7 ms·

On Twitter, briefly

43 points by Ariarule 4y ago

h2odragon 4y ago
Author quotes this: > "I love Twitter. Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness." -- Jack Dorsey, Apr 25, 2022 Twitter is more like hooking electrodes to a the brains of a frog and watching parts of it jump when you apply current. The people worrying about Musk: (a) believe that twitter offers such zombie like control over "global consciousness", (b) that such controls are a good thing, and (c) that Musk is the Wrong Person to wield them, which means there must be Right People somewhere. I think they're wrong on all counts.
- legrande 4y ago
  The global consciousness thing stems from the neural-net like search features of Twitter. You find unexpected and real-time updates on any subject imaginable. Often a Google or DuckDuckGo search query is no match for Twitter's search feature. It's the closest thing to hacking the world's hive-mind, however cobbled together it is. IMHO the more people that use it the better. We can create a sort of better noosphere[0] than the current one. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere
  - hn_throwaway_99 4y ago
    "neural-net like search features of Twitter"?? "It's the closest thing to hacking the world's hive-mind"??? Puh-leese. While I personally don't find much use for Twitter, I don't hate it, but this "global consciousness" nonsense is just marketing babble.
    - mjr00 4y ago
      It's really a reflection of what Twitter is actually great at: surfacing things that you're already interested in. If you're the type of person who interacts with a lot of political things on Twitter, it's going to surface things that will make you engage, which is hot political takes. So it makes you believe that you are part of this global consciousness, despite it really being just tens of thousands of people engaging with each other circularly. Personally I have locked down my Twitter to only be about music and anime and it's really, really good at surfacing new art and new music that I enjoy. I have never seen a political take on my personal Twitter feed.
- mattgreenrocks 4y ago
  I continue to hope that Twitter, the One True Ring and Arbiter of All That Is Culturally Relevant, is metaphorically thrown into the lava. No one entity should have this level of power. Whatever takes its place will likely be a shadow of Twitter’s size, and risks being confined to smaller demographics. These are all features, not bugs. We will one day look back at this time and see how insane it is to take a website with a freeform, limited size text input field so seriously.
  - s5300 4y ago
    > No one entity should have this level of power. Who’s agreeing that it has such power in the first place? > take a website with a freeform, limited size text input field so seriously. Who takes Twitter so seriously? Does it really need 4chan level of disclaimer saying “don’t take this so seriously” ?
    - judge2020 4y ago
      > Who’s agreeing that it has such power in the first place? In support of this, Twitter has a metric "monetizable daily active users". So while, in the United States, they have 68 million monthly active users, the amount of mDAUs is 38 million. While 1/10th of the United States is certainly no small feat, Facebook is probably the real issue with >250 million monthly active users in the United States[1] (I couldn't find a similar daily metric). 0: https://www.statista.com/statistics/970911/monetizable-daily-active-twitter-users-in-the-united-states/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/970911/monetizable-daily... 1: https://www.statista.com/statistics/247614/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/247614/number-of-monthly...
    - ufmace 4y ago
      > Who’s agreeing that it has such power in the first place? > Who takes Twitter so seriously? All of the people flipping their lid about it being bought out. If it truly has no power, why would anybody care who owned it?
  - rchaud 4y ago
    From an episode of Parks and Recreation about a city councilor election debate (2011): "And now, we have a question from Twitter, which is apparently something that happens now". They had no idea.
- Mikeb85 4y ago
  Agreed. Musk's stated goal is to enable free speech. The less censorship the better. The truth always (eventually) rises to the top.
  - themanmaran 4y ago
    > The truth always (eventually) rises to the top Note the "eventually" here can be 10-50 years. Which leaves a lot of room for short term damage. Reminds me a bit of Keynes's "In the long run we are all dead".
    - Mikeb85 4y ago
      > Note the "eventually" here can be 10-50 years. Which leaves a lot of room for short term damage. Lol eventually in today's world is like a week... 50 years ago there was no internet at all.
  - s5300 4y ago
    > The truth always (eventually) rises to the top. Yes but sometimes things like the holocaust (Hitlers big lie) & the Khmer Rouge (kill all smart people & literally anybody who might even look “smart”) happen before that. Do we want such things happening again? There’s currently a large amount of a political party that wants to straight up murder the other in open season. The other wants like… healthcare, & equal rights (in actual practice, not just written) for minorities.
    - zozbot234 4y ago
      Okay, we'll censor the #KillAllMen hashtag and the like since imminent threats are not covered under "free speech".
      - s5300 4y ago
        Not sure what this has to do with anything being discussed but it definitely lets me infer the butthurt type of person you must be.
      - 4y ago
- pfortuny 4y ago
  I honestly feel insulted when people talk bout twitter as “the global consciousness”. I am not on twitter. Neither are billions of global human beings.
  - themanmaran 4y ago
    Twitter has 229 million daily active users (likely including bot accounts). A far cry from Facebook and Instagram's 1.9 billion daily active users. I know it's a big site, but the "global consciousness" or "world's town square" are just Twitter user's stroking their ego.
    - grogenaut 4y ago
      I think that's cause many of them are in the journalism space
      - bluefirebrand 4y ago
        This is 100% why you hear so much about Twitter. Journalists are all on it. That's all.
        slg 4y ago
        It is not just journalists, it is most of the people who shape culture including politicians and entertainers. That is why Twitter has a bigger multiplier effect than other social media platforms compared to their number of users. You may not consume Twitter directly, but odds are you still consume it filtered through the minds of the most powerful people in our culture.
- jollybean 4y ago
  a) Twitter, like other mediums, offers incredible influence. b) I don't think the powers that be really believe this is such a good thing. c) Musk is bad for Twitter, almost assuredly. He could feasibly bring some operational rigour, 'more and better ads' meaning more profit - but I'm extremely doubtful that he will make Twitter better in the civic sense. The best answer to Twitter is mostly just 'less Twitter'. I've had Twitter account for more than 10 years and hardly ever used it. The war in Ukraine however, has instantly addicted me to it, what with news coming 'straight from the front lines'. I have found this to be immensely valuable - though a bit too much to handle. That said, stepping back, even the 'thoughtful comment's are 95% fleeting and rubbish. Finally - only a small % of people use Twitter. Most people could give a shit. I think that distinction is important. Imagine if you have all the journalists, NGOs, academics - people who are addicted to talking, ideas, their own voices, to 'making a name' - and now send them to one giant conference where they can yell at each other. Most people could care less and wouldn't ever want to participate. In the end, if something on Twitter is important enough - it will make the news and you'll hear about it.
- rchaud 4y ago
  > Twitter is more like hooking electrodes to a the brains of a frog and watching parts of it jump when you apply current. To people whose brokerage accounts have 8-digit balances, that is probably not too far away from what they meant.
MisterBastahrd 4y ago
Most people quitting twitter would be a great boon for society. So many people angrily yelling nothing of import into the ether.
- coffeefirst 4y ago
  Yes, especially everyone in politics, journalism, and other culturally important institutions where it seems to have become a professional requirement. If anyone out there is on the fence, please try it. Quit for 60 days—long enough to break the addiction—and see how you feel and whether you actually miss it.
  - LegitShady 4y ago
    I prefer they stay and continue to post. I have always in my life attempted to look up to people only for the admirable parts of their existence. It's ok to think Tiger Woods is a golf god and terrible husband. Similarly I cannot count how many 'public figures' I've learned are deranged or critically incapable of thinking from their posting on twitter. I'd much rather those people volunteer to identify themselves two me through twitter or whatever platform, so that I can know what's going on with the whole of their thinking.
    - jollybean 4y ago
      That is such a great point. Twitter almost invariably unmasks idiots more than it makes heroes. Tragically - I have seen many people I admire look like fools. In particular, a lot of users will 'let loose' their beef, their cynical grind on Twitter, the thing that upsets them. Consistently. It's one thing to be 'angry' in person, with people you know - that can work - but when you do it in public, without the humane context, it just feels really unsympathetic and people look bad. I think this is what happens when you give a man a smartphone, and have them start to just 'say stuff' 20 times a day. We don't have that much insight. We just get ornery, like a smoker needing their next cigarette. I think this applies to everyone. One minute I really respect a person for their moderation, conscientiousness - the next moment they're jumping on a stupid meme, over reacting to something etc..
kwertyoowiyop 4y ago
A better article than I expected. Several reflection-worthy bits. What does it say about us when we pay so much attention to Twitter, Facebook, etc?
- thrill 4y ago
  What does it say about us when we pay so much attention to those who pay so much attention to Twitter?
  - kwertyoowiyop 4y ago
    I feel justifiably #owned!
beebmam 4y ago
Twitter is only relevant to the people who use it. I personally don't know anyone who uses it in 2022.
- ilaksh 4y ago
  Estimated 160 million plus active daily users.
- Saint_Genet 4y ago
  So you’re a bit of a social outcast who don’t know that a vast amount of media today is simply reporting what people say on twitter
  - wfhordie 4y ago
    Well, it's not too difficult to ignore 'a vast amount of media' -- in fact, given there are only 86,400 seconds in a day, and for 28,880 of them you're sleeping, I'd say you have to ignore a vast amount of media. I wouldn't say that qualifies someone as a social outcast.
ilaksh 4y ago
That wasn't actually brief. Also, anything titled like "On ____" comes across as pretentious to me.
Dzugaru 4y ago
Why don't we just remove gamification from it and be done with this? I wonder why anonymous forums (imageboards, etc.) aren't even mentioned, ever.
- themanmaran 4y ago
  The gamification is the reason people use the platform. Without Likes/Views/Retweets there's no emotional response.
- rchaud 4y ago
  Anonymous/pseudonymous messageboarsd still exist, particularly if they're for things that preceded social media and are still popular, like a sports team. The lack of gamification (upvote buttons and the like) is probably one of the reason many moved from forums to Facebook groups and Twitter.
TameAntelope 4y ago
I gotta keep asking the obvious question: Why won't someone else build a Twitter? Not a "free speech" Twitter, not a "better" Twitter, just... figuratively rebranded Twitter. Same concept, maybe different implementation details, some modest innovations, but give the people who want to leave a place to go. The only answer I've ever gotten (that isn't solvable by being good at software engineering) is, "network effects!" but... now is the moment, if ever there was a moment, where the network is most fragile on Twitter. Give people a place to go for a "Twitter Classic" experience, before the rudeness and hate get re-platformed! Whoever does this, I feel confident in saying, will be a millionaire. I dunno if there are any more "Social Media" billionaires left, but millionaire? That feels very achievable!
- themanmaran 4y ago
  If it's such a sure investment, why not do it yourself? You can fork Mastadon[1] and get the thing deployed this afternoon! The "network effect" isn't some little thing you can easily solve. Like saying "building rockets is easy, the designs are all there, just solve the gravity problem". [1] https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon
  - TameAntelope 4y ago
    I would absolutely do this myself if I had not already committed to an existing startup. Also, I don't think you quite get what I mean if you think Mastadon is what I'm talking about. For example, can I run ads across all of Mastadon?
- lampshades 4y ago
  After trying out all of the alternative Twitters for conservatives, my assumption is that it must take a lot more work than most of us think it will to build a polished experience that someone wants to use. Every alternative I've used has sucked in comparison.
- jollybean 4y ago
  ? Twitter is a community, not an app. To think of it as 'tech' and not the set of relations between the people is to misunderstand it. Making that community again would be really hard. There would have to be a 'very strong impetus' for it. Trump is a very popular figure, and it's feasible he could be the basis for a new kind of social network, but as we saw with Parler and 'Truth Social' - he'll likely fail for obvious reasons. (And thankfully so). And FYI - it's not at all obvious what would make a 'better Twitter'. Just adjusting the alg a bit, allowing 'more' expression, being better at spam - none of that would be enough for a 'new entrant' to make any progress.
akomtu 4y ago
Twitter is a small aquarium for very colorful goldfish. The aquarium protects goldfish from the reality, and gives them an illusion that they are (1) much bigger than they really are and that they are (2) clearly superior to other fish, such as tuna and sardine. The new owner wants to introduce some diversity and add tuna to the aquarium. I suggest he should add some crabs too.
paulcole 4y ago
> Social media are the fidget spinners of the soul. Substack is quickly becoming Writing 101 for tech bros.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- rchaud 4y ago
  I thought this was a mostly well structured article. Several of the paragraphs were prompts from quoting others, which gave me a chance to check out the other's he'd linked to. Now, reading an article about stoicism from the perspective of a Silicon Valley techbro or VC? That's real pain.
karmakaze 4y ago
Anything I've heard or read Musk say about Twitter longer than a tweet seems to be positive from my perspective. The two themes I hear are the idea that it's a "town square" and that this form of communication is crucial for society. To me this seems like trying to go against the belief/conversation bubbles present by default on other social platforms. There are other aspects that will have to be dealt with such as how to monetize it to satisfy the private investors, or how it might be misused for other purposes. These other aspects don't have to negate the first primary goals but rather find a way to co-exist. I can't tell if the detractors (a) don't believe the stated motivations, (b) don't trust it will be done well, (c) have various other complaints/beefs that outweigh the positives. I find it hard to argue that Musk won't execute well given Tesla and SpaceX as priors.

43 points by Ariarule 4y ago

Author quotes this: > "I love Twitter. Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness." -- Jack Dorsey, Apr 25, 2022 Twitter is more like hooking electrodes to a the brains of a frog and watching parts of it jump when you apply current. The people worrying about Musk: (a) believe that twitter offers such zombie like control over "global consciousness", (b) that such controls are a good thing, and (c) that Musk is the Wrong Person to wield them, which means there must be Right People somewhere. I think they're wrong on all counts.

legrande 4y ago
The global consciousness thing stems from the neural-net like search features of Twitter. You find unexpected and real-time updates on any subject imaginable. Often a Google or DuckDuckGo search query is no match for Twitter's search feature. It's the closest thing to hacking the world's hive-mind, however cobbled together it is. IMHO the more people that use it the better. We can create a sort of better noosphere[0] than the current one. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere
- hn_throwaway_99 4y ago
  "neural-net like search features of Twitter"?? "It's the closest thing to hacking the world's hive-mind"??? Puh-leese. While I personally don't find much use for Twitter, I don't hate it, but this "global consciousness" nonsense is just marketing babble.
  - mjr00 4y ago
    It's really a reflection of what Twitter is actually great at: surfacing things that you're already interested in. If you're the type of person who interacts with a lot of political things on Twitter, it's going to surface things that will make you engage, which is hot political takes. So it makes you believe that you are part of this global consciousness, despite it really being just tens of thousands of people engaging with each other circularly. Personally I have locked down my Twitter to only be about music and anime and it's really, really good at surfacing new art and new music that I enjoy. I have never seen a political take on my personal Twitter feed.
mattgreenrocks 4y ago
I continue to hope that Twitter, the One True Ring and Arbiter of All That Is Culturally Relevant, is metaphorically thrown into the lava. No one entity should have this level of power. Whatever takes its place will likely be a shadow of Twitter’s size, and risks being confined to smaller demographics. These are all features, not bugs. We will one day look back at this time and see how insane it is to take a website with a freeform, limited size text input field so seriously.
- s5300 4y ago
  > No one entity should have this level of power. Who’s agreeing that it has such power in the first place? > take a website with a freeform, limited size text input field so seriously. Who takes Twitter so seriously? Does it really need 4chan level of disclaimer saying “don’t take this so seriously” ?
  - judge2020 4y ago
    > Who’s agreeing that it has such power in the first place? In support of this, Twitter has a metric "monetizable daily active users". So while, in the United States, they have 68 million monthly active users, the amount of mDAUs is 38 million. While 1/10th of the United States is certainly no small feat, Facebook is probably the real issue with >250 million monthly active users in the United States[1] (I couldn't find a similar daily metric). 0: https://www.statista.com/statistics/970911/monetizable-daily-active-twitter-users-in-the-united-states/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/970911/monetizable-daily... 1: https://www.statista.com/statistics/247614/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/247614/number-of-monthly...
  - ufmace 4y ago
    > Who’s agreeing that it has such power in the first place? > Who takes Twitter so seriously? All of the people flipping their lid about it being bought out. If it truly has no power, why would anybody care who owned it?
- rchaud 4y ago
  From an episode of Parks and Recreation about a city councilor election debate (2011): "And now, we have a question from Twitter, which is apparently something that happens now". They had no idea.
Mikeb85 4y ago
Agreed. Musk's stated goal is to enable free speech. The less censorship the better. The truth always (eventually) rises to the top.
- themanmaran 4y ago
  > The truth always (eventually) rises to the top Note the "eventually" here can be 10-50 years. Which leaves a lot of room for short term damage. Reminds me a bit of Keynes's "In the long run we are all dead".
  - Mikeb85 4y ago
    > Note the "eventually" here can be 10-50 years. Which leaves a lot of room for short term damage. Lol eventually in today's world is like a week... 50 years ago there was no internet at all.
- s5300 4y ago
  > The truth always (eventually) rises to the top. Yes but sometimes things like the holocaust (Hitlers big lie) & the Khmer Rouge (kill all smart people & literally anybody who might even look “smart”) happen before that. Do we want such things happening again? There’s currently a large amount of a political party that wants to straight up murder the other in open season. The other wants like… healthcare, & equal rights (in actual practice, not just written) for minorities.
  - zozbot234 4y ago
    Okay, we'll censor the #KillAllMen hashtag and the like since imminent threats are not covered under "free speech".
    - s5300 4y ago
      Not sure what this has to do with anything being discussed but it definitely lets me infer the butthurt type of person you must be.
    - 4y ago
pfortuny 4y ago
I honestly feel insulted when people talk bout twitter as “the global consciousness”. I am not on twitter. Neither are billions of global human beings.
- themanmaran 4y ago
  Twitter has 229 million daily active users (likely including bot accounts). A far cry from Facebook and Instagram's 1.9 billion daily active users. I know it's a big site, but the "global consciousness" or "world's town square" are just Twitter user's stroking their ego.
  - grogenaut 4y ago
    I think that's cause many of them are in the journalism space
    - bluefirebrand 4y ago
      This is 100% why you hear so much about Twitter. Journalists are all on it. That's all.
      - slg 4y ago
        It is not just journalists, it is most of the people who shape culture including politicians and entertainers. That is why Twitter has a bigger multiplier effect than other social media platforms compared to their number of users. You may not consume Twitter directly, but odds are you still consume it filtered through the minds of the most powerful people in our culture.
jollybean 4y ago
a) Twitter, like other mediums, offers incredible influence. b) I don't think the powers that be really believe this is such a good thing. c) Musk is bad for Twitter, almost assuredly. He could feasibly bring some operational rigour, 'more and better ads' meaning more profit - but I'm extremely doubtful that he will make Twitter better in the civic sense. The best answer to Twitter is mostly just 'less Twitter'. I've had Twitter account for more than 10 years and hardly ever used it. The war in Ukraine however, has instantly addicted me to it, what with news coming 'straight from the front lines'. I have found this to be immensely valuable - though a bit too much to handle. That said, stepping back, even the 'thoughtful comment's are 95% fleeting and rubbish. Finally - only a small % of people use Twitter. Most people could give a shit. I think that distinction is important. Imagine if you have all the journalists, NGOs, academics - people who are addicted to talking, ideas, their own voices, to 'making a name' - and now send them to one giant conference where they can yell at each other. Most people could care less and wouldn't ever want to participate. In the end, if something on Twitter is important enough - it will make the news and you'll hear about it.
rchaud 4y ago
> Twitter is more like hooking electrodes to a the brains of a frog and watching parts of it jump when you apply current. To people whose brokerage accounts have 8-digit balances, that is probably not too far away from what they meant.

MisterBastahrd 4y ago

Most people quitting twitter would be a great boon for society. So many people angrily yelling nothing of import into the ether.

coffeefirst 4y ago
Yes, especially everyone in politics, journalism, and other culturally important institutions where it seems to have become a professional requirement. If anyone out there is on the fence, please try it. Quit for 60 days—long enough to break the addiction—and see how you feel and whether you actually miss it.
- LegitShady 4y ago
  I prefer they stay and continue to post. I have always in my life attempted to look up to people only for the admirable parts of their existence. It's ok to think Tiger Woods is a golf god and terrible husband. Similarly I cannot count how many 'public figures' I've learned are deranged or critically incapable of thinking from their posting on twitter. I'd much rather those people volunteer to identify themselves two me through twitter or whatever platform, so that I can know what's going on with the whole of their thinking.
  - jollybean 4y ago
    That is such a great point. Twitter almost invariably unmasks idiots more than it makes heroes. Tragically - I have seen many people I admire look like fools. In particular, a lot of users will 'let loose' their beef, their cynical grind on Twitter, the thing that upsets them. Consistently. It's one thing to be 'angry' in person, with people you know - that can work - but when you do it in public, without the humane context, it just feels really unsympathetic and people look bad. I think this is what happens when you give a man a smartphone, and have them start to just 'say stuff' 20 times a day. We don't have that much insight. We just get ornery, like a smoker needing their next cigarette. I think this applies to everyone. One minute I really respect a person for their moderation, conscientiousness - the next moment they're jumping on a stupid meme, over reacting to something etc..

kwertyoowiyop 4y ago

A better article than I expected. Several reflection-worthy bits. What does it say about us when we pay so much attention to Twitter, Facebook, etc?

thrill 4y ago
What does it say about us when we pay so much attention to those who pay so much attention to Twitter?
- kwertyoowiyop 4y ago
  I feel justifiably #owned!

beebmam 4y ago

Twitter is only relevant to the people who use it. I personally don't know anyone who uses it in 2022.

ilaksh 4y ago
Estimated 160 million plus active daily users.
Saint_Genet 4y ago
So you’re a bit of a social outcast who don’t know that a vast amount of media today is simply reporting what people say on twitter
- wfhordie 4y ago
  Well, it's not too difficult to ignore 'a vast amount of media' -- in fact, given there are only 86,400 seconds in a day, and for 28,880 of them you're sleeping, I'd say you have to ignore a vast amount of media. I wouldn't say that qualifies someone as a social outcast.

ilaksh 4y ago

That wasn't actually brief. Also, anything titled like "On ____" comes across as pretentious to me.

Dzugaru 4y ago

Why don't we just remove gamification from it and be done with this? I wonder why anonymous forums (imageboards, etc.) aren't even mentioned, ever.

themanmaran 4y ago
The gamification is the reason people use the platform. Without Likes/Views/Retweets there's no emotional response.
rchaud 4y ago
Anonymous/pseudonymous messageboarsd still exist, particularly if they're for things that preceded social media and are still popular, like a sports team. The lack of gamification (upvote buttons and the like) is probably one of the reason many moved from forums to Facebook groups and Twitter.

TameAntelope 4y ago

I gotta keep asking the obvious question: Why won't someone else build a Twitter? Not a "free speech" Twitter, not a "better" Twitter, just... figuratively rebranded Twitter. Same concept, maybe different implementation details, some modest innovations, but give the people who want to leave a place to go. The only answer I've ever gotten (that isn't solvable by being good at software engineering) is, "network effects!" but... now is the moment, if ever there was a moment, where the network is most fragile on Twitter. Give people a place to go for a "Twitter Classic" experience, before the rudeness and hate get re-platformed! Whoever does this, I feel confident in saying, will be a millionaire. I dunno if there are any more "Social Media" billionaires left, but millionaire? That feels very achievable!

themanmaran 4y ago
If it's such a sure investment, why not do it yourself? You can fork Mastadon[1] and get the thing deployed this afternoon! The "network effect" isn't some little thing you can easily solve. Like saying "building rockets is easy, the designs are all there, just solve the gravity problem". [1] https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon
- TameAntelope 4y ago
  I would absolutely do this myself if I had not already committed to an existing startup. Also, I don't think you quite get what I mean if you think Mastadon is what I'm talking about. For example, can I run ads across all of Mastadon?
lampshades 4y ago
After trying out all of the alternative Twitters for conservatives, my assumption is that it must take a lot more work than most of us think it will to build a polished experience that someone wants to use. Every alternative I've used has sucked in comparison.
jollybean 4y ago
? Twitter is a community, not an app. To think of it as 'tech' and not the set of relations between the people is to misunderstand it. Making that community again would be really hard. There would have to be a 'very strong impetus' for it. Trump is a very popular figure, and it's feasible he could be the basis for a new kind of social network, but as we saw with Parler and 'Truth Social' - he'll likely fail for obvious reasons. (And thankfully so). And FYI - it's not at all obvious what would make a 'better Twitter'. Just adjusting the alg a bit, allowing 'more' expression, being better at spam - none of that would be enough for a 'new entrant' to make any progress.

akomtu 4y ago

Twitter is a small aquarium for very colorful goldfish. The aquarium protects goldfish from the reality, and gives them an illusion that they are (1) much bigger than they really are and that they are (2) clearly superior to other fish, such as tuna and sardine. The new owner wants to introduce some diversity and add tuna to the aquarium. I suggest he should add some crabs too.

paulcole 4y ago

> Social media are the fidget spinners of the soul. Substack is quickly becoming Writing 101 for tech bros.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
rchaud 4y ago
I thought this was a mostly well structured article. Several of the paragraphs were prompts from quoting others, which gave me a chance to check out the other's he'd linked to. Now, reading an article about stoicism from the perspective of a Silicon Valley techbro or VC? That's real pain.

karmakaze 4y ago

Anything I've heard or read Musk say about Twitter longer than a tweet seems to be positive from my perspective. The two themes I hear are the idea that it's a "town square" and that this form of communication is crucial for society. To me this seems like trying to go against the belief/conversation bubbles present by default on other social platforms. There are other aspects that will have to be dealt with such as how to monetize it to satisfy the private investors, or how it might be misused for other purposes. These other aspects don't have to negate the first primary goals but rather find a way to co-exist. I can't tell if the detractors (a) don't believe the stated motivations, (b) don't trust it will be done well, (c) have various other complaints/beefs that outweigh the positives. I find it hard to argue that Musk won't execute well given Tesla and SpaceX as priors.