Hi Tomas, great job as usual! However, aren't 4 pieces on Twitter a bit too much? There are many topics we voted. E.g. you promised one on real estate I am looking fwd to read. Thanks for the quality you deliver
An excellent piece. I learn something new each time I read a new article. A few observations:
The remarks about Twitter search and feed are absolutely spot-on and I'm not sure anyone has ever proposed or pursued something resembling the idea before. It makes one reconsider Elon's decision to fire over half his staff in a new light.
Ranking replies by time encourages the most active users to win Twitter: you have to essentially be there all the time. People who spend all day on Twitter don't generally tend to be wholesome users. But I don't see how ranking replies by quality really solves this problem: we are fundamentally lazy. People don't even click on the second page of Google search results. So, again, you are going to end up rewarding earlier users since people will stop reading down the replies after a certain point. However, it's still miles better than the current system.
I'm undecided over the merits of downvoting: YouTube famously discontinued it last year but limiting it to replies might suffice.
Great article, thanks Tomas. Thinking about how Twitter can do more to improve the polarization of Twitter. Do you think it’s possible for the algorithm to feed counterpoints, or include high quality, high ranked tweets that are more centrist?
I understand that you want to discuss Twitter analytically - but that is somewhat akin to discussing a thermonuclear warhead analytically.
This has much more to do with morality. One cannot separate who Elon Musk is, what his world-view is, and what Twitter is rapidly becoming, from what can "work" to make Twitter better.
The man is demonstrably NOT a "normal" human being - and the past 3 weeks is highly illustrative in that regard.
Apart from the chaos he has created, his stated goal is to fashion the platform after his own belief system. A belief system completely untethered from reality. To that end, he has readmitted 45 and the hateful Tweets have already exploded as his entire "safety" staff has departed.
I have left Twitter permanently precisely because you cannot separate the platform from the man. That itself is a futile exercise.
Really great Article! I started to love Twitter over the last year. The big downside, IMHO, of Twitter is the polarization of discussions and the constant work of keeping my feed clean of ugly discussions. For example, I really avoid all discussions on COVID even from experts or political leaders, because almost all the replies are hateful and disrespectful. Will you also discuss or address these matters?
I've always been puzzled by Twitter, and not in a good way. Twitter seems the platform least suitable for in depth intelligent discussion, and yet that's where all the elites congregate. Makes no sense to me. At least for intelligent discussion, I think we made a mistake when we abandoned forums for social media. Blog comments are an acceptable compromise, but forums are still the best platform, imho. I might be the last person on the net who thinks that though. :-)
I am currently on Twitter, but only because Substack allows me to list my new articles there with exactly no effort on my part. I don't expect that to accomplish much, but it's pain free, so why not?
“In some future time there will be a continent called America …
The human race in that era will get into troubles all over its head and practically wreck everything in spite of its intelligent Budda nature …..
In that future American era…..
…enter the world in a new form to cure the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it “
Is a new twitter or google etc possible ?
Can we proselytize and indoctrinate and propagandize and advertise and monetize and rank for interest simultaneously while pursuing solutions or truth
Perhaps when using the site you must chose what you are there to do so if you decline a category you can be spared from enduring it
I also might suggest a rant category where there is no ranking and likes are not counted and a psycho bot replies with de escalation program
Hi Tomas, great job as usual! However, aren't 4 pieces on Twitter a bit too much? There are many topics we voted. E.g. you promised one on real estate I am looking fwd to read. Thanks for the quality you deliver
An excellent piece. I learn something new each time I read a new article. A few observations:
The remarks about Twitter search and feed are absolutely spot-on and I'm not sure anyone has ever proposed or pursued something resembling the idea before. It makes one reconsider Elon's decision to fire over half his staff in a new light.
Ranking replies by time encourages the most active users to win Twitter: you have to essentially be there all the time. People who spend all day on Twitter don't generally tend to be wholesome users. But I don't see how ranking replies by quality really solves this problem: we are fundamentally lazy. People don't even click on the second page of Google search results. So, again, you are going to end up rewarding earlier users since people will stop reading down the replies after a certain point. However, it's still miles better than the current system.
I'm undecided over the merits of downvoting: YouTube famously discontinued it last year but limiting it to replies might suffice.
Still don’t see how this avoids silo effect
How does this avoid the rage tweets
How does this promote diversity of opinion
Sometimes one is not aware of an interest outside one current path how is this open to new paths
So far I generally regard twitter and face book as giant time sinks
I find your blog useful when it draws on the twitter information to illustrate your ideas
Perhaps a twitter search like google search would be more useful and up to date
Great article, thanks Tomas. Thinking about how Twitter can do more to improve the polarization of Twitter. Do you think it’s possible for the algorithm to feed counterpoints, or include high quality, high ranked tweets that are more centrist?
Tomas -
I'm sorry.
I understand that you want to discuss Twitter analytically - but that is somewhat akin to discussing a thermonuclear warhead analytically.
This has much more to do with morality. One cannot separate who Elon Musk is, what his world-view is, and what Twitter is rapidly becoming, from what can "work" to make Twitter better.
The man is demonstrably NOT a "normal" human being - and the past 3 weeks is highly illustrative in that regard.
Apart from the chaos he has created, his stated goal is to fashion the platform after his own belief system. A belief system completely untethered from reality. To that end, he has readmitted 45 and the hateful Tweets have already exploded as his entire "safety" staff has departed.
I have left Twitter permanently precisely because you cannot separate the platform from the man. That itself is a futile exercise.
Really great Article! I started to love Twitter over the last year. The big downside, IMHO, of Twitter is the polarization of discussions and the constant work of keeping my feed clean of ugly discussions. For example, I really avoid all discussions on COVID even from experts or political leaders, because almost all the replies are hateful and disrespectful. Will you also discuss or address these matters?
I've always been puzzled by Twitter, and not in a good way. Twitter seems the platform least suitable for in depth intelligent discussion, and yet that's where all the elites congregate. Makes no sense to me. At least for intelligent discussion, I think we made a mistake when we abandoned forums for social media. Blog comments are an acceptable compromise, but forums are still the best platform, imho. I might be the last person on the net who thinks that though. :-)
I am currently on Twitter, but only because Substack allows me to list my new articles there with exactly no effort on my part. I don't expect that to accomplish much, but it's pain free, so why not?
Massive sturm and drang about Musk's announcement about restoring banned accounts. Interested to see how you would handle.
A quote from Gary Snyder. 1969
“In some future time there will be a continent called America …
The human race in that era will get into troubles all over its head and practically wreck everything in spite of its intelligent Budda nature …..
In that future American era…..
…enter the world in a new form to cure the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it “
Is a new twitter or google etc possible ?
Can we proselytize and indoctrinate and propagandize and advertise and monetize and rank for interest simultaneously while pursuing solutions or truth
Perhaps when using the site you must chose what you are there to do so if you decline a category you can be spared from enduring it
I also might suggest a rant category where there is no ranking and likes are not counted and a psycho bot replies with de escalation program