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>your average programmer could build twitter. obviously there are some scale issues, but... I'm going to be nice and just assume that you're so completely surr

>your average programmer could build twitter. obviously there are some scale issues, but... I'm going to be nice and just assume that you're so completely surrounded by competent and successful people that you overestimate the capability of "your average programmer" and underestimate the difficulty which Twitter's variety of "some scale issues" would pose to "your average programmer." The community is the externally visible thing which gives Twitter value, but that community wouldn't exist without some really awesome technology providing it the capability to exist.

ArtDev 13y ago
The point is, the original technology is not special at all. Its about branding, name recognition and value. That is why Twitter is not overpriced at all. Neither is Facebook and that website sucks :)
- benjamincburns 13y ago
  No, the point is that the original technology is incredibly special, but the simplicity of the service and the "big data" boom it helped create makes it all look insignificant in hindsight. I challenge you to go set up a twitter clone using only software which existed in, say, 2008 or earlier, or software which you write 100% yourself. To test it, rent a small swarm of AWS servers and get 10,000 fuzzing clients to hammer on the thing. Should be a fun weekend project, right? I agree with the sentiments about the brand and the community, but anyone who thinks that just magically appeared like it was some inevitable fatalistic force of history is dead wrong. It took a ridiculous amount of ridiculously hard work by ridiculously smart people. And if anything the fact that I have to point this out is a testament to how excellent and valuable their work really is.