I get that the slot-machine nature of the algorithmic feed is what makes TikTok work, both from a user perspective and commercially. It's nice to shut off your brain and just consume during downtime. But lately I've been thinking that I want the opposite (no, not TikTok for text): Something where I know exactly what is coming next. There is a ton of engaging and useful content on YouTube for example, and I think making it more accessible would be a superpower.

Remember how in the olden days there used to be manually curated web directories? They didn't scale so they were replaced by search engines. But imagine a huge, meticulously curated directory of all video content (maybe sans memes). It would use machine learning to tackle the scale, which was not possible before.

You could be watching a video of a recipe, and then go to variations of the same recipie by different cooks. Or the cook is using a technique like deglasing, and you could go to other videos describing it in detail. You'll be able to drill down to niche content. For example "Woodworking > Furniture Building > Jointery > Ornamental Joints > Butterfly Inlays". Contrast with YouTube where the interesting videos are juxtaposed with clickbaity "I bought this silly tool from Aliexpress, look what happened next" and you are tempted to go off rail all the time.

I mean it is a question of optimizing for clicks and commercial success, versus for usefulness and sanity. The former is heavily incentivized in our economical system, but I really hope that we'll be able to build products that fit in the latter category. Even if they remain in a niche.