternal treadmill of human endeavor. You run 00:30:15.769 --> 00:30:17.829 a marathon, you cross the finish line, you throw 00:30:17.829 --> 00:30:19.869 your hands up in victory, you yell, I made it. 00:30:20.269 --> 00:30:22.369 And before you can even catch your breath, an 00:30:22.369 --> 00:30:24.869 official immediately hands you a clipboard and 00:30:24.869 --> 00:30:27.390 asks you to rate your experience on a scale of 00:30:27.390 --> 00:30:29.869 one to five. It completely undercuts the majesty 00:30:29.869 --> 00:30:32.529 of the moment. It really does. And the options 00:30:32.529 --> 00:30:35.769 provided are so stark and transactional, no thanks 00:30:35.769 --> 00:30:39.079 or visit survey. Most of us just reflexively 00:30:39.079 --> 00:30:41.599 click no thanks trying to swat away the annoyance 00:30:41.599 --> 00:30:44.019 so we can get back to looking at Fantasia's unadorned 00:30:44.019 --> 00:30:46.200 success. But the prompt is always lurking there. 00:30:46.380 --> 00:30:49.359 It is a constant reminder that the machine requires 00:30:49.359 --> 00:30:52.549 constant feeding. Your triumph is fine, but your 00:30:52.549 --> 00:30:55.190 data is what the system really wants. If you 00:30:55.190 --> 00:30:57.470 look at the sheer volume of interactive demands 00:30:57.470 --> 00:31:00.309 listed in the sidebar and tool sections of our 00:31:00.309 --> 00:31:02.529 document, it becomes almost overwhelming. It's 00:31:02.529 --> 00:31:04.869 a lot of links. The text lists commands like 00:31:04.869 --> 00:31:08.130 contribute, help, learn to edit, community portal, 00:31:08.470 --> 00:31:11.450 upload file, create account, log in. Even under 00:31:11.450 --> 00:31:14.089 the tool section, it demands engagement. What 00:31:14.089 --> 00:31:17.230 links here? related changes, cite this page, 00:31:17.390 --> 00:31:20.230 get shortened URL, download QR code, add inter 00:31:20.230 --> 00:31:22.170 -language links. It's vibrating with demands. 00:31:22.349 --> 00:31:24.549 The page is literally vibrating with potential 00:31:24.549 --> 00:31:27.569 actions. It is not a static marble monument to 00:31:27.569 --> 00:31:31.210 success. It is a busy, noisy digital intersection. 00:31:31.690 --> 00:31:34.269 It expects you to do something. Let's focus on 00:31:34.269 --> 00:31:36.869 one of those tools for a second. Download QR 00:31:36.869 --> 00:31:40.190 code. Imagine downloading a QR code for the I 00:31:40.190 --> 00:31:44.140 made it disambiguation page. What would a human 00:31:44.140 --> 00:31:46.200 being realistically do with that? Print it on 00:31:46.200 --> 00:31:48.099 a business card. Print it on a premium business 00:31:48.099 --> 00:31:50.759 card. Put it on a billboard. Hey everyone, scan 00:31:50.759 --> 00:31:53.200 this barcode to see a list of three musicians 00:31:53.200 --> 00:31:56.359 from the 2010s and a link to the concept of We 00:31:56.359 --> 00:31:59.160 Made It. The tools provided by the interface 00:31:59.160 --> 00:32:02.380 are so immensely powerful and globally scalable, 00:32:02.960 --> 00:32:05.740 yet when they are applied to this highly specific, 00:32:06.279 --> 00:32:08.579 almost absurdly narrow slice of administrative 00:32:08.579 --> 00:32:11.339 information, they feel completely comical. It 00:32:11.339 --> 00:32:13.720 is comical. You can download this page as a PDF. 00:32:13.799 --> 00:32:16.220 You can get a printable version. You can literally 00:32:16.220 --> 00:32:19.019 carry around a physical printed copy of this 00:32:19.019 --> 00:32:21.339 digital traffic stuff in your briefcase. It highlights 00:32:21.339 --> 00:32:23.220 the modular nature of the platform. The tools 00:32:23.220 --> 00:32:26.019 are applied uniformly to every page, regardless 00:32:26.019 --> 00:32:28.119 of whether it's a profound historical treatise 00:32:28.119 --> 00:32:30.759 or a simple disambiguation menu. Everything gets 00:32:30.759 --> 00:32:33.839 a QR code. And all of these tools, all of this 00:32:33.839 --> 00:32:37.420 massive infrastructure is maintained by an army 00:32:37.420 --> 00:32:40.819 of invisible, often anonymous editors. We get 00:32:40.819 --> 00:32:43.180 a tiny glimpse into their world under the add 00:32:43.180 --> 00:32:45.279 links section of the document. We see the tabs, 00:32:45.779 --> 00:32:49.480 article, talk, English, read, edit, view history. 00:32:49.740 --> 00:32:51.440 Let's talk about those view history and talk 00:32:51.440 --> 00:32:54.079 tabs. Because that is where the real drama of 00:32:54.079 --> 00:32:56.440 Wikipedia happens, right? Absolutely. The View 00:32:56.440 --> 00:32:58.859 History and Talk pages are the unseen battlegrounds 00:32:58.859 --> 00:33:02.119 of the archive. Every single disambiguation page, 00:33:02.200 --> 00:33:04.920 no matter how obscure, has a history of edits. 00:33:05.359 --> 00:33:07.980 A whole hidden history. It has a history of debates, 00:33:08.480 --> 00:33:10.779 arguments, and consensus building over what belongs 00:33:10.779 --> 00:33:13.059 and what must be excluded, who actually gets 00:33:13.059 --> 00:33:15.059 the privilege of being listed on the I Made It 00:33:15.059 --> 00:33:17.539 page. Was there a fourth artist? Exactly. Was 00:33:17.539 --> 00:33:19.859 there a fourth artist? Maybe a jazz musician 00:33:19.859 --> 00:33:23.119 from the 1950s or an indie rocker from 2005 who 00:33:23.119 --> 00:33:25.660 claimed the title but was deemed not notable 00:33:25.660 --> 00:33:27.779 enough by the editors and subsequently deleted 00:33:27.779 --> 00:33:30.539 from history. The View History link is a trapdoor. 00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:33.039 It dropped you down into the invisible, grueling 00:33:33.039 --> 00:33:35.619 labor that maintains the smooth illusion of an 00:33:35.619 --> 00:33:37.779 organized universe. It really makes you wonder 00:33:37.779 --> 00:33:40.240 how many people have actively tried to add themselves 00:33:40.240 --> 00:33:42.680 to this specific page. Well, I'm sure many have. 00:33:42.960 --> 00:33:45.839 Imagine some young indie artist records a track 00:33:45.839 --> 00:33:48.000 in their bedroom. They are super proud of it. 00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:50.759 They call it I Made It. They upload it to SoundCloud. 00:33:50.920 --> 00:33:53.180 And then they log into Wikipedia and try to edit 00:33:53.180 --> 00:33:56.400 this exact page to put their own name right next 00:33:56.400 --> 00:33:59.019 to Diamond Rio and Fantasia. And then the immune 00:33:59.019 --> 00:34:01.259 system of the archive. the editors and the bots, 00:34:01.440 --> 00:34:04.000 they sweep in, check the code of conduct, determine 00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:06.019 the bedroom track doesn't meet the strict notability 00:34:06.019 --> 00:34:08.840 guidelines, and ruthlessly delete it. Gone in 00:34:08.840 --> 00:34:11.409 an instant. The page we're looking at, this snapshot 00:34:11.409 --> 00:34:16.670 edited on 22 March 2024 at 23 .50 UTC, is not 00:34:16.670 --> 00:34:19.949 a peaceful list. It is just the current, temporary 00:34:19.949 --> 00:34:22.849 ceasefire in a never -ending turf war over the 00:34:22.849 --> 00:34:24.789 definition of success. That is exactly what it 00:34:24.789 --> 00:34:27.469 is. It is a relentless turf war over the metadata 00:34:27.469 --> 00:34:31.130 of success, and the archive has incredibly strict, 00:34:31.329 --> 00:34:33.510 deeply technical rules for how this war is waged. 00:34:33.570 --> 00:34:36.849 At the very bottom. Yes. At the very bottom of 00:34:36.849 --> 00:34:39.630 our document, we see the hidden categories. These 00:34:39.630 --> 00:34:41.869 are the invisible tags that the database uses 00:34:41.869 --> 00:34:44.429 to organize itself. They are hidden from the 00:34:44.429 --> 00:34:46.889 casual reader's view, but they are vital for 00:34:46.889 --> 00:34:48.869 the machine's understanding of the page. What 00:34:48.869 --> 00:34:51.369 do they say? The text lists. Short description 00:34:51.369 --> 00:34:55.150 is different from Wikidata. All article disambiguation 00:34:55.150 --> 00:34:58.090 pages, all disambiguation pages. I really need 00:34:58.090 --> 00:34:59.849 you to break down that first hidden category 00:34:59.849 --> 00:35:02.150 for me, because it sounds completely surreal. 00:35:02.329 --> 00:35:05.309 Short description is different from Wikidata. 00:35:05.829 --> 00:35:08.250 What does that even mean in the context of human 00:35:08.250 --> 00:35:11.130 triumph? It does sound like an existential crisis. 00:35:11.369 --> 00:35:13.630 It sounds like an existential crisis for a robot. 00:35:15.250 --> 00:35:17.989 My short description of my success is fundamentally 00:35:17.989 --> 00:35:20.309 out of sync with the global database of knowledge. 00:35:20.599 --> 00:35:23.039 It is an existential crisis for the database, 00:35:23.079 --> 00:35:25.440 in a way. To understand why this matters, we 00:35:25.440 --> 00:35:28.239 have to differentiate between Wikipedia and Wikidata. 00:35:28.340 --> 00:35:30.579 OK, laid on me. Most listeners are familiar with 00:35:30.579 --> 00:35:32.960 Wikipedia. It is the front end, the text, the 00:35:32.960 --> 00:35:35.980 prose that human beings read. But behind Wikipedia 00:35:35.980 --> 00:35:39.099 is Wikidata. Wikidata. Wikidata is the back end 00:35:39.099 --> 00:35:41.699 warehouse. It is a central storage repository 00:35:41.699 --> 00:35:44.940 for structured data that feeds all Wikimedia 00:35:44.940 --> 00:35:48.059 projects. Wikidata doesn't read English prose. 00:35:48.239 --> 00:35:52.019 It reads relationships. It reads item A is connected 00:35:52.019 --> 00:35:55.139 to property B. OK, so Wikipedia is the storefront 00:35:55.139 --> 00:35:57.960 and Wikidata is the massive warehouse out back. 00:35:58.159 --> 00:36:01.000 managing the inventory. Exactly. Every article 00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:03.480 on Wikipedia has a corresponding item in Wikidata, 00:36:03.579 --> 00:36:05.579 and there is a short description that is supposed 00:36:05.579 --> 00:36:08.179 to summarize the topic. When the hidden category 00:36:08.179 --> 00:36:10.179 flags that the short description is different 00:36:10.179 --> 00:36:12.480 from Wikidata, it implies a discrepancy between 00:36:12.480 --> 00:36:14.400 the storefront and the warehouse. They aren't 00:36:14.400 --> 00:36:16.739 aligned. It means there is a lack of consensus 00:36:16.739 --> 00:36:18.840 between the human -readable text on the English 00:36:18.840 --> 00:36:21.559 Wikipedia page and the core machine -readable 00:36:21.559 --> 00:36:24.619 structured data in the central repository. So 00:36:24.619 --> 00:36:27.300 the machine is literally confused about how exactly 00:36:27.300 --> 00:36:31.010 this I made it. Yes. Even at the deepest hidden 00:36:31.010 --> 00:36:32.869 levels of the code, the fundamental building 00:36:32.869 --> 00:36:35.469 blocks of the semantic web, the concept of I 00:36:35.469 --> 00:36:38.530 made it resists perfect categorization. That's 00:36:38.530 --> 00:36:40.769 wild. The human editors might have described 00:36:40.769 --> 00:36:43.489 it one way, but the global database has a slightly 00:36:43.489 --> 00:36:45.869 different definition. The structural integrity 00:36:45.869 --> 00:36:49.030 is fractured. The concept remains, at its very 00:36:49.030 --> 00:36:52.230 core, ambiguous. That is just incredible. I am 00:36:52.230 --> 00:36:54.130 completely fascinated by how deep this goes. 00:36:54.690 --> 00:36:57.590 We have taken a single webpage that has maybe, 00:36:57.590 --> 00:37:01.090 what, 50 actual words of content, three musical 00:37:01.090 --> 00:37:03.409 acts, and a cross -reference. Very few words. 00:37:03.650 --> 00:37:07.110 And by refusing to ignore the margins, by looking 00:37:07.110 --> 00:37:09.389 at the formatting and the hidden text, we have 00:37:09.389 --> 00:37:12.420 found an entire universe of meaning. We found 00:37:12.420 --> 00:37:16.579 the 2010 to 2016 triad and the typographical 00:37:16.579 --> 00:37:18.940 difference between a song in quotes and an album 00:37:18.940 --> 00:37:22.500 in italics. We found the profound philosophical 00:37:22.500 --> 00:37:24.940 leap from the singular I to the collective we. 00:37:25.239 --> 00:37:27.400 We found the authoritarian mandate of light mode 00:37:27.400 --> 00:37:30.300 and the bizarre disabled whimsy of the baby globe. 00:37:30.440 --> 00:37:32.099 It is all sitting right there in the architecture 00:37:32.099 --> 00:37:34.300 of the document. It serves as a profound real 00:37:34.300 --> 00:37:37.380 world example of Marshall McLuhan's famous axiom. 00:37:37.519 --> 00:37:39.960 The medium is the message. Oh, absolutely. We 00:37:39.960 --> 00:37:42.320 cannot separate the information from the architecture 00:37:42.320 --> 00:37:45.519 that houses it. In this case, the medium is a 00:37:45.519 --> 00:37:48.179 structural disambiguation page. And the message 00:37:48.179 --> 00:37:51.849 is that human triumph is inherently. messy. Language 00:37:51.849 --> 00:37:55.329 is imprecise. Imprecise and chaotic. And the 00:37:55.329 --> 00:37:57.969 digital systems we build to organize, categorize, 00:37:58.070 --> 00:38:01.050 and archive our chaotic world are paradoxically 00:38:01.050 --> 00:38:04.829 rigid, demanding, and constantly in a state of 00:38:04.829 --> 00:38:07.289 unresolved tension. They are so incredibly demanding. 00:38:07.349 --> 00:38:09.530 Even at the very end, the page never lets you 00:38:09.530 --> 00:38:12.349 rest. The document ends with literal commands, 00:38:12.630 --> 00:38:15.559 add languages, add topic. It never lets you just 00:38:15.559 --> 00:38:17.440 sit back and enjoy the feeling of having made 00:38:17.440 --> 00:38:19.940 it. It always wants more data, more connections, 00:38:20.340 --> 00:38:22.619 more translations. Because for an encyclopedia, 00:38:22.820 --> 00:38:24.940 the work is never done. An encyclopedia cannot 00:38:24.940 --> 00:38:27.480 ever truly make it in the sense of reaching a 00:38:27.480 --> 00:38:29.820 final completed state. It's an endless pursuit. 00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:32.280 It can only continuously approach an asymptote 00:38:32.280 --> 00:38:34.539 of total knowledge, knowing full well it will 00:38:34.539 --> 00:38:37.019 never actually arrive. It is the exact opposite 00:38:37.019 --> 00:38:39.239 of the emotional release provided by a song called 00:38:39.239 --> 00:38:41.920 I Made It. Right, the song ends. The song is 00:38:41.920 --> 00:38:44.800 a destination. You listen to it, the song ends, 00:38:45.019 --> 00:38:47.840 and you feel the triumph. But the encyclopedia 00:38:47.840 --> 00:38:51.300 is an endless, grueling, eternally incomplete 00:38:51.300 --> 00:38:54.780 journey. The song is a destination. But the encyclopedia 00:38:54.780 --> 00:38:57.679 is an endless journey. And this single webpage, 00:38:58.039 --> 00:39:00.360 this specific URL we have been analyzing today, 00:39:00.840 --> 00:39:03.480 is the exact spot on the internet where those 00:39:03.480 --> 00:39:06.719 two opposing concepts violently crash into each 00:39:06.719 --> 00:39:09.159 other. the ultimate intersection. It's like a 00:39:09.159 --> 00:39:10.960 traffic cop standing in the middle of a massive 00:39:10.960 --> 00:39:13.119 philosophical collision, holding up a clipboard 00:39:13.119 --> 00:39:15.639 and saying, excuse me, did you mean the cash 00:39:15.639 --> 00:39:18.719 money heroes version of success or the Fantasia 00:39:18.719 --> 00:39:21.440 version? And please remember, regardless of your 00:39:21.440 --> 00:39:23.599 choice, you are in light mode and your short 00:39:23.599 --> 00:39:25.940 description differs from Wikidata. And of course, 00:39:26.119 --> 00:39:27.679 please do not forget to take the short survey 00:39:27.679 --> 00:39:30.400 to help us improve. Yes. Never forget the quick 00:39:30.400 --> 00:39:33.099 survey. Your triumph is not complete until you 00:39:33.099 --> 00:39:35.900 rate the interface. Well, we have covered an 00:39:35.900 --> 00:39:38.059 immense amount of ground today, pulling philosophy 00:39:38.059 --> 00:39:40.300 out of metadata. Let's take a moment to look 00:39:40.300 --> 00:39:42.280 back at the bizarre and wonderful journey of 00:39:42.280 --> 00:39:44.320 this deep dive. It has been quite a journey. 00:39:44.619 --> 00:39:47.360 We started with a single highly specific text, 00:39:48.059 --> 00:39:50.780 the Wikipedia disambiguation page for I made 00:39:50.780 --> 00:39:53.840 it. A simple list meant to fix incorrect links. 00:39:54.360 --> 00:39:56.760 But by reading the entire document, by analyzing 00:39:56.760 --> 00:39:58.739 the architecture rather than just the content, 00:39:59.260 --> 00:40:01.739 we uncovered so much more about how we process 00:40:01.739 --> 00:40:04.059 success in the modern age. We examined the very 00:40:04.059 --> 00:40:06.760 architecture of disambiguation, how a universal, 00:40:06.980 --> 00:40:09.719 passionate human feeling is reduced to a navigational 00:40:09.719 --> 00:40:12.420 error in a database. A mere error. We tracked 00:40:12.420 --> 00:40:14.619 the tight six -year burst of musical triumph 00:40:14.619 --> 00:40:17.860 from 2010 to 2016. We noted the evolution from 00:40:17.860 --> 00:40:21.019 Kevin Rudolph's parenthetical franchise tag qualifier, 00:40:21.440 --> 00:40:24.519 to Diamond Rio's sprawling italicized album era, 00:40:25.019 --> 00:40:27.619 right through to Fantasia's pure unadorned statement 00:40:27.619 --> 00:40:30.539 that required the database to intervene. We took 00:40:30.539 --> 00:40:33.059 a massive and I think really important philosophical 00:40:33.059 --> 00:40:35.820 detour into the see also section, marveling at 00:40:35.820 --> 00:40:38.099 how the system explicitly links the singular 00:40:38.099 --> 00:40:40.940 ego -driven success of the I to the messy collective 00:40:40.940 --> 00:40:43.019 reality of the we. The transition from I to we. 00:40:43.119 --> 00:40:45.179 And then, of course, we plunged deep into the 00:40:45.179 --> 00:40:48.659 marginalia, treating the UI as text. We found 00:40:48.659 --> 00:40:52.059 the completely baffling birthday mode baby globe 00:40:52.059 --> 00:40:55.420 that sits there, disabled, waiting for a party. 00:40:55.699 --> 00:40:58.260 Waiting to be enabled? We exposed the paradox 00:40:58.260 --> 00:41:00.940 of control, where the system offers custom fonts 00:41:00.940 --> 00:41:03.719 and colors while rigidly enforcing small text 00:41:03.719 --> 00:41:06.360 and light mode. We looked at the eternal nagging 00:41:06.360 --> 00:41:08.500 presence of the quick surveys prompt, reminding 00:41:08.500 --> 00:41:10.519 us that the machine always needs more labor. 00:41:10.730 --> 00:41:13.269 And we saw how the ultimate declaration of freedom 00:41:13.269 --> 00:41:15.690 and achievement is ultimately boxed in by Creative 00:41:15.690 --> 00:41:18.289 Commons licenses, privacy policies, and codes 00:41:18.289 --> 00:41:20.570 of conduct. All the legal boilerplate. We realized 00:41:20.570 --> 00:41:23.210 that in the digital age, success is just another 00:41:23.210 --> 00:41:26.230 piece of structured data waiting to be categorized, 00:41:26.710 --> 00:41:28.670 tagged with hidden categories alerting us to 00:41:28.670 --> 00:41:31.329 Wikidata discrepancies, and tracked down to the 00:41:31.329 --> 00:41:35.849 precise, universal minute of 23 .50 UTC. It really 00:41:35.849 --> 00:41:37.469 changes how you look at the internet, doesn't 00:41:37.469 --> 00:41:39.969 it? Think about your own digital footprint. Every 00:41:39.969 --> 00:41:42.269 page you visit, every article you read, every 00:41:42.269 --> 00:41:45.050 link you click to define yourself is surrounded 00:41:45.050 --> 00:41:47.869 by this massive invisible scaffolding of rules, 00:41:48.329 --> 00:41:50.719 history, and metadata. So what does this all 00:41:50.719 --> 00:41:53.320 mean for us? That is the ultimate question. How 00:41:53.320 --> 00:41:55.659 do you and I reconcile the passionate, blood 00:41:55.659 --> 00:41:58.820 -pumping reality of actually achieving our dreams 00:41:58.820 --> 00:42:02.219 with the cold, clinical, small -font formatting 00:42:02.219 --> 00:42:04.340 of the archive that will eventually record it? 00:42:04.719 --> 00:42:07.280 How do we live our vibrant, messy, rule -breaking 00:42:07.280 --> 00:42:10.639 lives knowing that history might just categorize 00:42:10.639 --> 00:42:13.340 our greatest achievement as a bullet point on 00:42:13.340 --> 00:42:16.550 a disambiguation page? It's certainly a sobering 00:42:16.550 --> 00:42:18.570 thought, but I actually think it is a strangely 00:42:18.570 --> 00:42:21.309 liberating one. Liberating. How so? It reminds 00:42:21.309 --> 00:42:24.449 us of the old adage. The map is not the territory. 00:42:24.710 --> 00:42:27.550 The archive is not the reality. The disambiguation 00:42:27.550 --> 00:42:30.349 page for I made it is not the actual feeling 00:42:30.349 --> 00:42:33.090 of making it. The feeling of success, the sweat, 00:42:33.210 --> 00:42:35.909 the tears, the joy that belongs entirely to you. 00:42:36.250 --> 00:42:38.889 Only the metadata belongs to the Wikimedia Foundation. 00:42:38.929 --> 00:42:40.510 That is a great point. But I want to leave you 00:42:40.510 --> 00:42:42.570 with a final lingering thought to mull over as 00:42:42.570 --> 00:42:44.269 you go about your week. I love a lingering thought. 00:42:44.409 --> 00:42:46.849 When you are out there in the real world, chasing 00:42:46.849 --> 00:42:49.050 your dreams, putting the long hours, and you 00:42:49.050 --> 00:42:51.590 finally reach your ultimate goal. When you finally 00:42:51.590 --> 00:42:53.670 stand on that summit and declare to the world, 00:42:53.929 --> 00:42:57.800 I made it. Will your success be a single definitive 00:42:57.800 --> 00:42:59.980 full page article that tells the whole story 00:42:59.980 --> 00:43:03.559 of your life or will it just be one brief entry 00:43:03.559 --> 00:43:06.480 on a long ever expanding disambiguation page 00:43:06.480 --> 00:43:08.679 of all the different times you had to reinvent 00:43:08.679 --> 00:43:11.300 yourself? Are you a definitive article or are 00:43:11.300 --> 00:43:14.139 you a disambiguation page of endless reinventions? 00:43:14.880 --> 00:43:17.219 That is an incredible thought to end on and something 00:43:17.219 --> 00:43:19.179 I think we all need to figure out for ourselves. 00:43:19.599 --> 00:43:21.519 Thank you so much for joining us on this deep 00:43:21.519 --> 00:43:23.280 dive into the architecture of Triumph and the 00:43:23.280 --> 00:43:25.760 metadata of success. Keep chasing those goals, 00:43:26.179 --> 00:43:28.000 keep paying attention to the margins, and we 00:43:28.000 --> 00:43:28.920 will see you next time.