What a Feed Is Optimised For
A feed is ranked to hold attention, not to inform you, so posts that provoke travel further than posts that are careful. Work out who pays the platform, then read your own feed against that.
What a learner can do afterwards
- Explain who pays a free platform and what the platform sells them
- Give two reasons an angry post outranks a careful one when the ranking counts engagement
- Change one setting or habit (notifications, follow list, time of day) and describe what it changed over a week
1 · Read
A free platform is paid by advertisers, and what it sells them is your attention. The feed is ranked to hold that attention, not to inform you.
An angry post outranks a careful one for two reasons: outrage wins clicks, and clicks train the ranking to show more outrage. Provoking posts travel further than careful ones.
Read your own feed against who pays. Ask why each top post sits on top: did it inform you, or did it hook you.
Change one setting or habit, like muting notifications, trimming follows or shifting the hour you scroll, and note what changes across a week.
Attention is the product, outrage wins the ranking, and one changed habit reveals the machine.
2 · Watch
Take it off screen
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.