the.com/feedback loop
Where outputs become inputs and small nudges become destiny.
means A cycle in which the results of a process circle back to influence that same process, amplifying or dampening what happens next.
from Built from 'feedback,' an engineering term from early 20th-century electronics and audio systems, where a circuit's output signal was routed back into its input — most audibly in the ear-splitting squeal of a microphone placed too near its speaker. 'Loop' simply names the closed circular path the signal travels. The concept got its big intellectual promotion mid-20th century through cybernetics, when engineers and theorists realized the same circular logic governs thermostats, ecosystems, economies, and habits — anything where cause feeds back into cause.
- two flavors
- negative stabilizes, positive amplifies until something breaks
- classic example
- thermostat is negative, microphone screech is positive
- social media version
- your clicks train the algorithm that trains your clicks
- deceptive name
- positive feedback loops are often the bad ones