November 5th, 2022

Daily Twitter Summary

Elon:
destroying twitter
destroying free speech
not knowing how to run a business (not knowing what constitutes productivity)
knowing how to run a business (being tough, long hours)
not being ethical in running a business (laying off workers, being unprofessional and or “mean” in how he does it)
elon’s perception, critic of elon fan’s as unthinking sheep who worship him for illegitimate reasons

Economy of US:

• recession threads
• layoffs
• unaffordability

Relationships:
is working a lot a good thing?
media formulas as wish fulfillment = hallmark movie is wish fulfillment for women trapped in an unfulfilling corporate job/relationship

Philosophy/Self-Help:

• “Whatever one frequently thinks and ponders upon, that will become the inclination of the mind” (Jim O’Shaughnessy)

Complaints

• people aren’t disciplined
• US car culture makes cities bad

Critic of Social Media and Public Discourse:

• “I prefer apples to oranges” = “So what you’re saying is you hate pinapples?” -> people find reasons to hate/misinterpret because they’re viewing everything through the lens of their own internal stories (which are full of anguish)

10 tip type listicles on improving business, health, energy, self-worth, goal setting

Definitional Disagreements

What is feminism? = is getting help from a man anti-feminist?
What is free speech? What is anti-free speech? = is complaining anti-free speech? Is charging money for entrance to a forum anti-free speech?)
What is complaining? -> “the expression of dissatisfaction or annoyance about something”)

It’s Probably a CRUD App

The first hour of the Social Network is about making a CRUD app seem like sexy. -Patrick McKenzie

One of the biggest challenges for me in trying to understand the business side of tech is figuring out what exactly the company’s product DOES. Not in high-minded business terms, but literally, what does it do? What does the UI look like? What data do you put in? What does the app do with that data? If I’m trying to figure out a free app, I can just try it out for myself. But if I’m trying to figure out what an app behind a paywall does, I’m kind of out of luck.

I understand that companies want to make their product sound as complex, technical, and generally amazing as possible. Which successfully makes their product sound better, but doesn’t help me figure out what their product does.

I remember the great lengths The Social Network went through to make the building of Facebook’s MVP look like “SUPER COMPLICATED SUPER SMART TECH STUFF”. If I recall correctly, there was intense staring, insanely fast typing speed, and a custom-colored IDE. And yet, the core of Facebook is basically a CRUD app. There’s some other stuff going on now too (a lot in the interest of monetising said CRUD app), but that was mostly added on later, after the core product (a CRUD app) had been built.

So now when I look at a company’s product description and see things like “deliver patient multi-channel applications more quickly, with more reliability and functionality”, I don’t have to think “Um, that’s really cool, but what does it DO?” I think “Oh, so it’s a CRUD app”.