5 ms·

I have an honest question for Twitter users of HN: what's the net positive value of Twitter to your life? It feels like using Twitter or not has been an uninte

I have an honest question for Twitter users of HN: what's the net positive value of Twitter to your life? It feels like using Twitter or not has been an uninterrupted argument for years, even on HN, as if on one end your rational brain knows Twitter is detrimental to your mental health, but on the other end: it's a great dopamine, and outrage dispenser.

esperent 6y ago
It's the place where most of the people in my industry (WebGl) seem to gather and showcase their work. Hanging out there too lets me connect with them and has gotten me a considerable amount of work over the last couple of years and allowed me to make professional connection that I would have otherwise missed. I also showcase and advertise my own work there. I'm extremely careful not to engage in anything related to identity or politics on Twitter. I've added a big list of muted words and accounts (trump, politics, gender, queer, republican, democrat, sanders, etc.). Many of these are topics I find interesting and discussion worthy, but the twitter format doesn't allow space for anyone to formulate actual cohesive thoughts so the result of discussing anything contentious is just people shouting at each other. Once I avoid these topics and stick to discussing tech, twitter is fine.
- catacombs 6y ago
  > I've added a big list of muted words and accounts (trump, politics, gender, queer, republican, democrat, sanders, etc.). Muting is makes using Twitter much easier, when it's working. Sometimes muted words and phrases find their way through the cracks.
ALittleLight 6y ago
I follow people I think are smart or interesting who do things beyond tweet. They might tweet to say they've published a new podcast, made a video, etc. They also share articles or perspectives or write up Twitter threads.
jpab 6y ago
I follow several artists and get lovely art that I wouldn't otherwise have seen, and wouldn't have sought out. I follow several people in the game development industry, and historically used to see a lot of interesting technical articles being shared on Twitter within this community. That seems to have declined unfortunately, though there is still some. I follow various people who have a habit of posting dumb funny jokes (usually puns) and memes. Not everyone likes that style of humour, but I do. I mute or unfollow people if too many of the things they choose to share are things I don't want to see (like outrage bait).
wildpeaks 6y ago
Depends on who you follow: the ones I do usually post facts (such as showcasing their work or linking to other people's work) rather than opinions, so it's been a net positive so far. For example, I probably never would have visited CERN or Chernobyl without it.
andreyk 6y ago
I wrote a little blog post on just that, feel free to take a look: https://www.andreykurenkov.com/writing/life/twitter-tips/ https://www.andreykurenkov.com/writing/life/twitter-tips/ TLDR AI research community is quite active on there so it's a good way to keep up with big news and conversations (and more). I think the usefulness for most people is equal parts keeping up w news/conversations and funny memes.
pjc50 6y ago
It used to be fun, and in smaller communities still is. Even the politics used to be better. Now social media has destroyed the possibility of rational politics.
- prionassembly 6y ago
  Socrates, a world-renown authority on rationality, wasn't that bullish on rational politics -- long before social media. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_(Plato) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_(Plato)
dgellow 6y ago
It's the best place I know to follow specific creators/artists. I'm interested in the work of a select group of pixel artists, game creators, and 3D modelers, I haven't found a best place to see what they are doing. Other platforms would let me follow a "pixel art" group/subreddit/tag but that's not what I want, I'm looking for the content created by some specific people, not the general topic. But it's the worst platform to have any type of discussion. IMHO if they would remove the "retweet with comment" feature, and start considering comment threads as comments instead of posts (so make a clear distinction between the two), things would be way nicer to navigate, but that will never happen. The best way so far is to mute everything annoying.
- catacombs 6y ago
  > It's the best place I know to follow specific creators/artists. I'm interested in the work of a select group of pixel artists, game creators, and 3D modelers, I haven't found a best place to see what they are doing. Other platforms would let me follow a "pixel art" group/subreddit/tag but that's not what I want, I'm looking for the content created by some specific people, not the general topic. Many of these artists are also likely on Instagram. But that'll require using a Facebook product, if that's not your thing.
  - dgellow 6y ago
    Yes, that's maybe the case. I haven't tried Instagram for that purpose.
duxup 6y ago
A few accounts that act like dedicated "tips". "Hey here's a quick CSS tip!" That's about it in terms of positive interaction where I didn't have to eventually prune that account ... but that's about it. It probably helps that quick tech / CSS tips sort of fit inside the world of a tweet, but nothing else does.
onionisafruit 6y ago
I don’t use twitter, and it seems to me that other OSS programmers who actively use twitter are much better connected than I am. They tweet a new project they’re working on and suddenly it has people trying it out. I don’t begrudge that at all. They’ve put a lot of time into building their reputations. I just wish I could find a way to enjoy twitter so I can get in on that.
- catacombs 6y ago
  > I don’t use twitter, and it seems to me that other OSS programmers who actively use twitter are much better connected than I am. Many OSS people aren't on Twitter. They're on IRC, Mastodon and mailing lists.
  - anthk 6y ago
    Mastodon works under lynx, at least from brutaldon.online. Much saner, less mobs, less sensationalim, less tribalism, less bullshit.
alexslobodnik 6y ago
I've learned a lot as result of twitter. I've been exposed to people and thoughts I otherwise wouldn't have. This broaden my perspective.
abdullahkhalids 6y ago
I follow a lot of scientists and such. I do some political arguments (see my other post on this page), but it is far less than most people, and I don't engage with them. The intellectual arguments that scientists make, the papers they post, are worth reading. Personally, I follow the rule that I will only tweet stuff I would be still excited to read in 5 years.
shuntress 6y ago
I have found twitter to be incredibly useful and truly amazing for finding immediate first-hand information during sudden events (ie: Protests after George Floyd's death, Beirut, Boston Marathon Bombing, things like that.) For this case to happen, a few things must align: 1) Important and accessible to enough people on that platform such that effective hashtags "coalesce" and the event becomes searchable 2) Recent (or ongoing/changing) enough that new information available in first-hand accounts has not yet made it to news reports. 3) Not flooded or taken over by bots and malicious accounts. I wish there was a platform (or ideally an open standard linking multiple platforms effectively) where I could have the interaction I just described but on a much smaller scale. An up-to-the-minute first-hand witness of "whats going on". Essentially, the "raw" news. Technologically, Twitter should work just fine for this. But there are significant problems currently with reliability, trust, and misuse that I believe lead to the general problems people have with twitter which then prevent it's use for the type of "first hand accounting" I've described here.
prionassembly 6y ago
To build a (small, steady) following. Twitter is full of weird people who are the core potential audience of my creative/intellectual stuff. (HN in contrast is not.)
tomjen3 6y ago
Twitter is the best way to keep up with patio11. I am not even joking, he has stopped blogging so now he does twitter streams (that should have been blogs) but they are almost always full of very interesting and frequently useful knowledge. I also use it to keep up with things that will soon become political issues - that has a much smaller amount of noise to signal, but even so. Ideally, I would love to be able to follow people only for some tags, but that would make twitter nicer to use so that is not going to happen.
mumbisChungo 6y ago
It's the best way to find current information for emerging news when you need it ASAP. EX. lineup/injury news for daily fantasy sports prior to lock. Can also be pretty handy when you're at a convention/event.
renewiltord 6y ago
* Amazing insight into the way people work. * Novel ideas. * Insight into how VCs think. * Access to people. Honestly, I really enjoy John Carmack's feed. He was a childhood hero of mine and it's great to read his stuff.

esperent 6y ago

It's the place where most of the people in my industry (WebGl) seem to gather and showcase their work. Hanging out there too lets me connect with them and has gotten me a considerable amount of work over the last couple of years and allowed me to make professional connection that I would have otherwise missed. I also showcase and advertise my own work there. I'm extremely careful not to engage in anything related to identity or politics on Twitter. I've added a big list of muted words and accounts (trump, politics, gender, queer, republican, democrat, sanders, etc.). Many of these are topics I find interesting and discussion worthy, but the twitter format doesn't allow space for anyone to formulate actual cohesive thoughts so the result of discussing anything contentious is just people shouting at each other. Once I avoid these topics and stick to discussing tech, twitter is fine.

catacombs 6y ago
> I've added a big list of muted words and accounts (trump, politics, gender, queer, republican, democrat, sanders, etc.). Muting is makes using Twitter much easier, when it's working. Sometimes muted words and phrases find their way through the cracks.

ALittleLight 6y ago

I follow people I think are smart or interesting who do things beyond tweet. They might tweet to say they've published a new podcast, made a video, etc. They also share articles or perspectives or write up Twitter threads.

jpab 6y ago

I follow several artists and get lovely art that I wouldn't otherwise have seen, and wouldn't have sought out. I follow several people in the game development industry, and historically used to see a lot of interesting technical articles being shared on Twitter within this community. That seems to have declined unfortunately, though there is still some. I follow various people who have a habit of posting dumb funny jokes (usually puns) and memes. Not everyone likes that style of humour, but I do. I mute or unfollow people if too many of the things they choose to share are things I don't want to see (like outrage bait).

wildpeaks 6y ago

Depends on who you follow: the ones I do usually post facts (such as showcasing their work or linking to other people's work) rather than opinions, so it's been a net positive so far. For example, I probably never would have visited CERN or Chernobyl without it.

andreyk 6y ago

I wrote a little blog post on just that, feel free to take a look: https://www.andreykurenkov.com/writing/life/twitter-tips/ https://www.andreykurenkov.com/writing/life/twitter-tips/ TLDR AI research community is quite active on there so it's a good way to keep up with big news and conversations (and more). I think the usefulness for most people is equal parts keeping up w news/conversations and funny memes.

pjc50 6y ago

It used to be fun, and in smaller communities still is. Even the politics used to be better. Now social media has destroyed the possibility of rational politics.

prionassembly 6y ago
Socrates, a world-renown authority on rationality, wasn't that bullish on rational politics -- long before social media. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_(Plato) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_(Plato)

dgellow 6y ago

It's the best place I know to follow specific creators/artists. I'm interested in the work of a select group of pixel artists, game creators, and 3D modelers, I haven't found a best place to see what they are doing. Other platforms would let me follow a "pixel art" group/subreddit/tag but that's not what I want, I'm looking for the content created by some specific people, not the general topic. But it's the worst platform to have any type of discussion. IMHO if they would remove the "retweet with comment" feature, and start considering comment threads as comments instead of posts (so make a clear distinction between the two), things would be way nicer to navigate, but that will never happen. The best way so far is to mute everything annoying.

catacombs 6y ago
> It's the best place I know to follow specific creators/artists. I'm interested in the work of a select group of pixel artists, game creators, and 3D modelers, I haven't found a best place to see what they are doing. Other platforms would let me follow a "pixel art" group/subreddit/tag but that's not what I want, I'm looking for the content created by some specific people, not the general topic. Many of these artists are also likely on Instagram. But that'll require using a Facebook product, if that's not your thing.
- dgellow 6y ago
  Yes, that's maybe the case. I haven't tried Instagram for that purpose.

duxup 6y ago

A few accounts that act like dedicated "tips". "Hey here's a quick CSS tip!" That's about it in terms of positive interaction where I didn't have to eventually prune that account ... but that's about it. It probably helps that quick tech / CSS tips sort of fit inside the world of a tweet, but nothing else does.

onionisafruit 6y ago

I don’t use twitter, and it seems to me that other OSS programmers who actively use twitter are much better connected than I am. They tweet a new project they’re working on and suddenly it has people trying it out. I don’t begrudge that at all. They’ve put a lot of time into building their reputations. I just wish I could find a way to enjoy twitter so I can get in on that.

catacombs 6y ago
> I don’t use twitter, and it seems to me that other OSS programmers who actively use twitter are much better connected than I am. Many OSS people aren't on Twitter. They're on IRC, Mastodon and mailing lists.
- anthk 6y ago
  Mastodon works under lynx, at least from brutaldon.online. Much saner, less mobs, less sensationalim, less tribalism, less bullshit.

alexslobodnik 6y ago

I've learned a lot as result of twitter. I've been exposed to people and thoughts I otherwise wouldn't have. This broaden my perspective.

abdullahkhalids 6y ago

I follow a lot of scientists and such. I do some political arguments (see my other post on this page), but it is far less than most people, and I don't engage with them. The intellectual arguments that scientists make, the papers they post, are worth reading. Personally, I follow the rule that I will only tweet stuff I would be still excited to read in 5 years.

shuntress 6y ago

I have found twitter to be incredibly useful and truly amazing for finding immediate first-hand information during sudden events (ie: Protests after George Floyd's death, Beirut, Boston Marathon Bombing, things like that.) For this case to happen, a few things must align: 1) Important and accessible to enough people on that platform such that effective hashtags "coalesce" and the event becomes searchable 2) Recent (or ongoing/changing) enough that new information available in first-hand accounts has not yet made it to news reports. 3) Not flooded or taken over by bots and malicious accounts. I wish there was a platform (or ideally an open standard linking multiple platforms effectively) where I could have the interaction I just described but on a much smaller scale. An up-to-the-minute first-hand witness of "whats going on". Essentially, the "raw" news. Technologically, Twitter should work just fine for this. But there are significant problems currently with reliability, trust, and misuse that I believe lead to the general problems people have with twitter which then prevent it's use for the type of "first hand accounting" I've described here.

prionassembly 6y ago

To build a (small, steady) following. Twitter is full of weird people who are the core potential audience of my creative/intellectual stuff. (HN in contrast is not.)

tomjen3 6y ago

Twitter is the best way to keep up with patio11. I am not even joking, he has stopped blogging so now he does twitter streams (that should have been blogs) but they are almost always full of very interesting and frequently useful knowledge. I also use it to keep up with things that will soon become political issues - that has a much smaller amount of noise to signal, but even so. Ideally, I would love to be able to follow people only for some tags, but that would make twitter nicer to use so that is not going to happen.

mumbisChungo 6y ago

It's the best way to find current information for emerging news when you need it ASAP. EX. lineup/injury news for daily fantasy sports prior to lock. Can also be pretty handy when you're at a convention/event.

renewiltord 6y ago

* Amazing insight into the way people work. * Novel ideas. * Insight into how VCs think. * Access to people. Honestly, I really enjoy John Carmack's feed. He was a childhood hero of mine and it's great to read his stuff.