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Twitter is amazing. I didn't get into it until a couple years ago, I was missing so much. Many of the most influential, intelligent, thoughtful people post what

Twitter is amazing. I didn't get into it until a couple years ago, I was missing so much. Many of the most influential, intelligent, thoughtful people post what they think or are interested in. In the past, unless they were a journalist, you'd have to wait for someone to write a book, and then buy it. Now you can pick and choose from the most amazing people of the world, and actually interact with them. I kind of can't get over that this is free and such a high percentage of the people I want to know about are on it, and I worry that it is a temporary situation before everyone gets so afraid of possible negative consequences that they stop sharing. I think it is an added bonus that important people get used to dealing with criticism, as that leads to freer society. It's up to you to pick the right people to listen to and not get engaged in foolish flame wars. The information I've gleaned from the conversations I've seen and participated in on Twitter over the last two years have saved me a decade or two of my own personal work.

stallmanite 7y ago
I’m a long-time Twitter “not-getter” but this is well-articulated and has made me reconsider.
zweep 7y ago
Can you recommend 10-20 people to follow?
- abdullahkhalids 7y ago
  You can look at the 138 people I follow: https://twitter.com/abdullahkhalids https://twitter.com/abdullahkhalids I have a strict policy of only following people with a high signal to noise ratio (with a few exceptions). I follow only a few friends (and they don't tweet anyway). I unfollow anyone who tweets too much. I use the "don't show retweets" option for anyone who retweets random crap. I also use the "muted words" feature to get rid of political tweets. I myself only tweet things I would want to read 5 years from now. If there was an easy way, I would write additional filters per person to mute their annoying pet peeves. My nomination for highest signal to noise ratio is https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen
- aristophenes 7y ago
  I can't, I'm in sort a niche area where there are people you've never heard of but are heroes in my field. I think this is the greatest strength of Twitter, it's not the same few celebrities. You find the people who are doing the things you want to know about. What do you do? What do you care about? Look for the leaders in those fields, and search for keywords to find conversations and you'll find other people who have a little community around it.

stallmanite 7y ago

I’m a long-time Twitter “not-getter” but this is well-articulated and has made me reconsider.

zweep 7y ago

Can you recommend 10-20 people to follow?

abdullahkhalids 7y ago
You can look at the 138 people I follow: https://twitter.com/abdullahkhalids https://twitter.com/abdullahkhalids I have a strict policy of only following people with a high signal to noise ratio (with a few exceptions). I follow only a few friends (and they don't tweet anyway). I unfollow anyone who tweets too much. I use the "don't show retweets" option for anyone who retweets random crap. I also use the "muted words" feature to get rid of political tweets. I myself only tweet things I would want to read 5 years from now. If there was an easy way, I would write additional filters per person to mute their annoying pet peeves. My nomination for highest signal to noise ratio is https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen
aristophenes 7y ago
I can't, I'm in sort a niche area where there are people you've never heard of but are heroes in my field. I think this is the greatest strength of Twitter, it's not the same few celebrities. You find the people who are doing the things you want to know about. What do you do? What do you care about? Look for the leaders in those fields, and search for keywords to find conversations and you'll find other people who have a little community around it.