Nothing New Under the Algorithm-Sycophancy, Toxic Positivity & the Industry of Yes

"…there is no new thing under the sun." — Ecclesiastes 1:9 "Sycophant" is an ancient Greek word, which is annoying, because it means I have to begin this piece by admitting my ancestors spotted this nonsense roughly 2,500 years before Silicon Valley gave it a UX team. The word sykophantēs has a messy little history involving figs, informers, false accusations, and the kind of civic drama that…