The Twitter Vibe Shift

Recent Experience

• From my point of view, at least, the only ones left on Twitter X are the indecisive stragglers (I count myself among this group), the corporate/government accounts, the bots, the thinkbois trying to grind for followers, and some truly awful people that I don’t even want to talk about. It’s a weird ghost town. People don’t even like each other’s tweets anymore. 🤷‍♂️
• The aspects of a text-based social network that still appeal to me are:
  • Keeping connected with friendly, cool people and meeting new ones. I want to read every tweet from someone that I follow, not just rely on a recommendation system to toss me tidbits. You should be using the chronological timeline, not For You.
  • Staying informed about new things to read, watch, or listen to (though I would greatly prefer to just use RSS feeds for this).
  • Letting people know when I’ve published/shipped something.
• I tried Premium here and there, and other than slightly reducing the quantity of ads, it didn’t make the experience much better. It just seems badly implemented and doesn’t feel like a good value for money.
• I want to reduce the number of badly-argued philosophical and/or political takes that I am allowing to be waved in my face just to cause anger or fear. I don’t think it’s responsible to cut yourself off from reality, but there is a level of good faith and intellectual honesty that needs to be there.
• The mobile app is crumbling even more, recently, with ads overlapping actual posts in the timeline. What in the world?

Path Forward

• All of this is kind of a long-winded way to say: I made a Bluesky account and I’m trying it out. I will have to see if enough people use it that it holds my attention. So far, the site just seems better designed with no trash advertising and almost no bots. People seem genuinely interested in making it an enjoyable place. There are enough people here that I recognize and who actually use the platform that I feel like I am past the cold start problem.
• I deleted the X app from my phone. I’ll be trying out a more digest-based approach to reading tweets (using Readwise Reader) to see if it works for me.

Media

Some things that I’ve found good or interesting since the last update.

Music

• Sound Island - dreamy melodic Techno mix - out of the train.
• Sound Island - focus no vocals deep house mix
• Boris Brejcha for Cercle at Arènes de Nîmes, France
• Billy Idol – Rebel Yell – Live From the Empire State Building
  • The visuals on this gave me vertigo, but it’s a good one.

Video

• Working Multiple positions in a small Airport
• Mythical Kitchen - Gordon Ramsay Eats His Last Meal
• Thomas Frank - Why are you scrolling your phone in bed AGAIN?
• How To Read A Newspaper (1950) - Serious
• How To Open A Door (1979) - Finnish (use the subtitles for English)
• Brazilian prison uses geese to deter escapes
• Euro Brady - Disco Elysium (Let’s Play series by a therapist)

Recommended Reads

• The Architecture Behind A One-Person Tech Startup
• Devs Need System Design Tools, Not Diagramming Tools
• Scaling One Million Checkboxes to 650,000,000 checks
• I’ve Built My First Successful Side Project, and I Hate It
• The Map is not the Territory
• I give you feedback on your blog post draft but you don’t send it to me

Games

• Alan Wake 2
  • Quirky Finnish humour wrapped up in a horror story.
• Balatro
  • Addictive deck-building poker-like game. Now on iOS as well.
• Mini Airways
  • I find it relaxing to simulate being an air traffic controller from time to time.
• The Case of the Golden Idol
  • Unique crime investigation game.
  • There is a “free” Netflix version on iOS.