I love following people who are relentless optimists and idealists and fallibilists - most of the people on my https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/lists/tomorrow … list.
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If they make me angry, or feel outrage, or feel sad... well, I'll be very, very cautious in following. Those aren't what I usually want in my life. That's not to say there aren't very insightful people I follow like this. But I am cautious.
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Some people retort that this means I'm not paying attention to important events. Maybe. But I think Twitter is a bad medium for paying attention to many classes of upsetting, important events, and so I choose other media.
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As an example, I'd much rather read the IPCC report (and backing papers) than listen to people argue about climate change on Twitter. I don't mean that as a theoretical example, I mean: I've read a bunch of the IPCC report, & supporting materials. It's a 100x use of my time.
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I generally dislike self-righteous claims there is a right way to do Twitter. A common one is people who say that if you're not following people you disagree with, you're doing Twitter wrong. Rubbish. It's fine to just follow stuff you love.
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Alright, enough about what I try not to do. A few more things I like to do.
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Follow weird stuff. Follow unusual corners. I enjoy Nigerian tech twitter. I enjoy short-story twitter. I enjoy urban design twitter. I enjoy the zillions of clever bots . I keep meaning to get into opera twitter, but never quite manage it.
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Look at the last 1000 people
@pmarca follows. He's interested in so many corners of Twitter.Show this thread -
I "follow" 2500 people, but don't try to keep up with my Twitter feed at all. I just dip in, to hear some of what those people are thinking about.
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I particularly enjoy my https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/lists/tomorrow … list, and check it often.
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This is all just my own way of being here. I don't claim others should follow these rules of thumb, but they've given me a good experience. Thanks to everyone who makes that happen!
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End of conversation
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