6 ms·

Pmarca Tweets as Blog Posts

84 points by vnaylon 13y ago

nrao123 13y ago
Dude - this is so brilliant! Was just going through pmarca's tweets yesterday & was thinking "damn- I wish somebody can convert this into a blog post" . Thank you! Let me know if you need help. I can pick a day of the week & help transcribe/collate that days tweets!
morganb180 13y ago
This is awesome.
ndreckshage 13y ago
isnt this what storify is for?
kevando 13y ago
Love this. Largely cause I started following him right when I joined twitter and thought I was going crazy. Have I been ignoring this guys' tweets all this time or did he really just go from zero to 100?
- tlrobinson 13y ago
  He's had a dormant account since 2007 but picked it up Jan 1 this year: http://i.imgur.com/LejqDQ5.png http://i.imgur.com/LejqDQ5.png
  - grinich 13y ago
    He also hangs out on HN occasionally... https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=pmarca https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=pmarca
waterlesscloud 13y ago
Is Twitter one of the best run companies ever? I accept I'm probably wrong, but my feeling is that Twitter is on the wrong course. Not that they won't be successful in the direction that they're heading, just that they won't be nearly as successful as they could have been. It feels to me like they've lost track of their central appeal. Yeah, I know that's vague and not much to hang onto. I should probably try to figure out what I really mean by it.
- grinich 13y ago
  They've probably just changed focus for a while. Remember when Google was run by Eric Schmidt? Different vibe, but the company needed it at that stage. I don't think Twitter has necessarily closed any of the doors of earlier opportunities. If you think about them on the scale of IBM/HP/Apple, it's still early.
- gaius 13y ago
  That was the equivalent of an Oscar "I'd like to thank God, and my mom, and my dog..." speech. Twitter had just made him (another) fortune!
njohnw 13y ago
Also really valuable are his blog posts from 2007/2008. He's since took his blog down but they're archived here: http://blog.jedchristiansen.com/pmarcaarchive/pmarca-archive-has-moved-here/ http://blog.jedchristiansen.com/pmarcaarchive/pmarca-archive...
- presty 13y ago
  or.. http://pmarchive.com/ http://pmarchive.com/
patmcguire 13y ago
"Rule 613: People either grow into big jobs, or swell into them" I don't understand this at all.
- IvyMike 13y ago
  Asked on twitter what he meant by 'swell', @pmarca replied "I mean personality change - ego, hubris. Stop listening. Start feeling entitled." https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/425378431283384320 https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/425378431283384320
nlh 13y ago
This is useful, and interesting, and a good read. My question: Twitter feels like totally the wrong platform for his thoughts. I know, I know, "it is what you make of it", but this feels a bit like a round peg into a square hole. Why doesn't Marc just publish thoughts on Tumblr / Medium / Facebook / Wordpress / etc? Just feels like this blog (and thread) is unnecessary....we're now at the point where someone compiles someone else's 140-character tidbits into a cohesive point, and we're all thankful for it. Kinda weird.
- grinich 13y ago
  Editing is a huge mental strain. I think it's why most people don't write more. Twitter lets you dash out thoughts and expand them as necessary though conversation. Much more lightweight. It's an interesting experimental medium for drafting an essay though. I would love Marc to expand these into longer posts, but like nearly all successful people, I doubt he has the time.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- visakanv 13y ago
  Marc used to blog beautifully, many of his posts are available at http://www.pmarchive.com http://www.pmarchive.com. Right now I'm guessing he posts tweets because it's most convenient for him, and he has more important things to do with his time. So he lets others do the boring, tedious work of formatting his thoughts for him. It all works out, ultimately. If it saves Marc a few minutes, it's probably worth it for him. I've been meaning to do something similar for all of Elon Musk's interviews, but... I don't have the time, either. I have all the data sitting pretty in my Evernote but it needs some real brainwork-led-formatting.
OoTheNigerian 13y ago
This is great work. Like others have pointed out, blogging might have been better especially since tweeter is fleeting. When it is gone, it is gone (mostly). Storify's usecase is for putting different tweets from different timelines/times into a coherent flow. I concede that twitter removes the friction of saying "Let me write a blogpost and think of a title". Maybe a new proper blog theme that makes title optional? I know Tumbr does something like this. Another idea might be to modify the compose section of Twitter like buffer does http://imgur.com/PbpisGh http://imgur.com/PbpisGh. If you click the "longer than a tweet -LTAT " check box, You have more than 140 characters" say, 1000 characters? When you click publish 3 things happen. 1. You automatically publish a Tweet with a link to the the post. ala longtweets 2. You have a post published on your normal blog. Maybe without a title 3. Your whole post can be read in within Twitter using Twitter card support. PS: I wrote about Twitter spoiling coherent thought here http://oonwoye.com/2013/07/20/twitter-vs-blogging/ http://oonwoye.com/2013/07/20/twitter-vs-blogging/
- riffraff 13y ago
  FWIW, google plus does this right I believe.
ableal 13y ago
I like the post at the bottom, http://pmarcatweetsasblogposts.tumblr.com/post/73631082205/measure-performance-with-paired-metrics-for-best http://pmarcatweetsasblogposts.tumblr.com/post/73631082205/m... , which starts with: """ The problem with arbitrary metrics in complex situations — they tend to backfire. Give emergency services drivers rigid response time metrics, and they’ll tend to stay close in to urban centers. Surprise! Andy Grove had the answer: For every metric, there should another “paired” metric that addresses adverse consequences of the first metric. Many companies and especially governments violate this principle continuously, and are startled by the result — every time. """ This last bit - Grove's paired metrics - does not seem nearly as widely known as it probably should be.

84 points by vnaylon 13y ago

Dude - this is so brilliant! Was just going through pmarca's tweets yesterday & was thinking "damn- I wish somebody can convert this into a blog post" . Thank you! Let me know if you need help. I can pick a day of the week & help transcribe/collate that days tweets!

morganb180 13y ago

This is awesome.

ndreckshage 13y ago

isnt this what storify is for?

kevando 13y ago

Love this. Largely cause I started following him right when I joined twitter and thought I was going crazy. Have I been ignoring this guys' tweets all this time or did he really just go from zero to 100?

tlrobinson 13y ago
He's had a dormant account since 2007 but picked it up Jan 1 this year: http://i.imgur.com/LejqDQ5.png http://i.imgur.com/LejqDQ5.png
- grinich 13y ago
  He also hangs out on HN occasionally... https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=pmarca https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=pmarca

waterlesscloud 13y ago

Is Twitter one of the best run companies ever? I accept I'm probably wrong, but my feeling is that Twitter is on the wrong course. Not that they won't be successful in the direction that they're heading, just that they won't be nearly as successful as they could have been. It feels to me like they've lost track of their central appeal. Yeah, I know that's vague and not much to hang onto. I should probably try to figure out what I really mean by it.

grinich 13y ago
They've probably just changed focus for a while. Remember when Google was run by Eric Schmidt? Different vibe, but the company needed it at that stage. I don't think Twitter has necessarily closed any of the doors of earlier opportunities. If you think about them on the scale of IBM/HP/Apple, it's still early.
gaius 13y ago
That was the equivalent of an Oscar "I'd like to thank God, and my mom, and my dog..." speech. Twitter had just made him (another) fortune!

njohnw 13y ago

Also really valuable are his blog posts from 2007/2008. He's since took his blog down but they're archived here: http://blog.jedchristiansen.com/pmarcaarchive/pmarca-archive-has-moved-here/ http://blog.jedchristiansen.com/pmarcaarchive/pmarca-archive...

presty 13y ago
or.. http://pmarchive.com/ http://pmarchive.com/

patmcguire 13y ago

"Rule 613: People either grow into big jobs, or swell into them" I don't understand this at all.

IvyMike 13y ago
Asked on twitter what he meant by 'swell', @pmarca replied "I mean personality change - ego, hubris. Stop listening. Start feeling entitled." https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/425378431283384320 https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/425378431283384320

nlh 13y ago

This is useful, and interesting, and a good read. My question: Twitter feels like totally the wrong platform for his thoughts. I know, I know, "it is what you make of it", but this feels a bit like a round peg into a square hole. Why doesn't Marc just publish thoughts on Tumblr / Medium / Facebook / Wordpress / etc? Just feels like this blog (and thread) is unnecessary....we're now at the point where someone compiles someone else's 140-character tidbits into a cohesive point, and we're all thankful for it. Kinda weird.

grinich 13y ago
Editing is a huge mental strain. I think it's why most people don't write more. Twitter lets you dash out thoughts and expand them as necessary though conversation. Much more lightweight. It's an interesting experimental medium for drafting an essay though. I would love Marc to expand these into longer posts, but like nearly all successful people, I doubt he has the time.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
visakanv 13y ago
Marc used to blog beautifully, many of his posts are available at http://www.pmarchive.com http://www.pmarchive.com. Right now I'm guessing he posts tweets because it's most convenient for him, and he has more important things to do with his time. So he lets others do the boring, tedious work of formatting his thoughts for him. It all works out, ultimately. If it saves Marc a few minutes, it's probably worth it for him. I've been meaning to do something similar for all of Elon Musk's interviews, but... I don't have the time, either. I have all the data sitting pretty in my Evernote but it needs some real brainwork-led-formatting.

OoTheNigerian 13y ago

This is great work. Like others have pointed out, blogging might have been better especially since tweeter is fleeting. When it is gone, it is gone (mostly). Storify's usecase is for putting different tweets from different timelines/times into a coherent flow. I concede that twitter removes the friction of saying "Let me write a blogpost and think of a title". Maybe a new proper blog theme that makes title optional? I know Tumbr does something like this. Another idea might be to modify the compose section of Twitter like buffer does http://imgur.com/PbpisGh http://imgur.com/PbpisGh. If you click the "longer than a tweet -LTAT " check box, You have more than 140 characters" say, 1000 characters? When you click publish 3 things happen. 1. You automatically publish a Tweet with a link to the the post. ala longtweets 2. You have a post published on your normal blog. Maybe without a title 3. Your whole post can be read in within Twitter using Twitter card support. PS: I wrote about Twitter spoiling coherent thought here http://oonwoye.com/2013/07/20/twitter-vs-blogging/ http://oonwoye.com/2013/07/20/twitter-vs-blogging/

riffraff 13y ago
FWIW, google plus does this right I believe.

ableal 13y ago

I like the post at the bottom, http://pmarcatweetsasblogposts.tumblr.com/post/73631082205/measure-performance-with-paired-metrics-for-best http://pmarcatweetsasblogposts.tumblr.com/post/73631082205/m... , which starts with: """ The problem with arbitrary metrics in complex situations — they tend to backfire. Give emergency services drivers rigid response time metrics, and they’ll tend to stay close in to urban centers. Surprise! Andy Grove had the answer: For every metric, there should another “paired” metric that addresses adverse consequences of the first metric. Many companies and especially governments violate this principle continuously, and are startled by the result — every time. """ This last bit - Grove's paired metrics - does not seem nearly as widely known as it probably should be.