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"If I’m not laughing at your joke, complimenting your insight, or leading the Standing O for something you spent 10 seconds pecking up on your phone, it may not
by aasarava 18y ago
"If I’m not laughing at your joke, complimenting your insight, or leading the Standing O for something you spent 10 seconds pecking up on your phone, it may not be because I don’t get it; it may be because I think we’re both capable of better and just need to find the courage to say so. In as many characters as it takes."
That's clearly a stab at Twitter. It'll be interesting to see if Merlin's new focus will cause others to question their Twitter use (and interesting to see if it makes any difference in Twitter's traffic.)
- unalone 18y agoCan anybody on Twitter tell me how Twitter is at all a useful service? I've read all the "Twitter is opt-in goodness" but every time I've used it it just seems like another self-whoring arena.
- cstejerean 18y agoIt depends on who you follow.
- unalone 18y agoI followed Merlin. :-/ Seriously, most of the things people would say there - Merlin and Zeldman especially - were more geared towards humorous than they were towards at all interesting. RSS worked a lot better if I was looking for productive content.
- mtw 18y agohalf of my updates on twitter are replies to friends or coworkers, so it's mostly about communication about current projects, discussing news, etc. and I only follow people that I've met irl
- unalone 18y agoThen I guess it's a matter of different social spheres. Where I am nobody uses Twitter.
- mtw 18y agodepends also on what you do. i work with many companies and many entrepreneurs so that's where twitter is useful. solo-entrepreneurs, consultants, bloggers might also find very it useful. also, if you go to local programming/hacker meetups, you're bound to find a few who use twitter.
- unalone 18y agoBut that's the problem. I dislike most programmer/hacker types. While I think I've something of a hacker personality, I'm far more a critic than I am a hacker. And most hackers are completely unpolished and unfocused. The people who follow my account on Twitter, for instance, are the sorts of people who constantly linkspam. I can't stand that. And I find some people on Twitter funny, but that isn't productive and it's not thought-provoking. Blog posts at least provide some thought: Twitter, I find, rarely does.
- fallentimes 18y agoWow that's a lot of generalizations. What if you just stuck to following friends only? Or is it the chicken/egg problem? Just because they follow you doesn't mean you have to follow them. :)
- whacked_new 18y agoAn interesting take: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07awareness-t.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07awareness-t.htm...
- fallentimes 18y agoRestaurant, music and book recommendations alone have been worth it. Also, it's an easy way to keep in touch with people without much work. But you're right - if you don't have a solid group of friends using it - it's retarded.