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Neat story, but god do I often hate the modern internet. Who the hell thinks that Twitter is the right sort of medium for this type of information sharing? (G

Neat story, but god do I often hate the modern internet. Who the hell thinks that Twitter is the right sort of medium for this type of information sharing? (Give me simple white pages of black barely formatted text and animated gifs any day of the week over this twitter abortion of story telling.)

dang 6y ago
I agree with you except about the animated gifs. Who wouldn't, at least on this extremely text-oriented site? But one goes to war with the internet one has. Twitter is unique in its intense back-and-forthness and the opportunity to broadcast to a large audience, especially for anyone of prominence or standing. That plus network effects has made it the default for people who have an interesting line of thought to share. That it's not the 'right' medium for this is related to why people do it anyway: the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. The spontaneity of the platform makes it easy to reel off what one is thinking or has just figured out. To make a blog post would be more work and wouldn't reach nearly the audience. Weaknesses and strengths are often conjoined like this. When something gets used in a way that it isn't particularly suited for, there's a lot of vitality in that—otherwise the activation energy wouldn't be enough to overcome the downside. It's interesting that this unsuitable medium gets by far the most usage for thinking out loud by influential people. The alternative is not a more suitable medium—it's not hearing about e.g. the historical influence of obscure clams in the first place. I do think there's something to mourn, though. In the first years of Twitter the founders were incredible at following and adopting the inventions that the community itself came up with (e.g. hashtags) for developing the medium. That genius approach eventually died and got replaced with top-down design, which led to a mess. I assume this was crucifixion on the cross of growth-at-all-costs, but who can say. I hope I live to see the civilizational shift in which we start optimizing for quality rather than quantity. That will be interesting.
Noumenon72 6y ago
I like that Twitter gives me a nice digestible chunk at a time, and forces each chunk to have its own main point. I have an opportunity to stop reading at the end of each tweet, so he has to keep each one interesting. When I shared this article, I linked to the tweet and not to the threadreaderapp rollup.
- foerbert 6y ago
  Interestingly, I think you just managed to help me figure out why I dislike Twitter so much for these sorts of things. I'd never thought about it so much, but everything just snapped into focus with your comment. Too simplified, no nuance, and a looming suspicion that each individual portion has been slightly 'improved' to fit the criteria you mentioned. While perhaps fairly acceptable individually, I can't shake the feeling that the sheer scale of their sum might surprise even the author sometimes. As a result it makes me increasingly uncomfortable as I read more. Toss in the UI, and yeah. I think this is precisely why I dislike Twitter so much for these things.
- pm90 6y ago
  Same. I like reading both long form and short form content. Twitter threads like this one remind me of a slideshow, with each tweet trying to make a single point. Honestly I don’t get the hate. If you don’t like a certain format, don’t read it. Or use other tools that condense the format (like the threadroller app). Especially when experts from other domains use this format to explain the nuances of eg a new paper, discovery, policy or political position, this kind of format has a extremely low barrier of entry, is standardized and available on a platform that loads rapidly and without (too) invasive ads. It also allows for asking questions or making comments really easily.
justincormack 6y ago
It is not information sharing, it is story telling. It is engaging as it gets posted piece by piece, like a modern day version of serializing Dickens. Creativity comes from working within limitations too.

dang 6y ago

I agree with you except about the animated gifs. Who wouldn't, at least on this extremely text-oriented site? But one goes to war with the internet one has. Twitter is unique in its intense back-and-forthness and the opportunity to broadcast to a large audience, especially for anyone of prominence or standing. That plus network effects has made it the default for people who have an interesting line of thought to share. That it's not the 'right' medium for this is related to why people do it anyway: the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. The spontaneity of the platform makes it easy to reel off what one is thinking or has just figured out. To make a blog post would be more work and wouldn't reach nearly the audience. Weaknesses and strengths are often conjoined like this. When something gets used in a way that it isn't particularly suited for, there's a lot of vitality in that—otherwise the activation energy wouldn't be enough to overcome the downside. It's interesting that this unsuitable medium gets by far the most usage for thinking out loud by influential people. The alternative is not a more suitable medium—it's not hearing about e.g. the historical influence of obscure clams in the first place. I do think there's something to mourn, though. In the first years of Twitter the founders were incredible at following and adopting the inventions that the community itself came up with (e.g. hashtags) for developing the medium. That genius approach eventually died and got replaced with top-down design, which led to a mess. I assume this was crucifixion on the cross of growth-at-all-costs, but who can say. I hope I live to see the civilizational shift in which we start optimizing for quality rather than quantity. That will be interesting.

Noumenon72 6y ago

I like that Twitter gives me a nice digestible chunk at a time, and forces each chunk to have its own main point. I have an opportunity to stop reading at the end of each tweet, so he has to keep each one interesting. When I shared this article, I linked to the tweet and not to the threadreaderapp rollup.

foerbert 6y ago
Interestingly, I think you just managed to help me figure out why I dislike Twitter so much for these sorts of things. I'd never thought about it so much, but everything just snapped into focus with your comment. Too simplified, no nuance, and a looming suspicion that each individual portion has been slightly 'improved' to fit the criteria you mentioned. While perhaps fairly acceptable individually, I can't shake the feeling that the sheer scale of their sum might surprise even the author sometimes. As a result it makes me increasingly uncomfortable as I read more. Toss in the UI, and yeah. I think this is precisely why I dislike Twitter so much for these things.
pm90 6y ago
Same. I like reading both long form and short form content. Twitter threads like this one remind me of a slideshow, with each tweet trying to make a single point. Honestly I don’t get the hate. If you don’t like a certain format, don’t read it. Or use other tools that condense the format (like the threadroller app). Especially when experts from other domains use this format to explain the nuances of eg a new paper, discovery, policy or political position, this kind of format has a extremely low barrier of entry, is standardized and available on a platform that loads rapidly and without (too) invasive ads. It also allows for asking questions or making comments really easily.

justincormack 6y ago

It is not information sharing, it is story telling. It is engaging as it gets posted piece by piece, like a modern day version of serializing Dickens. Creativity comes from working within limitations too.