Read on Twitter
At the risk of being entirely too self absorbed, some musings on having ten thousand followers. Twitter is clearly a video game, and for a certain type of person (monomaniacal min-maxers; me) there is a kind of fixation or compulsion to make numbers bigger
There is a curious effect when one thinks in terms of numeric milestones, wherein goalposts become objects of obsession, and then the moment they are reached, apathy. As Nietzsche said, the moment he reaches his goal, he transcends it
Of course the special magic of twitter is that the game loop consists of wrangling engagements out of other actual people. Some play for approval, others for outrage https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1047843422336212992
Either way, itâs exactly as pointless as any other multiplayer game. One of the best mini-games is mocking people who take it too seriously, which isnât to say that Iâve never gotten caught up
The strategy to get big on twitter is to get noticed by bigger accounts than you and say the kinds of things they are likely to retweet. https://twitter.com/mmay3r/status/1097817412341133313
However many followers you have, write to the biggest accounts that follow you. Doing this intentionally is inauthentic, of course. Then again, if a big account follows me I will often write a thread that I think will interest them, simply out of a desire to communicate
Size is relative, of course. 10k, paltry! Of course anons are playing a different game from people who are real life famous. Our brains canât really process what it means to send a message to ten thousand people, let alone half a million. https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1042165403487617025
And only losers care about how many followers they have, ha! Said the small account. I can easily imagine how people might counter signal this thread. Imagine caring this much etc. https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1041332323252264961
if you want to read a strategy guide to twitter, I suggest an old book that was popular when boomers were young called âgames people playâ. Some of the language is unfortunate given our linguistic drift since then. But donât think of it as true, think of it as a model
In general, donât think of any of your beliefs as true, always think of them as models. Maintaining a level of removal will help you to avoid becoming dogmatic
The counter-argument to that is that people who remain too detached from their ideas lack passion and inner fire. Do you want to be like the moon, staring at the world with cold eyes, making no light of your own?
Many very smart and knowledgeable people either havenât played the twitter game for long, or have little interest in playing it, so you should never use follower count as a proxy for anything like correctness
What follower count does signify is an ability to consistently say things that others feel inclined to signal boost. In other words it signals an ability to win a series of tiny, iterated popularity contests
Growing your account in this way has a cost. When I started I used to say things that were alienating to the many, Well-received by the few. But ten thousand people wonât listen to you if you attack their identity https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1035964689484722177
So my truth has become ever more esoteric, never consciously, well, one or two times. They say big accounts descend into platitudes. It should be obvious why.
The ability to win small, iterated popularity contests is the ability to let your strong opinions hide between words. As soon as a monad becomes a dyad, politics come into the mix https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1064256082506203137
What is this dark and twisted labyrinth in which we find ourselves? You are in a garden of forking paths, all alike. https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1062517012658761728
I often wonder what magic compels someone else to follow someone else, donât you? Itâs not merely a useful insight, itâs a sense that the person knows something you donât, and you hope that with repeated exposures, you will learn his secret
Or maybe you see that person you follow as a friend, and want to be seen as associating with him, or you want your reputation to bolster his, or he made you laugh, or he has the social sanction of your friends... regardless, I thank you joining me on this journey
